Is OPM Nuts? -Rant- (Arlington, Alexandria: apartments, condos, credit)

[vermonter16]

Telecommuting is great but anyone who works with classified information can't do it.

[Carlingtonian]

It was a very bad call. Every school system but DC is closed. That means all the parents must either stay home or find a babysitter on short notice--and that would be hard enough in good weather.

Also, public transit is not up to full service. WMATA buses are on emergency service only, and my wife's coworker has waited an hour for Metrorail so far.

What they've done is to force individuals to pay for what should be on the feds. 40 years ago, the traffic wouldn't have been like this, and so a two-hour delay might have been workable back then. But with millions more people living out past the Beltway and commuting in every day, it's no surprise that this fairly moderate storm caused this much of a mess.

OPM's standard for closing should be getting more flexible as the population increases (and more people are on the roads), rather than more rigid.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

What they've done is to force individuals to pay for what should be on the feds. 40 years ago, the traffic wouldn't have been like this, and so a two-hour delay might have been workable back then. But with millions more people living out past the Beltway and commuting in every day, it's no surprise that this fairly moderate storm caused this much of a mess.

OPM's standard for closing should be getting more flexible as the population increases (and more people are on the roads), rather than more rigid.

I guess I just don't 100% get this thought process. And, yes, I like a free day off as much as the next person.

You are correct that there are many, many more people in this area than used to be and a storm does cause massive inconveniences. On the other side of that, 40 years ago we didn't have a subway system either and the extensive public transporation that we do now, or the option to telework.

Just because many areas were hit hard, doesn't mean the government needed to shut down. Many areas were NOT hit hard. Then you have the option to telework. Doing a headcount at my area in DoD today, I would say we have at least 50% of our workforce here today and our parking garage is full. I would bet that at least half of those that did not make it are teleworking and the others decided to take leave. To me, those are pretty good stats for being open.

The government gives a decent leave package. If you use your leave wisely and you've been around at least 3 years, you should have no problems taking a day here and there if you can't make it in. These are all choices we make when we choose to move to certain areas that make it harder to commute in during inclement weather/construction projects/etc. It really is not in the best interest of OPM to shut down an entire government system because some people can't get in. There are so many options available to work around this included, unfortunately, using your valuable leave. Please realize that I am saying this as someone who lives 30 miles from my job and who can rarely telework due to the nature of my job. I still feel that they made the right decision today.

Yesterday...not so much. I think the 2 hour dismissal was too late and it should have been a noon closure. However, again it comes down to personal responsibilty. We all knew the storm was coming. If you work later hours and you couldn't shift your work schedule earlier, than taking additional leave on top of the 2 hour dismissal was the way to go.

[normie]

I think we're going to need to get over this idea that the government shuts down due to a snow storm. Yes, it's good to get everyone off the roads so they can plow them. But, work still needs to get done and IMO it makes the U.S. look very vulnerable when our government seems to shut down just because of a foot of snow.

[ajzjmsmom]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

I guess I just don't 100% get this thought process. And, yes, I like a free day off as much as the next person.

You are correct that there are many, many more people in this area than used to be and a storm does cause massive inconveniences. On the other side of that, 40 years ago we didn't have a subway system either and the extensive public transporation that we do now, or the option to telework.

Just because many areas were hit hard, doesn't mean the government needed to shut down. Many areas were NOT hit hard. Then you have the option to telework. Doing a headcount at my area in DoD today, I would say we have at least 50% of our workforce here today and our parking garage is full. I would bet that at least half of those that did not make it are teleworking and the others decided to take leave. To me, those are pretty good stats for being open.

The government gives a decent leave package. If you use your leave wisely and you've been around at least 3 years, you should have no problems taking a day here and there if you can't make it in. These are all choices we make when we choose to move to certain areas that make it harder to commute in during inclement weather/construction projects/etc. It really is not in the best interest of OPM to shut down an entire government system because some people can't get in. There are so many options available to work around this included, unfortunately, using your valuable leave. Please realize that I am saying this as someone who lives 30 miles from my job and who can rarely telework due to the nature of my job. I still feel that they made the right decision today.

Yesterday...not so much. I think the 2 hour dismissal was too late and it should have been a noon closure. However, again it comes down to personal responsibilty. We all knew the storm was coming. If you work later hours and you couldn't shift your work schedule earlier, than taking additional leave on top of the 2 hour dismissal was the way to go.

I agree with you, instead of OPM saying "you can leave 2 hours early" they should have as you say just closed it at noon. My husbands commutes in using Martz and they have pretty good guidelines in regards to gov't closures but it wasn't quite as clear yesterday.

[movingtodcfromseattle]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

The government gives a decent leave package. If you use your leave wisely and you've been around at least 3 years, you should have no problems taking a day here and there if you can't make it in. These are all choices we make when we choose to move to certain areas that make it harder to commute in during inclement weather/construction projects/etc. It really is not in the best interest of OPM to shut down an entire government system because some people can't get in. There are so many options available to work around this included, unfortunately, using your valuable leave. Please realize that I am saying this as someone who lives 30 miles from my job and who can rarely telework due to the nature of my job. I still feel that they made the right decision today.

Yesterday...not so much. I think the 2 hour dismissal was too late and it should have been a noon closure. However, again it comes down to personal responsibilty. We all knew the storm was coming. If you work later hours and you couldn't shift your work schedule earlier, than taking additional leave on top of the 2 hour dismissal was the way to go.

BINGO! Well said! Don't even get me started on people taking/not taking leave responsibly.

[Flamingo13]

They still haven't plowed here - the sun could have really helped clear the streets if they'd even made a pass.

[vermonter16]

Apparently just because OPM announces an early dismissal does not mean that it is automatic to the employees. The more I have spoken to folks today, the clearer the picture has become. Apparently it is up to their supervisors who get the word from their chain of command to let them know. If the supervisor or chain of command doesn't think they need to leave, than they don't leave. This happened with a lot of folks yesterday.

As for the federal government closing just because schools close and daycare, etc. It is NOT the federal governmen't responsibility to take care of your children or figure out what you must do - it is your responsibility. Everyone else has to figure it out - I'm sure federal employees will find a way.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by vermonter16

Apparently just because OPM announces an early dismissal does not mean that it is automatic to the employees. The more I have spoken to folks today, the clearer the picture has become. Apparently it is up to their supervisors who get the word from their chain of command to let them know. If the supervisor or chain of command doesn't think they need to leave, than they don't leave. This happened with a lot of folks yesterday.

One thing I've learned from working in the Federal Government for 3 years is that every single agency seems to have a different culture and different method for doing business.

Where I work in DoD, the OPM guidelines rule. We had folks monitoring www.opm.gov, which gives guidance to all federal workers. At 11:30, one of my cube mates told me that OPM's site had authorized the 2 hour dismissal. Within those guidelines on their site, are detailed instructions of different scenarios of arrival, departure, what to do about employees who were already on leave, telework, etc. We do not require supervisor approval once OPM puts out official guidance. Within 30 minutes of OPM putting out guidance, our HR-type people put out an organization-wide e-mail letting everyone know (because not everyone can spend every minute scanning OPM's website) of the guidance and providing a link to the OPM site. At that point, you just need to let your supervisor know what time you're leaving.

My mother works for Deparatment of Commerce and they operate the same way and always have so I'm not sure about people needing permission to leave after OPM puts out the ruling.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

Many areas were NOT hit hard. Then you have the option to telework..

As some have pointed out, not everyone has the telework option. But yesterday didn't get nasty till the afternoon--so many people who could telework today might not have been allowed to do so yesterday.

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

The government gives a decent leave package...

Actually, they start you at just 13 days of vacation per year. Sure, it could be worse--but most places start you at 3 weeks. Now I see that you said "If ... you've been around at least 3 years." But what about people with less time in that that?

But this is all beside the point. Why should someone have to use vacation leave because of something beyond their control? It's not the employee's fault that it snowed, or that half the people here don't know how to drive a car properly, much less in bad weather.

What really gets me is all the people I heard about who were stuck in their cars for 7, 8 hours. That could actually kill someone.

I don't live terribly far from DC, and I'm near enough to Metro and to some major highways. But I still think that these massive, life-threatening traffic jams could have been avoided if the government had just shut down for yesterday.

For all you DoD/Intel/national security folks, maybe they could've put you all up at a hotel near your work, or sent HMVEEs to pick you up. Kidding, sort of--but there has to be some creative solution. Anything's better than what they did yesterday.