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Whats your limit for driving to work in inclement weather?

glocke12

glocke12

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 7, 2008
999
7
Whats your cutoff for saying no to driving to work in inclement weather?

If your normal commute is 45 minutes, but you know that due to weather it will take longer, at what point do you just say screw it?

2, 3, 4 hours?

I ask because here in PA we have had a 18 inches of snow in my area the past couple of days. Normally it takes me 45min to an hour to get in. Weds. it took me two hours, and yesterday I did not even bother because I had a good 4 hours at least of shoveling to do to get out.

Yet on both days there are people I work with that drove 3, and in once case 4 hours (normally it would take these people an hour) to get in.

For me personally my cut off is 2 hours. Anymore than that and I think it pretty much means that conditions are bad enough that you should not be out.

Also, one caveat, I think part of the reason for the "come hell or high water" attitude of my colleagues is driven by senior management of my department. I can't explain the pervading philosophy very well, other than to say that the message that comes down is that "unless you are miserable, stressed, and overworked than we are not doing our job".
 
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Probably 6 inches or higher. That would more than double traveling time for sure. Unless there are important stuff, I "work" from home.
 
I don't have a time cut off, but rather a safety cut off. If my truck cannot safely handle the roads, then I stay home.

time is relative, a minor snow storm could snarl up the morning commute if the timing is is just right, sprinkle in a few accidents and you're sitting in traffic. The problem with the time limit is, once you're in the traffic, its generally too late to turn around. Its no better going the other way and so you're typically better off continuing in - provided its safe.
 
I'm able to telecommute occasionally, so my threshold is very, very low. If there's even a light dusting on the ground, I'll hop onto Remote Desktop and stay put in my nice, warm house.
 
glocke12 said:
Also, one caveat, I think part of the reason for the "come hell or high water" attitude of my colleagues is driven by senior management of my department. I can't explain the pervading philosophy very well, other than to say that the message that comes down is that "unless you are miserable, stressed, and overworked than we are not doing our job".
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Which is a rather idiotic attitude. People who are not miserable, stressed, and overworked, will be doing their job a lot better. A memorable quote from a higher-up manager at Microsoft: "You can make people be at work for more than 40 hours a week, even a lot more than 40 hours a week. You can't make them _work_ more than 40 hours a week".

It is known (proven by studies) that if you work for sixty hours a week, eight weeks in a row, you will actually do _less_ useful work than if you had done forty hours for those eight weeks. Plus you are now exhausted, so you will continue doing less work for some time.
 
No go

yg17 said:
I'm able to telecommute occasionally, so my threshold is very, very low. If there's even a light dusting on the ground, I'll hop onto Remote Desktop and stay put in my nice, warm house.
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My cutoff if it looks dangerous. I worked for forty years with a policy that if there was a strong possibly I could be involved in an accident caused by some idiot, I did not bother to go in. The work will still be there later. I looked at the $500 deductible on the insurance and the aggravation of making repairs as a strong incentive to view a missed day as not being all that bad.

I once missed work for a whole week when our southern area was socked in by snow and ice. They would call every so often and ask when I was coming and I told them I didn't think I could get up the hill yet. They would ask if I would go look so I placed the phone down for a few minutes then picked it up and said, "Nope still can not get out."

Never moved.

Plenty of work with overtime made up for the days I lost. Those who choose to answer the call and who wrecked any of the company vehicles were often fired do to the severity of the accidents. Others often totaled their own cars on bridges and such.

Some never learn.
 
In Chicago, snow is not an excuse. It's just a rule that comes with living in the city. Living out here, its expected that you are prepared. If its bad out, you leave as early as possible. Schools rarely get snow days and when they do, it's a big deal. My bus has gotten stuck in snow in elementary and middle school so many times, we just ended up just missing one class.
 
callmemike20 said:
In Chicago, snow is not an excuse. It's just a rule that comes with living in the city. Living out here, its expected that you are prepared. If its bad out, you leave as early as possible. Schools rarely get snow days and when they do, it's a big deal. My bus has gotten stuck in snow in elementary and middle school so many times, we just ended up just missing one class.
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Same thing in here. There hasn't been a single snow day during my +10 years of studying. Snow cannot be used as an excuse. If you tell your employer that you didn't come to work because of snow, they will most likely laugh at your face and tell you that you don't have to come tomorrow, or the day after.

I find it hilarious when I read these stories about other countries where everything gets closed when they get couple of inches of snow... Sometime ago, many airports in Europe were closed due to the weather, yet it wasn't anything special for us.
 
Well, here in Ottawa, Canada (eh!) we are pretty used to large snow dumps, although the last several years have actually been pretty good. I remember one time I opened the garage door to find about three feet of snow piled up against it (partly due to a large snow dump and also the wind blowing even more of it up against the door). I had to shovel all of that away before I could get the car out. Not fun. I'm sure I took pictures of it somewhere just to prove to people that we really did get that much snow overnight.

That said, if I can't drive safely, I don't go out. One time I tried to bring the car out and I couldn't get 10 feet past my driveway before it got stuck in the snow on the roads. I put it back into the garage and walked to work that day (about 30 minutes not including a stop for a hot coffee along the way!) In retrospect I should have just stayed home.

Sometimes all you have to do is wait. The "gotta get there" crowd will be out there, having accidents, slipping into ditches, and causing the dreaded multi-hour commutes. Just wait it out. Eventually those crowds will dissipate, the accidents get cleaned up, the plows come and clean up the roads. Plan to be a couple of hours late for work that day and you'll likely be fine.
 
I learned a lesson back in the blizzard of '78. When the weather is bad and you gotta go somewhere... take the back country roads... it's never let me down. In bad weather do not get on the freeway.
 
Hellhammer said:
I find it hilarious when I read these stories about other countries where everything gets closed when they get couple of inches of snow... Sometime ago, many airports in Europe were closed due to the weather, yet it wasn't anything special for us.
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They're just being prudent. In those cases where heavy snow is not the norm, the municipalities don't have much, or perhaps any, snow removal equipment, nor do they stock road salt or sand. They spend their money on other things.
 
Fortunately I can work virtually as well as go into my office. If it's supposed to snow bad I just bring my laptop home. If the snow sticks and the roads get bad, I work from home.

Unless you have a job (ie a nurse, firefighter, other essential service, etc) that has to be done no matter the weather, I don't understand the whole you have to come in thing. I think it comes down to company culture and that the whole "be there every day chained to your desk 9-5" is an old school mentality that is fading. Other than in a recessionary period, companies like that don't retain quality employees. A car wreck isn't worth a mornings worth of productivity.
 
4phun said:
I worked for forty years with a policy that if there was a strong possibly I could be involved in an accident caused by some idiot, I did not bother to go in.
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You don't live in Boston do you, because if you had that policy here, you'd be a recluse the way folks around here drive - regardless if its June or December :D
 
When I did commute it was only when the roads were unsafe. If I had to commute today it would be similar.
 
Hellhammer said:
Same thing in here. There hasn't been a single snow day during my +10 years of studying. Snow cannot be used as an excuse. If you tell your employer that you didn't come to work because of snow, they will most likely laugh at your face and tell you that you don't have to come tomorrow, or the day after.

I find it hilarious when I read these stories about other countries where everything gets closed when they get couple of inches of snow... Sometime ago, many airports in Europe were closed due to the weather, yet it wasn't anything special for us.
Click to expand...

well you have to remember in the warming areas they do not have the equipment to clear the roads.
On top of that when it does get that cold often times it is in that temp range that it is worthless to salt the road. It needs to get colder so the salt does not just washes off. When it is around freezing there is just not much they can do.

Plus no one has the equipment to hand the snow/ice. I live in Texas. My car as summer tires on it year rounds and I never switch them out for what I might have to deal with one day a year.

As for me my limit is safety. If I can not safely drive in I am not going to go. The limit here is rains and freezes. If we get snow the roads are going to be cover in ice plane and simple. There is not much to salt and sand the roads here in Texas.
 
4 wheel drive, desparate customer, no problem.

as a consultant/field service guy, it's easy. i start billing when i start driving, so the limit is if the customer is willing to pay or not.

it's all billable hours to me. :p
 
Gregg2 said:
They're just being prudent. In those cases where heavy snow is not the norm, the municipalities don't have much, or perhaps any, snow removal equipment, nor do they stock road salt or sand. They spend their money on other things.
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Well, UK gets snow pretty much every year but they still suck at handling it. I understand if we're talking about a country or area where it snows like once in 20 years but it snows almost annually in mid Europe, yet they are still screwed every year.

It just sounds funny to us because we have snow for several months each year but things still work normally.
 
If I have no obligation or good reason to go out, then even an inch I will drive little as possible or none as people in MD become idiots when they see 1 flurry. With that said, occasionally I have obligations to meet which are time dependent and not being their due to poor weather is not really an option. I had a Jeep Liberty for a while that was slightly jacked, mud terrain tyres, slightly changed trans/tq con, and skidplates; I really liked it and wonder why I sold it :(

I'll probably get another one come the end-of-year clearance
 
Hellhammer said:
Well, UK gets snow pretty much every year but they still suck at handling it. I understand if we're talking about a country or area where it snows like once in 20 years but it snows almost annually in mid Europe, yet they are still screwed every year.

It just sounds funny to us because we have snow for several months each year but things still work normally.
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The recent bad spell of weather came during the coldest December since records began, it really was totally unexpected. We don't have a lot of snow anyway, we only get about 2 or 3 moderate downfalls a year if that. They are better equipped up in Scotland and the north of England because they tend to get it more often.

It's usually a couple of days of national panic if we get a decent downfall, then it's all forgotten about until it takes us by surprise again next year. :D
 
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