Snow days! What snow days?

It turned out to be a great winter for owners of eastern ski resorts. Also for contractors who repair pot holes. And the people who sell expensive tires to people who punctured one or two after an overly close encounter with a pothole. And it’s been good for federal workers — from Washington to Boston — who got time off because of very heavy snow. And who on other days were allowed to come up as much as three hours late because of weather, road and traffic conditions.

In the Washington area, the Office of Personnel Management makes the open-or-closed call because of weather conditions. Or things like the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.

Outside of the D.C. area, local Federal Executive Boards issue guidance, sometimes suggestions,to agencies when there is bad weather or some other kind of emergency. But the decision to keep local federal agencies open, or to shut down, is usually left to individual agencies.

So far this year, D.C.-area feds, which include hundreds of thousands based in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, have had 2.5 snow days. They were also off on Presidents Day because it was a federal holiday. Most area schools were closed, but it was a regular workday for many non-feds whose employers don’t recognize many holidays. Bottom line is non-emergency feds in the Washington area either had a couple of snow days — or teleworked — so far this year. What could possibly go wrong, right?

Well, the potential problem is that since the acting director of the OPM has been told that everything she did since Nov. 10, 2015, doesn’t count. It either shouldn’t have happened or didn’t happen.  If that is so, what about the snow days? She approved all of them after Nov. 10, 2015. And they happened. But do they count? Should — could — they be recalled? Silly question? Remember, this is Washington.

Several readers have asked (one suspects tongue-in-cheek) what about the snow days?

Is there anything in the federal book of rules that deals with the equivalent of putting toothpaste back in the tube? Like undoing snow days? A number of readers broached the subject. One left a message which asked the zen-like question: “If the director of the OPM issues an order in the woods and there is no IG (inspector general) around to hear it, does it exist?”

James from Arlington, Virginia, said he got a couple of snow days and was grateful for it. “But now that (everything) Beth Cobert (the acting director of OPM) has done has been declared to be null-and-void, does that mean we have to give back our snow days? How will that work?”

Others — who find the OPM situation odd to say the least — have offered solutions:

Marc H., a local builder and fed-watcher said, “Maybe people could come to work (on) a couple of Saturdays to give back the time they got off.” On the day of the snow he says he and his team went around and plowed current jobs sites, then went home.

Aurelia, an HHS retiree, said, “The problem is complicated. The solution is simple: People should walk to and from work … walking backwards both directions!”

So if everything the acting director said or did shouldn’t have happened, if every action is null and void, what happens now?

Probably nothing. But since this is Washington, you might want to keep a couple of Saturdays in June open.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michael O’Connell

Jimi Heselden, the multi-millionaire owner of the company the makes the Segway motorized vehicles, died in a Segway-related accident in 2010. While driving a Segway model designed for rugged terrain, Heselden fell to his death off an 80-foot cliff near his home.

Source: Daily Mail

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