Once, before there were "remote productivity tools," a snow day really was a day off from the job. No commute, no boss riding herd, no clients to deal with.
"The greatest day of the year, a piece of luck that goes back to our earliest memories from school," observed John Challenger, CEO of the outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Today? Constant e-mailing back and forth to managers and colleagues, if only to prove that you, too, really are working. The incessant phone calls, the texts, the faxes.
Can't anyone have a nice, relaxing unexpected day off anymore, a chance to play in the snow with the kids or curl up with a movie or a book or a hot chocolate?
Not anymore, some metro Atlanta workers contend. While employees at many businesses such as manufacturing facilities can't work remotely and truly do get a free day, those who are interconnected via laptops and other devices can't fully escape the icy grasp of the office.
"Before remote technology, our Atlanta office would have just been closed with no work production," said Frances Williamson, who's worked for Property Solutions Inc. for more than 12 years. Now, she said, "I am able to log into my computer and so it is business as usual for the most part."
"In the past, it would have been phone only, or no work getting done," said Jamahl King, CEO of S.T.E.P.S, an Atlanta-based event planning firm. The company's staff of four used Skype and other technology this week to keep working.
"We're planning an event for Thursday, a grand opening of a clothing store, and our clients need us to keep working," he said.
Many employees who said they've worked remotely the last two days -- and may continue to if the bad weather doesn't abate -- have done so previously, no matter the weather.
"That's kind of the way the business world is going," said Vickye Bone, director of marketing for Water Transit Solutions. While the company's seven employees do get together for meetings at the southwest Atlanta headquarters, work is often done remotely. This week's storm hardly altered things.
"I live in Sandy Springs and I won't be hiking down to Atlanta in the ice," she said
Workers do rue the demise of the snow day.
"I ... would love to have a few hours to play in the snow," said Sharina Harris, who works as a marketing manager for KontrolFreek. "But I know that once the snow clears up and if the work hasn't been done, [it] simply piles up and would be pushed to the weekend, or I'd be insanely busy next week."
Michaelangelo Burwell, manager of a call center, West at Home, agreed that he produces more, saying, "I'm able to work more when I'm at home and part of that is cutting two hours out of the commute."
Eliminating commuting is especially key with road conditions this week making drive times so much longer.
Some workers said, however, that less work gets done by employees at home, at least during snow storms when there may be children to watch or when there may be a tendency to take advantage of a gift day away from the office.
"I kind of have a feeling that people are probably working a hybrid day, they're working three-quarters or two-thirds of the time ..." said Leigh Anne Lankford, a self-employed consultant who works virtually most of the time.
"I think I've been a little more productive, but with the kids at home, it is a little more challenging," said Sash Silvera, an account manager and Internet marketing consultant in the Atlanta office of CityGrid Media. "But we set some rules so mommy can work."
Brian Clay, a financial analyst at Cisco, works from home 50 to 60 percent of the time on normal weeks. On Monday, he played in the snow twice with his children, aged 8 and 3.
Clay reached a compromise: the kids could be loud when he called Cisco colleagues, but they had to be quiet during calls with customers.
His children “don’t understand why daddy can’t go out and play,” said Clay.
Challenger suggested that how much work employees do at home on a snow day might depend on how routine it is for them to work remotely at other times.
"When people are used to telecommuting and do that as part of the course of work, then when a snow day hits they just continue to do the work from wherever they are," he said. "In places like Atlanta where snow days are so rare, for many people it's kind of a bonus. It's a chance you don't get very often, so there's probably more people doing maybe a little work."
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