To all the whiners who work with me:
Fuck off already!
Enough bitching about how the office didnt close as soon as the first snowflake started falling yesterday. We are lucky enough to work for the federal government and we have this thing called annual leave. Fucking use it already, stop storming around the office and complaining about health and safety issues and unsafe driving conditions. Just fucking leave already! We are lucky enough to take leave with pay for these reasons. Most other people do not have this option. Just because you want to go with out having to use your leave credits doesnt mean I should have to listen to you guys complain.
God, government employees drive me fucking nuts. I am ashamed to be one, sometimes. But, I do like my job and the benefits. I hate all the employees that give us the bad reputation (about %75 of the public service).
And to all those who did leave when the office closed, a big HA HA! I waited until 5:00pm and got home like normal. All you did today was complain how long it took you to get home. Good on ya!
— ashamed of my colleagues
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2009.
I know EXACTLY what you mean. I left at 5 yesterday and there was next to nobody on the bus, or traffic on the roads and both are normally jammed, so I got home in no time. This morning all I heard was “I left at 1 and waited 40 minutes fo r the bus”. most people with common sense would realize that if you wait, the traffic will be clear rather than leaving right when everyone else is scramblign to do the same. The roads weren’t event hat bad anyway.
While I DO agree with you, OP, about the annual leave, when *I* worked for the feds I was contract, thus I HAD no annual leave. I depended on the money I’d lose to make rent and feed myself. And it seems these days more and more federal gov’t depts are hiring contract where you don’t get any annual leave — so it’s all leave without pay.
And believe me, the people who ran one unit I worked for weren’t quick to close for anything. They had a real shrew running the place.
I had another supervisor in another unit I worked for who was fabulous about storms and letting us go early. They’d even drive me home!
It really just depends on who’s your supervisor and who’s making the decisions.
So, it’s not always black and white, even when it comes to working for the federal government 😉
I’ve never understood the need to go home when the winter weather gets bad. It’s the summer equivalent of a bright, sunny day. This isn’t elementary school kiddies, we don’t get snow days.
People get so freaky about the weather now. How did we become such wimps? I work for the gov’t on PEI and I was out on the road for work when the “storm” hit…yeah the driving was a bit crappier than clear roads but shmeh, suck it up and grow a set. As everyone is panicking to get home to their loved ones and set up all the candles and flashlights, I enjoyed a nice quiet grocery shopping trip with not a lineup in sight. Sweet snow how I love thee
What is aqll this bitching about traffic. Wanna know a secret? WE HAVE NO TRAFFIC HERE. You want traffic, try Toronto, NYC, and big city. Traffic is taking over three (3) hours to go 90kms on the I-95 from Jersey bypassing NYC.
I think a lot of the fear is that MT will take the busses off the road. Those of us who rely on busses to get to work and home would be SCREWED if they were taken off the roads.
It doesn’t happen often, but it’s a definite possibility. So there’s some of your motivation right there.
Well said, PK. I think a lot of people who drive most of the time are out of touch with the reality that a large segment of the working populace is dependent on public transit. And if we are going to encourage more widespread use of public transit (as we must), this issue must be addressed.
Sure, if MT was taken off the road, many people would be screwed. However, if transit is taken off the road, you most likely shouldn’t be driving anyways. So you’re boned either way.
But you know some idiot will be out there on the road (with no snow tires at that!) in the worst of the worst weather regardless, Dr. F.
SA: my mom left work early because she was concerned about the busses being taken off the road. It’s a long cold walk from Dartmouth to Clayton Park 😛
Absolutely, and those are the idiots that end up on the nightly news wrapped around a telephone pole and on here 2 hours later, complaining that the city doesn’t clear the roads quick enough.
I agree with the ones who say we’re becoming wimps about the weather. I remember a day, many years ago, when people cross-country ski’d to work! (Down Robie St.), and I walked all the way from Charles St. to the Dal Bookstore where I worked, when the busses weren’t running. It was fun!
And those are the people, Dr F. that fuck up my cable service and/or power service. When I lived in the valley whenever some asswipe wrapped themselves around a pole my fucking cable would crap out. And since it’s the valley….well, it’s safe to say I paid my cable bill for nothing most months.