Office closed + no power at home = PTO?

[Insomniator]

Just got an email from my company - due to a storm coming the office will be closed, and if you do not have power at home (to work from home) you must use PTO.

...Does that sound right? Seems somehow illegal.

 

[nakedfrog]

Can you take unpaid time off instead?

 

[purbeast0]

Sounds right to me. Or at least if you don't want to use PTO, they should allow you to make up the time on the weekend or adding extra hours each day. They shouldn't have to pay you if you aren't working or using PTO.

At my job if I can't get to work, for whatever reason, even if due to weather, I either have to use PTO or make up the time. I typically just use PTO since I get 27 days a year.

 

[PenguinPower]

Check your company's PTO/Inclement Weather policy. Generally, employers can require employees to use PTO for inclement weather regardless of FLSA classification.

 

[lxskllr]

Just got an email from my company - due to a storm coming the office will be closed, and if you do not have power at home (to work from home) you must use PTO.

...Does that sound right? Seems somehow illegal.

How about my counter offer? I'll stay home and pretend this day didn't exist, and you can go fuck yourself. Sound good? It better, cause my terms are nonnegotiable.

 

[HotJob]

Hourly? Yea, they don't have to pay you for not working, even if they are the reason you can't work.
Salary? Gets a little trickier. They shouldn't be able to not pay you for one day off. A lot of employers want what I call "salary minus", which is a fixed pay rate per week, minus any hours under 40 you don't work. This is not how salary works. The tradeoff to not having to pay overtime is paying for the full week, whether or not it was worked. To get around it, the employer might declare the time off a furlough, so they don't have to pay, but then they can't require you to work from home.
The big question is: Are you willing to quit and sue to force your view, and is your employer willing to fire you to force his?

 

[Thebobo]

How about my counter offer? I'll stay home and pretend this day didn't exist, and you can go fuck yourself. Sound good? It better, cause my terms are nonnegotiable.

I'd say that was rather less cordial than he was used to.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Are you still allowed to go into the office anyway? If they are not letting you go in to work and expect you to work at home but you can't, that's their fault really. You're willing to work it's just that they are not letting you work in the environment that is meant for you to work in. That said, the law tends to side on the companies so chances are that legally they can do it. Sucks though.

The concept of snow days for work is foreign to me though, even in college they don't get snow days here. I do miss those and am jelly, tbh. For my particular department when there's storms it's often more busy so sometimes have to call in someone to work some OT. This year has not been too bad though, it's been quiet.

 

[Thebobo]

Well yea you live down south here in the US and you get a few flakes and people freak out. And what worse when does snow like an inch or two its mayhem, since people have no experience with snow.

 

[lxskllr]

Well yea you live down south here in the US and you get a few flakes and people freak out. And what worse when does snow like an inch or two its mayhem, since so people have no experience with snow.

Not only that, almost all Canucks have reindeer, or dogsled teams as backup. They sell them at Canadian Tire in the fall(August).

 

[ultimatebob]

Not only that, almost all Canucks have reindeer, or dogsled teams as backup. They sell them at Canadian Tire in the fall(August).

I always thought that fall in Canada was in early to mid September. I guess that I didn't go North enough.

 

[KMFJD]

Are you still allowed to go into the office anyway? If they are not letting you go in to work and expect you to work at home but you can't, that's their fault really. You're willing to work it's just that they are not letting you work in the environment that is meant for you to work in. That said, the law tends to side on the companies so chances are that legally they can do it. Sucks though.

The concept of snow days for work is foreign to me though, even in college they don't get snow days here. I do miss those and am jelly, tbh. For my particular department when there's storms it's often more busy so sometimes have to call in someone to work some OT. This year has not been too bad though, it's been quiet.

And how far exactly do you live from work? It's one thing to claim that and only have to drive a couple of km's in town, it's a totally different thing if you have to drive 40-80 km's each way.

It's a 30 min drive for me through usually unplowed country roads

 

[SearchMaster]

Sounds right to me. Or at least if you don't want to use PTO, they should allow you to make up the time on the weekend or adding extra hours each day. They shouldn't have to pay you if you aren't working or using PTO.

At my job if I can't get to work, for whatever reason, even if due to weather, I either have to use PTO or make up the time. I typically just use PTO since I get 27 days a year.

Yeah but his office is closed so he has nowhere to try to get to.

Sounds screwed up to me...if the office is closed you shouldn't be expected to work - they made the decision to shut down, not you.

 

[snoopy7548]

That's lame as hell. The company I work for used to pull that shit but they got wise and don't do it anymore. I guess enough people were fed up that they were expected to work 45+ hours a week every week, but had to take PTO whenever the facility was shutdown due to circumstances beyond their control.

I hope we get let out at noon tomorrow. If not, I'm leaving anyways (and taking PTO.)

 

[Ken g6]

How about my counter offer? I'll stay home and pretend this day didn't exist, and you can go fuck yourself. Sound good? It better, cause my terms are nonnegotiable.

I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you took unpaid leave instead of PTO. Though they might want you to extend it indefinitely.

 

[NoCreativity]

Glad I get paid when they shut our work down due to weather.

 

[purbeast0]

Yeah but his office is closed so he has nowhere to try to get to.

Sounds screwed up to me...if the office is closed you shouldn't be expected to work - they made the decision to shut down, not you.

Maybe they can open on a Saturday so people can make up the work instead? There could be other options to making up the time. A good company will work it out so that if you either have the option to use PTO or you could make up the time so you don't have to use PTO.

 

[Iron Woode]

Not only that, almost all Canucks have reindeer, or dogsled teams as backup. They sell them at Canadian Tire in the fall(August).

I always thought that fall in Canada was in early to mid September. I guess that I didn't go North enough.

LOL

 

[DietDrThunder]

The company I work for never closes, even if it would mean you'd die on your way to work. To them, well that is too bad. You have one of three choices, come in and get paid, take PTO but can't work to make the time up, or take vacation days as unscheduled vacation in which you've got 10 weeks in which you can make up the time you missed. If you take any time off as scheduled vacation, you can't make that time up.

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah... unless the building loses power, we're considered to be open. Even then, you'll be expected to work from home if possible.

I doubt that we would ever be totally offline unless a major disaster hit both of our external data centers in different geographic areas. If that happens, people will have bigger things to worry about

 

[clamum]

I think that's kinda bogus, forcing people to eat up their PTO for things not under their control. I'd ask if I could take the time as unpaid time off. If they say no, then I'd tell them to have sex with themselves. Actually I'd meekly say ok and go along with them, but it's fun to think about being a BA

 

[lxskllr]

Actually I'd meekly say ok and go along with them, but it's fun to think about being a BA

Comes with age. I'm always || close to loading up my pack and kitties, and hitting the road. I give zero fucks. I used up all the fucks I have to give years ago, and found I don't need as much money as I thought I did. It's about as close to freedom as you get in this world. Of course, it required sacrifice to get in this position. I haven't lead the atot baller's life, but I'm good with it. Freedom's > *

 

[Homerboy]

I think that's kinda bogus, forcing people to eat up their PTO for things not under their control. I'd ask if I could take the time as unpaid time off. If they say no, then I'd tell them to have sex with themselves. Actually I'd meekly say ok and go along with them, but it's fun to think about being a BA

I'd say that's also bogus to expect a company to pay for things not under their control. They didn't cause the weather.

 

[lxskllr]

I'd say that's also bogus to expect a company to pay for things not under their control. They didn't cause the weather.

Nonsense. That comes with the territory. That's the risk you take when you have a business. If the power drops, you don't call the service company, and say you want an extra day on the copier service since you didn't have power. They'll tell you to go fuck yourself. Not coincidentally, that's my answer too. You make the big bucks, you take the risk...

 

[Homerboy]

Nonsense. That comes with the territory. That's the risk you take when you have a business. If the power drops, you don't call the service company, and say you want an extra day on the copier service since you didn't have power. They'll tell you to go fuck yourself. Not coincidentally, that's my answer too. You make the big bucks, you take the risk...

Yeah - I'm going to have to say that 51%+ of businesses are going to apply the day off as the OP is describing. I'll also so that depending on what type of business it is, if they are able to open on Saturday to work, they will allow you to make up lost hours instead of taking PTO (either partial or full day)