My company is quick to remind us that all of us are "essential personnel". Even record setting blizzard conditions or state level declared disaster area due to ice storm, are no excuse to not come to work. Oh, and if you need to talk to the boss call her at home, she can't get to her office today.
Right there with you. A few years back, we had a record-setting back-to-back pair of snowstorms one year, followed the next year by a less-bad storm, here in NoVA. I made it to work just before the first storm that first year, and stayed on site for 3 days straight (we'd been paying attention to the forecasts, and all of us were prepared to stay; there are at least half-assed facilities to stay on site if necessary, for Ops crews). And got screwed out of about half the overtime pay I was due under the rules in place when the storm hit - teh Bosses rewrote the rules after the storms but before the paychecks to change the definitions and cut essential-personnel overtime (well, everyone's, but the ones getting it that period were the ~40% of staff rated "essential"), issued that paycheck, and changed those rules back again. Had to make sure their bonuses for not blowing financial goals didn't get impacted...
Next year's storm, it was a co-worker - well, he allegedly worked, anyways... - on the offgoing Ops shift who, after being told in advance "Come in prepared to stay overnight," decided instead to go home and come back in the next morning. He was told before leaving, "If you go, you WILL be here, on time." Of course he wasn't. The rest of us only stayed there one day that time.
