Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Art of Declaring a Snow Day

I've worked in industries where it was essential that people got into work. We prided ourselves on getting in. I was always amazed to see the orthopedic patients arrive for clinic day in spite of the snow!Later, when I worked in a clinical laboratory, I made sure I stayed late with the technicians who had to get the results out in spite of the fact that snow was falling.

Now as an owner of a retail store, I try to balance the customers' needs with the road conditions. Although getting one's needlepoint supplies (canvas, threads, help) etc is important, it's not a life or death situation. Of course, we don't want someone to brave the snow only to find out that we closed. So, I try to predict what will happen.

Today I made a mistake. I said we would be open until 5 pm but the snow is really coming down. Conditions had gotten significantly worse from the time I went out at 9 AM to when I returned at 9:45 AM. The Ridgewood Public Schools have now declared an early dismissal.

So we will close by noon. Stay safe.