Photo from Snowpocalypse Facebook page
The Great Blizzard of Aught-Nine — or as this reporter calls it, Snowmageddon* — has now closed the federal government for the first time in nearly seven years. The Office of Personnel Management this afternoon announced federal agencies in the Washington area will be closed on Monday.
Non-emergency employees — including employees who already had preapproved leave scheduled for Monday — will be excused. Employees who have telework agreements in place may have to work from home or other telework site.
Emergency employees must show up for work on time tomorrow. Sorry guys.
Closing the entire government in the nation’s capital costs $102 million per day, OPM Director John Berry said earlier this month. (The last time the government closed was in February 2003.) The closure will also mean most feds will only work two-and-a-half days this week — they’ll get their usual day off on Christmas Day, and President Barack Obama has granted feds half a day off on Christmas Eve.
Enjoy your day off, feds! Have some hot chocolate, go sledding, play in the snow with your kids. But whatever you do, FedLine does NOT recommend throwing snowballs at armed police officers.
* Yes, FedLine is aware Facebook and everybody else is calling it Snowpocalypse. I like Snowmageddon, and I’m sticking to it.
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Nice. We had our Snowmaggedon a couple weeks back and were able to work remotely. Why does the beltway lag what we’re doing in BFE? (rhetorical) There’s no valid reason 40-50% of Feds can’t work remotely in this century if they’ve got skills for this century. This doesn’t speak well of Fed continuity if an emergency gripped the east coast.
Hello,
Just wanted to say I read this article, no complaints just a compliment regarding the following:
Emergency employees must show up for work on time tomorrow. Sorry guys.
Enjoy your day off, feds! Have some hot chocolate, go sledding, play in the snow with your kids. But whatever you do, FedLine does NOT recommend throwing snowballs at armed police officers. Thank you for the light touch.
Let’s face it. Washington, DC does not really want to become proficient at snow removal. They love this idea of being locked inside and helpless. In my personal experience, federal workers are some of the most uninspired people in the workforce. So, the days off are not a problem for many of them. As a Wasington newbie, I worked as a temp in many governmental offices. Early morning talk centered around what they would eat for lunch.