Baby, It’s Cold Outside
February 1, 2011 — Best Places to Work, Policies and Procedures, Starr Tincup
No Job is Worth Risking your Life
Unless You’re a Cop or a Fireman or a Soldier or Something ….
Music to Read By: Baby It’s Cold Outside, Mr. Dean Martin and Ms. Doris Day
Everyone in Fort Worth is snowed in today. When it snows in Fort Worth, everyone stays home. Before you judge us or call us bad drivers or whatever, keep these 2 points in mind:
- I lived in Boston for many years – I know how to drive in bad weather; and
- Unlike Boston, we don’t have salt trucks and plows in Fort Worth – it’s not that we’re bad drivers, it’s that we don’t have the infrastructure to deal with it.
Every year when it ices over we have hundreds of wrecks in the morning. No exception today. Check out my street!
We don't drive in this.
At Starr Tincup, our folks know to stay home on days like today. No guilt. No hassles. No big deal.
I hate to keep bringing it up – but we have been recognized as one of the best places to work in DFW (and now Texas) for the last 4 years. Sometimes, it’s the little things that cement our BPTW status – like not forcing our employees to choose between risking their lives or burning their precious vacation time (BTW – Starr Tincup offers unlimited paid time off – and it works great in case you’re one of those people who thinks the whole company will shut down if you trust people to monitor themselves).
You know who isn’t a BPTW? A certain big Fort Worth company I know. As if a snow day isn’t stressful enough (especially for moms), they want to take it to the next level by forcing people to get on the roads or give up their vacation. Check out this email that was forwarded to me today:
<–snip–>
The following is the OFFICIAL (not just a douche-bag boss) inclement weather policy of one of the largest [REDACTED] in the world (you get one guess, after that I can’t help you) that went out as a friendly reminder this morning as 4 inches of snow fell across DFW. The best part is the last sentence in the email, and yes that is the complete email.
“Hello Folks,
Reminder, [REDACTED] inclement Weather Policy dictates that we will be open for business regardless of weather. However, if you decide is it not safe for you to drive in then you must take a VC day (1/2 or full day depending on whether you able to make it in later). Just email me and [REDACTED] if you plan to take VC.
Please be careful and stay safe no matter what you do. Your safety is our upmost concern.”
In case you didn’t know, VC stands for vacation. This is the kind of thing that we laugh about in our blogs and at conferences but there are still companies out there that have no problem requiring their employees to take off work (you can’t work from home for this employer for any reason) when it’s crazy to drive and then have the balls to sign off with “your safety is our upmost concern”. This company doesn’t have to put beer in the fridge or grant unlimited PTO to be a better place to work. They could just start being human. That’s all. Super simple. They could also learn to spell utmost. With all the humanity I can muster, please be safe out there. Please work from home if you think it best. Please stay warm.
<–snip–>
So how about that? Being safe at this crappy company costs you a vacation day. What is wrong with people? Sometimes I feel that the larger the company, the more likely that the official policies were penned by Monty Burns. Want to be a best places to work? Don’t encourage people to risk their lives for a pay check and some lame-ass vacation days.
