Life Meets Work Blog

Continuing our ‘telecommuting in a snowstorm’ theme, the city of Baltimore banned traffic on city streets. Only emergency vehicles, authorized snow plows and power crews are allowed.  Even hospital staff have been ordered to stay put.

Be prepared for any disaster.  Set up an infrastructure that allows workers to login from home.  And don’t wait for an actual disaster to put those systems to use.  You need to test your system through regular use, in order for it to be effective in a disaster.

Moreover telecommuting will benefit your organization year round through increased employee engagement—that means higher productivity and greater loyalty.

A recent study found that those employees who could work from home even one day a week tended to work longer and with greater intensity.

And more about snowstorms, telecommuting and the federal government in yesterday’s Washington Post, and how telecommuting ruined snow days in USA Today.

Twenty-one Milwaukee schools and one daycare center are closed this week as school officials react to growing cases of the H1N1 flu (aka swine flu) in the city.  Houston is also facing multiple school closures.

The closures obviously put a burden on families. With officials asking students not to congregate outside of school, one wonders how many parents are throwing caution to the wind and arranging childcare pools this week.

I’ll watch Evan, Susie, Lisa and Sam on Monday if you can take them Tuesday…and so on.

Are the area’s business offices prepared to operate during wide-spread school closures? Again, telecommuting offers one logical response, keeping many business offices operational as schools close and as employee themselves begin to present symptoms.

U.S. business went through a surge in disaster planning following the SARS outbreak in 2003. This recent outbreak is a chance for some companies to test those plans, and a reminder for others to develop contingency strategies.

Disaster planning is certainly not limited to flu pandemics. Telework tools help maintain productivity in the face of snowstorms, floods and other natural disasters.

Posted by Jaime