"How dare you close early during this SEVERE storm!"

[Noelegy]

I just have to say this. I know I don't have to live with the inconvenience and danger of it all, and I'm sorry it sucks for you, but that is one gorgeous picture in my opinion.

[protege]

Years ago, when I was still delivering newspapers...some old bastard called the company, and complained because his paper was late. Never mind that we got roughly 3 *feet* of snow the day before. Never mind that most of the side streets were still impassable. Never mind that the delivery truck (that was late coming to my house) had a serious accident--it slid, flipped, and burned Never mind any of that--this old bastard decided that the $2.50 he paid per week ensured that his paper should be there at 3:30pm, but it didn't get there until around 6pm

(At the time, I had about 65-70 customers on Sunday, and about 40-45 during the week. I had the route set up in a big loop--I'd hit part of the nearest houses on the trip out, and then the rest on the way back. Keep in mind that the circle was about 2-3 miles...all of which was traveled with an '88 Radio-Flyer wagon, which was *awful* in snow, even with the chains on!)

At least my route manager was cool with it. He didn't even bother writing it up--he just told me that the guy complained. As one of the better delivery people, I could get away with alot

[FormerCallingCardRep]

When I was working in the call center we had to pull the transfer swith and evacuate twice. The first time was for a bomb threat and the second time was when the closet off the employee lunch room caught fire. The customers were not too happy when they were told that we needed to end the call because the building was on fire.

[BookstoreEscapee]

see, our district manager, whom i call grimace (no love lost. i hate the bitch) spends more time trying to turn a holiday book drive into a contest between stores rather than an honest charity that she doesn't care what kind of condition the weather/roads/people's cars are in. a foot of snow and the salt truck/plow fleet hasn't been out yet? get your ass to work. snow, then rain, then sleet, then back to snow, then more freezing rain, and then a lttle more snow mixed in with rain and sleet for good measure? wrap your tires in chains and serve the public. we're here to make money, not worry about your safety.

/end

That sucks...maybe you WI people are supposed to be used to snow..? Here in NJ people freak and forget how to drive at the first snowflake. One of my exes moved here from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the way people around here drive in bad weather.

We had a bomb scare a couple weeks ago and evacuated around noon, and the 2nd shift was off too. No work done until the 3rd shift came in at 10:30 pm. My dad bowls with a VP in customer service, and people were calling the very next day to complain that they didn't get their books (which, by the way, are in no way guaranteed to be delivered to the customer on a specific day).

[SuperB]

Heh, on the flip side, I have had it happen a couple of times where a tech reported they couldn't make it due to blizzard conditions and I've had to explain to CS that it was barely snowing out.

In California most people don't have to deal with the snow on any regular basis so people from the valley have freaked out unnecessarily at something minor.

[Arcade Man D]

On a similar tack, at my prior job working for a propane/heating oil supplier, I had a customer who needed a fill for her trailer that was not her residence. The reason? Her family from Alaska was coming for a visit, and she was worried it'd be too cold. This customer was in Tenesee. I assured her that her Alaskan family would find 50 degrees Farenheit to be positively balmy that time of the year.

[digilight]

Thank god we dont have to deal with snow around here, people are stupid enough when it rains in these parts. Back in 2005 when we had real bad rains we had a mud slide at several parts of the county. One real bad part was in a area called La Conchita ( http://www.laconchita.net/photopages/themudslide.htm ) the story is there if you care. This slide went from the hill, thru the homes, across the railroad tracks and freeway (the 101 freeway) and into the ocean. We also had roads collapse in ojai (highway 33) a mudslide across highway 26 in filmore and at one point the 101 freeway was also shutdown around oxnard area. We were basically completely shut down no way in or out of the area. The 101 by the La conchita slide was closed for about 10 days or so. and the 126 was closed for about 2 weeks or so. the 33 was opened in about 3 days with several portions being just one lane (they would let cars go one way for a few minutes and then stop them and let the other side go for a few minutes). Even the little town I live in (I work about 15 minutes away from home) was completely cut off by slides and floods for a few hours, they even evacuated my mobile home park during the day.

People around here tend to live in ventura and work in santa barbara (santa barbara has crazy home prices, starting at about 3/4 of a million bucks) people either had to call in sick for a close to 2 weeks, or rent a hotel room up there or take the detour, a 4-5 hour detour for what is normally a 45 minute drive in traffic.

Surprisingly though, I don't really recall to much in the way of suckiness arrising from all of this. Although the tornado warnings scared the shit out of us (I'll stick with earthquakes thank you very much .

I can't even imagine how you people deal with the insane snow/ice/popsicle type weather.

[moekosowl]

the delivery truck (that was late coming to my house) had a serious accident--it slid, flipped, and burned

Total thread jack, but was anyone hurt?

[Crosshair]

I got off of work 2 hours early today. Two reasons.

1. The weather sucks, very few people in the store. Not that cold, but ALOT of blowing snow and low visibility.
2. Our truck for tonight is in a ditch somewhere in Minnesota. (I'm serious, driver is OK as far as I heard.) So there is no freight to work. This means that our freight is going to be more smashed and damaged than it usualy is. (Semi-Serious)

As a result of these two things many of us got to leave early. I'm still getting 36 hours for this week so it isn't a crisis for me.

[Arcade Man D]

I just remembered another one. Right after a hurricane I got bitched at because I couldn't guarantee service that night to customers we normally can ((Gotta love call centers that cover the whole east coast.))

You know, since the service techs were busy dealing with the propane tanks that sprung leaks/went missing due to the storm.

[Blueberry]

This isn't weather related, but there was a bomb threat in front of my store and the cops told us to evacuate.
I was running around hussling people out the back door when I stopped at this woman who just sat down and opened a book.
Me 'I'm sorry ma'am we're evacuating, you have to leave.'
Her, whinily, 'But I JUST SAT DOWNNNNNN!.'
Me 'We're evacuating NOW.'
She left grumbling.
The book that was so important, she was willing to ignore the evacuation for?
A biography of Dan Brown.

[ominousoat]

A biography of Dan Brown.

Wait wait wait...is that the "Da Vinci Code" guy? If so some OW! Brain cells OW! Just OW! AU...

[protege]

Total thread jack, but was anyone hurt?

He, along with the driver in the other car he hit got away with minor injuries--mostly cuts and scratches.

In other news, I've only been let out of work early for weather reasons...once. That was because the boss' wife got her car stuck in a snowdrift, called the office crying about how "bad" the roads were, etc. Roads weren't that bad, but it still took 2 hours to get home

[atomikmoogle]

A few years ago the Ice cream place I was working at had to close early due to severe rains in our town. every business in downtown was closing and we ended up with about a foot of water in our basement, which is where our powerbox is located, with water running down and through our circuit box, not a good sign.

When we told the 20 or so people in the store we would have to close due to unsafe conditions the most amazing thing happened. Everyone left, no complaints, no whining, no yelling, they just calmly got up and walked out. I never thought I'd see the day. It was a miracle.

[Blueberry]

Wait wait wait...is that the "Da Vinci Code" guy? If so some OW! Brain cells OW! Just OW! AU...

Yes, THAT Dan Brown. Worth your life?
Then as we were evacuting everyone out the back, someone tried to push their way back IN, saying that they just wanted to get out onto the STREET THAT WAS CLOSED FOR EVACUATION!!!.
BOMB THREAT PEOPLE!!!