in snow-weather, and hazardous roads, are you an "essential" employee, required to report to work?

In My Humble Opinion
1

When I think of “ESSENTIAL” employees, I think of police, firefighters, ambulance drivers, doctors, nurses, etc, which I guess it’s just their “call of duty” to report to work under any sort of crazy weather circumstances, no matter how bad the roads get.

Maybe on a second tier I would think of local-morning-TV-news personalities that have to “brave the roads” to make it in, just to tell us how bad the roads are, and that we shouldn’t get out unless absolutely necessary. (I often wonder what it must be like, to be one of them - having to commute to work at 4:00am in a ice/sleet/snow-storm, with hardly anyone else out on the roads).

But beyond that - where do you fit in? Me, I’m just another regular office-schmuck, and anything I can do from the office, I can remote-connect and work on from home. Though the boss doesn’t see it that way, and will often send out the “take whatever precautions you need to take, as you see your way into the office this morning” email, which pisses us all off.

And I wonder about those of you with kids - suppose the Sonic down the road decides to open, and your 16-yr-old son/daughter is scheduled to work - do you still allow them to head in? Do you have them tell their boss “you’ve gotta be joking, I don’t need this job that bad”?

And of course this primarily applies to those of us in the South (Atlanta / Dallas / Nashville / etc) where snow-days are actual one-off “events”, as opposed to those of you in the North who I suppose are more accustomed to it, day in and day out.

2

I’m a native southerner myself, and know what you me re: “snow events” that shut down all rational road behavior!

Currently, I’m a housewife, so I don’t get snow days. I guess you’d call me an essential employee.

In my previous life, I worked in the hotel business (hourly and management at different times.) When I was hourly, I was sort of essential. Someone had to be at the front desk. In smaller operations, we desk agents would decide amongst ourselves how to cover the desk. A couple of employees might live nearby, or have 4WD autos, while others lived much farther or had less safe transportation. In those cases, we’d work extra hours to cover for someone who couldn’t safely travel to work. When I was in management, I’d figure out who could get to work safely, and schedule myself to fill in where we needed coverage. More than once, I also acted as a redneck taxi, transporting employees without safe rides - desk agents, housekeepers, maintenance staff, restaurant staff, etc.

Before the hotel biz, I worked in restaurant/bar service. If road conditions were that unsafe, most places closed… except, memorably, when I worked at Waffle House during college. We had a snow event in Athens, Georgia, the night before classes were to have started for winter quarter - all of the students were back in town, classes were cancelled, and the WH was the place to be! One cook and I staffed the restaurant by ourselves for over 24 hours, because other employees and the manager weren’t able to drive in. By the time rescue arrived, we were telling people which items on the menu they could order - IIRC, it was waffles, hash browns, grits, coffee, tea, or soda. We were out of everything else. The district manager finally drove in from Atlanta with commissary supplies, picked up the manager and another waitress on his way in, and drove me and the cook to our homes.

My husband is a cop. No such thing as a snow day. Nor a hurricane day, nor a tornado day, nor, I suppose, a nuclear reactor meltdown day. If a hurricane were expected (that’s the big worry here,) he’d be given a couple of hours notice so that he could make sure his family’s shit is together, and then he’s back on duty for the duration.

3

wow - duh, it totally slipped my mind that “somebody at a hotel HAS to report to work, otherwise it’ll be the inmates running the asylum”, so yeah, I can see where the “essential” part of that would come in there, as well.

4

Last winter, we had an ice storm in the area that wreaked havoc on the power lines - longleaf pines just don’t do well when the needles glaze with a bunch of ice. I was grateful that the power company linemen are considered essential employees!

5

Nope, not essential. I am required to telework on snow days, which works fine.

6

I’m essential. No matter how bad the roads are, one of my employees lives two minutes away and she will make it in. Without me being there, I’m paying her salary with no income being generated and I’m too big a cheapskate to do that.

I have a 4WD SUV that gets shitty gas mileage specifically so I can make it to work (or fun) regardless of the weather.

7

I’m not essential, but we’re just not getting the world-ending weather everybody to the east is getting. Even if we got as much as a foot of snow overnight, the plows would still have the roads mostly clear by the time it was time to go to work, and I’d be expected to be there.

8

I am retired, so I have no essential employment. But I happened to be visiting my son and his family in Boston the week of Jan. 24 when they had their first massive snow fall (24"). They closed all the highways except for essential workers. My son wasn’t essential, but his wife was. She is a doctor and expected to have to stay overnight at her hospital. In the event, she didn’t. She is a family physician who also delivers babies but no cesareans. A gynocologist who does told her that he would have to stay anyway and she may as well go home before the storm.

My son just started a new job as transportation director for a Boston suburb and he would be required to stay at his office through any such storm. But he wouldn’t travel, just stay.

9

Since I’m self-employed and work at home, I’m a totally essential employee. If I don’t show up the work doesn’t get done. Snow and hazardous roads are no excuse.

10

Yes I have to come into work.

11

Not essential but I am part of the Emergency Response team, so I am required to work remotely during weather situations. I’m doing that right now as a matter of fact.

12

I work in a grocery store and am expected to be at work to handle the panic. Tonight I will probably sleep on the floor in the break room. I hate snow in ways you cannot understand.

13

No I can stay home. Have done so three times in 22 years. I live on a dead end road that is the last to get plowed. Now, I can plow it myself if it’s not real bad, but I don’t want the county to think I’m going to start doing their job.

Really though, living and working in a ski resort community, nobody shuts down for snow. We are ready for it and used to it. And anyone that has any kind of drive will have a 4x4 with snow tires on it.

14

I am considered an essential employee, but can also work from home whenever I like (or need to). If the offfice is totally closed, I’ll stay home and work.

15

I’m not essential, but since I can work remotely, and usually do, I don’t get snow days (unless power or internet were down, obviously).

16

Person who works in a mega- market grocery store checking in.

Most employees are kinda semi-essential.

Any individual who can’t/don’t make it to work in bad weather is probably no big deal, but you need a certain number of employees present because there are always shoppers there to grab the essentials (or entertain themselves by shopping). Deliveries are hit or miss, but those that show required employees to process them. People from my department are often used as back-up baggers, cashiers, and even snow shovelers.

This morning, we’ve got eight or more inches of snow. A plow came through mid-morning, so if I can get out of the driveway, I ought to be able to get to work. I’m not scheduled today, so I’m taking my time shoveling, so that I can get to work tomorrow. (I’m far enough south that just wait til it melts is the usual driveway tactic. Except at this house, because we’ve lived in places where snow doesn’t melt until Spring.).

17

I’m retired, but when I was working, I was never in an essential position. If I missed a day or two of doing my engineering stuff, no one was going to die.

18

I’m not “life or death” essential like a doctor or cop, but I’m the only one who can do my job and everything has to go through me, so I’m essential if they want to do business.

19

I’m so grateful to be non-essential (university admin drone in New England); if the university closes, I’m off with pay. The essentials here are everyone who clears snow like facilities and landscaping, plus everyone who takes care of students (foodservice, infirmary, cops etc) and infrastructure.

All the years I worked in restaurants, there were a few situations like power outages that meant you pretty much couldn’t open. If it lasted very long, when the power came back up we had to be in extra early to clean out all the rotten shit from the coolers and freezers.

Once when I was working in NoCal (Mendo area), we had an outage that was expected to last for about a week and my crazy-ass employer insisted we be open so people could get food. Imagine - no lights, no hood fan, no refrigeration, but we’re back here cooking your food in the blistering heat with just a few of those hanging workshop lights attempting to pierce the clouds of smoke from the flat top & grill. FFFFUCCCKKK THAT.

20

I occupy a weird middle ground as a home health nurse. In a true emergency, my patients should call 911, not me. But in the other hand, I’m responsible for their well being even when I’m not with them. That means that if there’s horrible weather, I call them to see how they’re doing. If they’re stable or have questions or concerns I can deal with by phone, great. If they’re in acute distress of an emergent nature, I call 911 for them. There’s a middle ground where it’s not an emergency, but they do really need to see me, and those are the rough ones. If I know the weather is going to be bad for a few days, I call everyone at once to figure out who I really need to see this week and try to minimize my time out on the road.

I suppose if the powers that be shut down the roads except for “essential personnel,” I’d probably not get hassled, as a nurse. But I’ve never had to test it.