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Battle of the Morons
Jan. 28th, 2014 12:09 pmEdited one last time to add: Apparently this decision was impossible and I really shouldn't be calling the decision-makers morons after all. I wasn't watching the weather forecasts as closely as the people with these jobs were, so I missed the very long period in the middle of the night during which forecasters agreed that travel would probably be safe in the morning after all. I apologize. Please ignore the rest of this entry.
The problem with jobs is there's always a moron. The moron du jour is the person who decides whether or not the local state university will be closed due to inclement weather.
After catching a lot of flak a few years ago for not letting staff know until 7 am whether campus would be closed (by which time many people had already left for work), the university changed its policy to give us notice much earlier and to do it by posting it on the website as well as sending e-mails (and now tweets). So far so good, eh?
Last night the overnight forecast was for the temperature to drop into the 20s and for it to rain. (This is a rare combination in my city because when you have enough clouds to cause rain, that's usually enough clouds to keep us above freezing.) This morning it was, in fact in the 20s and it had rained. So I knew to check the website when I got up, which was around 7:45.
The website (and an e-mail message) declared that the university was open (though because some local school districts were closed for the morning, supervisors should work with their staff who had children in school). So I went to my job to train a new gal--she starts work at 9 am, so I was scheduled to be there at 9:30.
The ground hadn't actually frozen yet, so most of the roads were in good condition. However, the cars, grass, and overpasses had frozen, so there were some slippery bits here and there. Especially on the part of campus where they inexplicably closed a road, so the buses couldn't go there, so they had to drop us off on the other side, so we had to go down the slippery hill on foot. Fortunately, the road itself was fine, though the sidewalks were dangerous, and since the road was closed, we finally figured out to just walk on that.
When I got to work, all the other people in the department who I wasn't training were there and they informed me that the university had sent out a message at 8:45 (actually it was 8:15) saying that actually, the university would be closed until noon. The person I'm supposed to train was still driving when she got this message and decided not to come in. (I am not plugged in at all times like regular people, so I didn't know.) I thought about waiting until noon in the library, but the person's boss had told her that she didn't need to come in at all today if it was inconvenient and hadn't yet heard back, so I went home after all.
The e-mail has this explanation: "Decisions about delays and closure are made based on the best available information officials have at the time. At 3:00 AM, the forecast and predictions indicated a safe opening. Weather conditions have changed, and we are now delaying campus opening to promote the safety of staff, faculty and students."
I don't understand how they could possibly think that. I guess they have a different weather guy than my favorite weather guy or Robin's favorite weather guy or the favorite weather guys of the local school districts?
Edited to add that the campus will actually be closed all day. The e-mail announcing this went out at 11:24 am. Even people living pretty close in would have had to have left before that time to get where they needed to be by noon.
The joke around the office I went to today is that from now on, whenever we're late, we can just claim that we were waiting for notice on whether campus would be open or not.
Edited again to add that apparently at 6 am, no rain had yet fallen and the forecast at that time indicated only a 30% chance of rain. I can see not wanting to cry wolf in this situation, especially since the university has already closed for inclement weather once this year (last Friday).
The problem with jobs is there's always a moron. The moron du jour is the person who decides whether or not the local state university will be closed due to inclement weather.
After catching a lot of flak a few years ago for not letting staff know until 7 am whether campus would be closed (by which time many people had already left for work), the university changed its policy to give us notice much earlier and to do it by posting it on the website as well as sending e-mails (and now tweets). So far so good, eh?
Last night the overnight forecast was for the temperature to drop into the 20s and for it to rain. (This is a rare combination in my city because when you have enough clouds to cause rain, that's usually enough clouds to keep us above freezing.) This morning it was, in fact in the 20s and it had rained. So I knew to check the website when I got up, which was around 7:45.
The website (and an e-mail message) declared that the university was open (though because some local school districts were closed for the morning, supervisors should work with their staff who had children in school). So I went to my job to train a new gal--she starts work at 9 am, so I was scheduled to be there at 9:30.
The ground hadn't actually frozen yet, so most of the roads were in good condition. However, the cars, grass, and overpasses had frozen, so there were some slippery bits here and there. Especially on the part of campus where they inexplicably closed a road, so the buses couldn't go there, so they had to drop us off on the other side, so we had to go down the slippery hill on foot. Fortunately, the road itself was fine, though the sidewalks were dangerous, and since the road was closed, we finally figured out to just walk on that.
When I got to work, all the other people in the department who I wasn't training were there and they informed me that the university had sent out a message at 8:45 (actually it was 8:15) saying that actually, the university would be closed until noon. The person I'm supposed to train was still driving when she got this message and decided not to come in. (I am not plugged in at all times like regular people, so I didn't know.) I thought about waiting until noon in the library, but the person's boss had told her that she didn't need to come in at all today if it was inconvenient and hadn't yet heard back, so I went home after all.
The e-mail has this explanation: "Decisions about delays and closure are made based on the best available information officials have at the time. At 3:00 AM, the forecast and predictions indicated a safe opening. Weather conditions have changed, and we are now delaying campus opening to promote the safety of staff, faculty and students."
I don't understand how they could possibly think that. I guess they have a different weather guy than my favorite weather guy or Robin's favorite weather guy or the favorite weather guys of the local school districts?
Edited to add that the campus will actually be closed all day. The e-mail announcing this went out at 11:24 am. Even people living pretty close in would have had to have left before that time to get where they needed to be by noon.
The joke around the office I went to today is that from now on, whenever we're late, we can just claim that we were waiting for notice on whether campus would be open or not.
Edited again to add that apparently at 6 am, no rain had yet fallen and the forecast at that time indicated only a 30% chance of rain. I can see not wanting to cry wolf in this situation, especially since the university has already closed for inclement weather once this year (last Friday).