Who gets snow days in the real world?

[USAF385]

I do! The school I'm working in is closed today in anticipation of snow, meaning I don't need to make the 45 minute drive. It kind if stinks because that also means my Monday will be screwed up.

Oh well. Instead I'm going to be a nice husband an drive my wife to work so she doesn't need to battle the snow later. That means I'll be bumming around the woods today when it starts to snow. Good times.

Side note... Don't these schools believe in early dismissals anymore? They all like to close preemptively. Maybe it's easier for parents if small kids to just close?

 

[snowman]

Side note... Don't these schools believe in early dismissals anymore? They all like to close preemptively. Maybe it's easier for parents if small kids to just close?

I believe you nailed part of it; generally there is no one home to take care of the little ones if they are sent home early. It wasn't that way in previous generations.

Another factor, I believe, is liability. School officials want to avoid buses getting stuck, being involved in accidents, etc. for fear of lawsuits. It's much easier to cancel ahead of time and preempt any such problems.

I've often thought of how different all this is from when I went to school. Conditions had to be pretty serious back then to either delay, cancel, or let school out early.

Andy

 

[jibbr71]

My brother(a teacher) and I had the conversation about early dismissals last night about early dismissals; as schools had not been cancelled at that time. The problem is if kids are let out early, it is difficult to let parents know, and then there may not be anybody home when the kids get there. That's why it was odd that they didn't make the call last night for this historic storm....it was just announced an hour ago. BTW, no snow day here; my shop is closed, but as punishment for being a department manager(and having been in Denver most of the week for training), I will be there this morning to do some paperwork, and then plowing until about Monday, I figure

 

[MrJT]

Send some woodsbumming photos for those of us unable to do so!

+1 about early dismissals being difficult for parents. I was a high school teacher and that became the concern in recent years, especially for the younger kids who need their parents to get them or watch them.

 

[chief38]

I do! I am retired but I can't get out to the Range today because of the Blizzard about to land upon us.

 

[USAF385]

I do! I am retired but I can't get out to the Range today because of the Blizzard about to land upon us.

Oh come on! A little snow never hurt anyone. Get out there and shoot!

10:20 and still no snow.

 

[mkk41]

Citing employee safety , our company closed in anticipation of a large snowstorm back before Xmas. We even got paid for the day.

 

[USAF385]

Oh well. 2:30 and no snow yet. And now some schools are dismissing early... Better safe then sorry I guess.




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[jkc]

They're pretty rare here...

 

[relic]

Maybe I'm just old fashioned (and I am old) but, making a safe home arrival "a school responsibility" rather than a parental responsibility is just another freedom surrendered to big brother. Responsible parents should plan/manage for those situations.

I guess it's not so surprising in this day when part-time parents demand schools offer free early day care, breakfast, lunch, and after-school care. It's just another abdication of parenting. Sad.

As I said, I am old.

 

[mkk41]

Maybe I'm just old fashioned (and I am old) but, making a safe home arrival "a school responsibility" rather than a parental responsibility is just another freedom surrendered to big brother. Responsible parents should plan/manage for those situations.

I guess it's not so surprising in this day when part-time parents demand schools offer free early day care, breakfast, lunch, and after-school care. It's just another abdication of parenting. Sad.

As I said, I am old.

Pretty soon , school personal will come out and do a safety inspection on your car before you pick yer kid up.

 

[ogilvyspecial]

This thread reminds me of something that
happened, at work, at least 10 yr's ago.

When we got to work at 3 p.m. it was snowing and was supposed to end up
exactly like what is being predicted in some of the New England states.

By the time we got out of work at 11:30 p.m.,
it had snowed 22" with winds over 50 mph.

I felt concerned watching those with low riding cars struggle out of the parking lot
that night, some with many miles to go in order to get home. I only had two
wheel drive myself, but at least my van had decent ground clearance.

A drive that normally took me 20 min's, took well over an hour, with half an hour
just to make the last 1/4 mile. I was lucky that I got off our road, with
absolutely no hope of making it the 200 yrd's up our driveway.

A co-worker, who drove a Pontiac Sunfire, had his engine compartment get so packed
with snow that his engine overheated, his car caught on fire and was totally destroyed.
After hearing that I felt lucky that I only broke both wiper blades getting home that night.

Nobody at work ever did give us a good explanation on why they kept us. It's not
like we could have shipped the, 1,000, 3800 V6's that we built that night.

 

[bubbiesdad]

Our new management sometimes closes shop for "increment weather".

 

[GianniG83]

I have the ability to work from home. My time is better utilized working instead of driving 2+ hours to get to my office when the roads are horrible.

 

[mtelkhntr]

We have snow days.

Those are the days we need to get to work early to clear the parking lot and sidewalks so the customers don't slip and fall. Probably just a Montana thing.

 

[rburg]

I retired from an interesting situation. We were booming the entire last 20 years or so. But we had a general manager who was a good salesman, but a terrible driver. Better still, he lived miles out in the country. He had a really tough drive and for a while preferred junky little sporty cars like Camaros that were just terrible in snow. As a consequence you could pretty much depend on him not to make it in no matter how hard he tried. It severely hampered his moral authority to yell at anyone else for not making it or even being late. Better still, he had a boyfriend for his 2nd in command. Also not a driver of any skill.

I didn't work on that side of the business. I did provide them with data processing services, but I worked for the owner. He and his son-in-law ran the joint. Just a glaze of ice would see the SIL calling me to leave work and come pick him up. The old man wouldn't bother, he'd call me and tell me what to pick up and deliver to his house for breakfast or lunch (or both.)

But one day came when we had a bad snowfall and predictions of a full day of snow, another 6" or so on top of the 6" we already had. Funny how I just got up like normal and drove in. And our maintenance man and janitor also just didn't make a deal out of it. Then the other salesman somehow arrived. I have no idea how. His only official act was to cancel work without consulting anyone. Little hitlers don't last long like that. So the 150 or so employees got the day off, and the 3 of us who bothered just put in a nice, leisurely day. Yes, I also administered the phone system and set it to weekend. The only calls that got in were the owners on his private line. It had caller ID and I know who's calls get answered and which to ignore!

So it kind of was a snow day and everyone got paid. But the next day was even better when I picked up the owner and transported him in. And he started the day screaming at every lazy one of the no shows. Then about noon the owner came to my office and told me I got the next 2 afternoons off. After I took him home!

The moral is everything in the business world isn't fair, nor does it need to be. You play the hand you're delt. Both in the job and the weather.

And now that I'm retired, I even let my wife take the jeep to work. Better than having her stay here and complain at me.

 

[rwsmith]

Even in our warm neck

Even in our warm neck of the woods, bridges ice up overnight even if nothing else does and they don't want to run buses over them. I was stupid one time (at least one time) and almost lost it on an icy bridge. We aren't very well prepared here for ice/snow and besides not being equipped, people either go nuts or freeze up themselves when it gets icy.

Funny story: We had 6" of snow one time and I was delivering morning papers in my car when I came upon an abandoned police cruiser slewed sideways in the middle of a 25 mph residential street. I had to go around the block to resume my deliveries and I never found out why the policeman checked out and left his car. The snow must have freaked him out.

 

[ogilvyspecial]

Funny story: We had 6" of snow one time and I was delivering morning papers in my car when I came upon an abandoned police cruiser slewed sideways in the middle of a 25 mph residential street. I had to go around the block to resume my deliveries and I never found out why the policeman checked out and left his car. The snow must have freaked him out.

Back in the late 70's & early 80's I got the chance to meet a
few southern folks who seemed to have trouble with snow.

A close friend & I both had four wheel drive trucks, set up for snow during the
winter months. When the conditions were bad we would work our favorite
"hunting grounds," which was the inter-change where I-69 & I-75
cross each other. The ramps were like traps for some drivers,
including a few southerners traveling through our area.

During the years we did this we pulled more peoples cars back onto the road
than I could count. When asked how much we charged we always said
"A donation for gas is appreciated, but not necessary."

Sometimes they would be generous, other times we'd get nothing.

It didn't matter to us, we enjoyed doing it and were helping
people at the same time. Kinda made me feel useful.

 

[LVSteve]

Maybe I'm just old fashioned (and I am old) but, making a safe home arrival "a school responsibility" rather than a parental responsibility is just another freedom surrendered to big brother. Responsible parents should plan/manage for those situations.

I guess it's not so surprising in this day when part-time parents demand schools offer free early day care, breakfast, lunch, and after-school care. It's just another abdication of parenting. Sad.

As I said, I am old.

Perhaps you should direct this rant to the employers of those parents. At best their employer will let them leave and dock their pay for the hours not worked. In this state there is a good chance that a parent doing that once or twice A YEAR will be seen as too much trouble and be deep sixed.

 

[jbinbi]

Perhaps you should direct this rant to the employers of those parents. At best their employer will let them leave and dock their pay for the hours not worked. In this state there is a good chance that a parent doing that once or twice A YEAR will be seen as too much trouble and be deep sixed.

You are old. today, with so many famalies w both parents working there is no one home if schools dismiss mid day. See lvsteve's comments above.

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