‘The Long Commute’
courtesy of ‘starbuck77’

Remember that horrible, awful, snow-addled commute we had back in late January when the feds closed at 3, just in time to send people off into the beginning of an ice storm? Yeah. The feds remember it too, and they’re updating their inclement weather procedures to prevent it from happening again.

The updated procedures basically involve two main categories:

1. Stop dithering and make a decision about whether to close/have unscheduled telework/whatever a lot faster. I think anyone who has ever sat up at night, refreshing the OPM status page can get behind this one.

2. Encourage employees to shelter in place if they can’t get home before it gets bad outside. This one seems… less enforceable, since you can’t exactly require people to stay at the office, but if offices can be prepared to accommodate employees for a little while longer at the office, and encourage them to wait out the worst of it, this could potentially make a difference.

The policy is expected to be approved on November 9th. If you work for the government, you might check to see what “shelter in place” would look like at your office. If, like me, you work for a company that follows the feds’ lead with office closures, you might check with your HR department to see if this will change anything for you.

And maybe it wouldn’t hurt to keep a bag with some spare hygiene supplies and some energy bars locked up in your cubicle, hm?