Yesterday much of the city was closed for the 3rd day in a row because of this past weekend’s ice storm. Schools were cancelled or doing remote education. The main roads are clear of ice but the side roads were hit and miss. Because the temps started in the low teens, many remained schools closed due to the potential for black ice.
When I was going to school in the 1970s & 80s and later when my step-kids were in school in the 1990s things were much different. First, we lived in Pittsburgh which is in the Western PA snow belt. It was common for us to have the streets covered with ice, snow and slush for weeks at a time.
There weren’t options for remote work or school. Because PA law mandated students have a minimum of 180 days of school schools were reluctant to call off for snow days. They did have a few floating snow days programmed into each year’s schedule. Usually these were saved for blizzard like conditions when we would get anywhere from 12″-36″ of snow and the roads were impassable.
We never closed due to cold temperatures, rainstorms, heat waves or any other extreme weather conditions. If we had a particularly heavy snowfall year that required more snow days than available, make-up days were scheduled during spring holiday breaks and then tacked on to the end of the year.
During snow days, most parents still had to go to work. Some took the kids with them or had family and neighbors watch them. A lot of us were latchkey kids so we stayed home alone without supervision. It was fine.
Here’s what I noticed during the past 3 days in my suburban neighborhood in Raleigh:
- There were many people out walking dogs throughout the day.
- Kids were outside sledding, playing and definitely not doing remote schoolwork.
- There were so many families out for leisurely strolls it reminded me of Christmas and Thanksgiving, when visiting relatives fill the sidewalks and parks.
In other words there was plenty of not remote learning and not working from home being done.
Having worked from home for about 1/3 of my career, I’m familiar with the advantages of its flexibility. Still, it took many years before I took full advantage off it. Instead, I tended to work more. I would use my lunch break to walk the dog or run an errand but otherwise was often working from the early morning into the late evening hours.
That’s just how I am. (Stupid sometimes, obviously).
Later in my career, when I was managing teams of remote employees I realized that many people took too much advantage of working from home. I knew of a few people who worked 2 different jobs simultaneously- receiving 2 full-time paychecks while giving neither employer full time work. More common were people who pretended to be working full-time but instead spent significant amounts of work hours taking care of their kids, running errands or otherwise being focused on non-work activities.
I’m not making a value judgment here. In hindsight, I wish I would have worked less myself. It didn’t feel “right” to me at the time. Also, since I was in sales I was constantly striving to hit or exceed my quota so taking it easy was not an option. I needed the money.
To be honest, I’m a bit envious of those families I saw today goofing off and taking advantage of this temporary situation. I regret I didn’t do it.
I actually think more flexibility around school and working is hugely beneficial. It’s one of the reasons I stayed in sales. I like being autonomous and in charge of my day. I have always despised managing my life according to someone else’s clock.
At the best companies I worked for, managing employees via the clock was a waste of time. The great employees always worked harder, longer and with more passion. The mediocre ones complied with the rules but never went above and beyond. The bad employees gamed the system. I’ll bet the same thing happens today too.
Implementing strict behavioral controls may provide some managers (and schools) with an illusion of control while maximizing results.
I don’t buy it.