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Bloomberg's Snow Day Flip-Flop Infuriates City Workers
By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 2, 2011
Modified Feb 2, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 2, 2011
Modified Feb 2, 2011
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During last week's snowstorm the Mayor closed all non-emergency government offices and announced that "New York City almost never takes a snow day, but today is one of those rare days." What he forgot to mention, apparently, was that if you didn't show up for work you would lose a day of leave. Sort of. If workers can provide a reason why they weren't at work, they won't be docked. Still, you can imagine how well this is going over.
And today Bloomberg managed to make it even worse by returning to his old prickly form when questioned about the flip-flop by the press.“I don’t know how you were brought up, I was always brought up that you had an obligation to work,” Hizzoner told one reporter before adding that “maybe it’s different in your world.”
Apparently workers should have recognized that once the weather started getting nicer on Thursday they should have dropped their sleds and come into work. Explained Bloomberg: “When you look out the window and it’s not as bad as you thought it was going to be, maybe a bell should go off and say, ‘Hey, maybe I can get to work today.’”
City workers are not warming to his logic though. One complained to the Post that "The mayor doesn’t get a do-over to say, ‘Well, the storm wasn’t as bad as we thought, so you could have come in,’ after he’s already told everyone not to come in. What was I supposed to have done? Not listen to the mayor and to have come in, even though I was expecting my office to be closed based upon what he was saying publicly?"
Meanwhile, the city is trying to shrug off the issue as no big deal. According to Bloomberg “all they’ve got to do is say they couldn’t get in. It’s not that hard.”
True, it isn't that hard to write a note saying "I didn't come into work today because the Mayor told me not to." But it would be a whole lot easier to not have to write a note at all.
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