Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Illinois - Land of the weather wimps

Panic! Alert! Leave work early! Close the courts!

For crying out loud, it's still winter, folks. All we're having is a snowfall. What's the panic?

This week I'm observing the Timothy Smith trial. At about noon Judge Prather recessed for lunch and told everybody to be back by 1:30PM. At 1:30PM she announced that out-of-town employees were being sent home early and that the courthouse would probably close, so she recessed the trial until tomorrow at 9:00AM.

Sure would have been nice if she had done that at noon.

Then courthouse closing at 2:00PM was announced by NIXLE. And then that the voting polls at the government center would remain open.

Hello? Is there any kind of an inclement-weather plan? Does anyone know which drawer it's locked in?

How many people would leave work early if they forfeited the balance of their day's pay? Ahhh, there's the test. Salaried workers, of course, don't take it on the chin. But what about hourly workers? If they clock out at 2:00PM, do they lose 2-3 hours of pay?

Why not stay open, let (make) employees earn their pay, and then let them commute on their own time? Why should the taxpayers eat the lost time of salaried County employees?

1 comment:

MrBullValley said...

I guess you can't count on Government when the weather gets bad..
I didn't hear of any private sectors letting employees leave early....If a county employee leaves early and is still being paid...and gets into an accident guess who the employee sues????