Question of the Day, Friday, January 3

Good morning and Happy first Friday of 2014!

Rick brought me into work this morning; we only got 4-5 inches of snow, but the wind and the cold are working to make our roads horrible. We didn't have time to shovel out the driveway, so we'll have to work on that tonight and tomorrow....just in time for the next storm to hit us on Sunday. 

When the roads are bad, how do you go to work/school? Does your work/school cancel for the day? Do you drive yourself? Can you walk? Do you take a vacation day or call in sick?

When it's really bad outside, Rick will bring me into work. That way, he can take the Tucson on to his work. Our work hardly ever cancels; we are expected to come in if we can. If we can't, we have to take vacation time....we don't just get the day off. I usually have a lot of vacation days left and I always have some comp time that I can take. But most of the time, Rick will just bring me in. He's going to work regardless as his work never cancels either, so I might as well come in with him. So even when the roads are really bad, we'll still come in to work.

We don't get snow days at school here, though there have been plenty of days when people have shown up hours late. I take the train to work (school), and walk to the train station, so as long as trains are running and I can manage a steep hill without breaking my neck, I usually make it in.

I'm lucky that I don't have to work when it snows, but Aaron has over an hour commute on a good weather day. Thankfully he can work from home when necessary. He is on vacation until Monday though, so no need for that today. With a windchill later of -15, we aren't looking forward to clearing the snow later when it stops.

We are both retired. When it snows we drink hot chocolate or coffee and sit by the fireplace and watch the snow come down.

I had already taken off for today's snowstorm earlier in the week.  I heard it was coming, and I have several vacation days to use before my "year" is up in late May.  

However, as it turns out, late yesterday my boss made the decision to allow anyone who honestly was going to have trouble getting into NYC to work from home (probably all of us have this capability - we're all hooked up to our server at work from home computers). I left on the early side yesterday to make sure I got home before the storm hit bad. I know some people are trying to get in, the ones that live in Brooklyn for instance, but others from NJ as an example such as me, are staying home.

In past years I probably would have pushed myself to go in, but I have a tear in my knee which needs attention and haven't figured out when to have the surgery yet.  I wasn't going to take any chances of slipping and further damaging it.  I'm of no help in shoveling/plowing right now.  Usually Tom will take care of this and he did partially but we were lucky that someone knocked on our door early this morning, and offered to do it for money.  I was more than happy to hand the cash over LOL.

I take the bus and then hire a school-sponsored shuttle ($5 per student) to get around campus. The downside is that it takes me almost an hour to get to school, as opposed to 15 minutes by car. But I'd rather be safe, since my car is really not equipped for snow at all.

When I was still working I rarely took a day off from inclement weather.  I would be outside early morning in the dark cleaning off my car.  I could've used a sick day but I wanted to save those for when I was really sick. 

We are to get another storm also Pam next week but it's supposed to be just rain in my area.  Stay safe.

My school rarely cancels for weather, since the vast majority of its 30k students live on-campus or within walking distance. 

I, however, live 30 minutes away (in good weather) and in a very rural spot. It hasn't snowed since I moved here, so I don't know how good they'll be about salting this road. It's busy, as it's the main road out of this little town, and a lot of professors and researchers from the university live in this area, so I'm hopeful. 

So I'd either have my BF (who's from upstate NY) chauffeur me or I'd skip class. Not worth the risk.

It doesn't usually snow here, but when it has snowed the schools and businesses close. We just aren't set up to deal with it here.

We have no snow days. We can get 35cm dumped on us overnight, and we have to be at work at 06:30.

People here are very good at getting to work too. l'm the closest person on my shift with only a 3.5km drive (2.2 miles). Some people have to cross from the far side of the city but they always get to work after digging out their driveway and scraping the car. l think we see it enough here that it's just a normal day rather than an adverse event. The worst is freezing rain, l hate driving/walking in freezing rain.

l remember when we went back to England for a couple of years and there were a few days of very light snow. Places were closing, people were staying off the roads, it was quite funny to us, but it was an unusual event to them to have to drive in it.

I live on a big, long hill, and a curvy one at that, so I don't go if the weather's bad. I save 3 weeks of vacation every year, i.e., 15 days (5-day work weeks) for any emergencies.  I have a 10 mile drive, but I still have to get down that hill first.

DH hasn't any choice--he started a new job in November; no vacation days yet, plus, I can't imagine him not going in. I can't ask him to take me to work, and, because of a truck driver's crazy hours, I may not get a ride home from anyone at work. He's on the road, and just can't turn around to pick me up! My job closes at 9 PM, as well, and I couldn't stay there until he gets home.

I'm lucky in that I work for the local government, and they do shut down, like today. We often are told to go in with delays of 1-2 hours. Since I'm full-time, I still get paid.

As for using a sick day for this, I think that's so dishonest, and would NEVER do so. Perhaps one cold turn a blind eye to it if an employee gets no vacation or personal days, and the weather is very bad, like today, and you feel as is your life would be in danger if you drove (DH's boss just told him that they had a lot of drivers call in "sick" today!). But, if you have vacation days and/or personal days, those should be used instead.  I also have the option of making up the time after work, weekends, lunch, etc.

Bad weather like this makes me very very grateful to be a stay-at-home mom!!  I hate driving in even mildly bad weather.  I mean to the point of shaking while driving!

At my first "real" job after college either DH would take me in, or my Mom (who worked with me) or my boss would come get me.  I'm grateful for that too.   The company I worked for followed whatever the state would do for their employees as far as delays or closings.  But some clients rode different types of transit; so we might not end up with many people there that day. 

I told DH to take my car (Outback) to work today.  His car could use new tires and I'm not leaving the house.  It was kind of funny; we bought the Outback 2 years ago and had 2 gloriously snow-free winters.   I think we got around 6" of snow last night; but with the blowing now it's hard to tell.  Hopefully DH won't have to be out late today.

I'm in Southern California, so the worst we get is heavy rain. Everyone is just late.

Most of my team has work from home access. I work from home most of the year. We are all under agreement that if our Internet goes down then we do have to get to the office. Our time off is all lumped as one big batch so you could call in if you wanted to do so but it would probably cause grumbling (you know office life haha). We don't get alot super evil weather but management has allowed/encouraged us to stay home in a few cases when rougher than normal weather is expected. Truth be told,most of the year we are hot and greasy,gross but true.

Bad days here are pretty rare, but when we do have one most places shut down.  Where I work, it never shuts down, but they leave it up to us if we go in or not.  We can work from home or make arrangements to make the time up, or take vacation or leave without pay.  When I first got down here from the north, I once drove to work after an ice storm only to find maybe 3 people there.  So I grabbed some work and headed back home.  Now most of the time I just "work from home" if it gets bad and stuff is shutting down.

No SNOW DAYS in Saskatchewan, we just drive SOOOOO slow and slide around a bunch until we make it to work/ school

Here in DC, the entire city shuts down at the thought of flurries! Usually, I have had to work, though, because bars stay open and it seems like that is where everyone goes.