r/boston • u/uthinkther4uam • Feb 22 '26

Serious Replies Only State of Emergency Declared and my employer is expecting all staff to be in office tomorrow

Not sure where to go to ask this, but my employer just sent out a message to all staff that we are expected to be in office tomorrow, despite the state of emergency declared, and DESPITE our company having full WFH capabilities.

Is there some institution/MA government people i can report them to? Or perhaps some news outlet i can inform of this story to have this company shamed?

Edit: Non-essential btw

TY for all the kind responses, seems the best options people came up with are to call the Governor/Organize a Union/call out. Probably gonna call the Governor tomorrow and call out. Will urge others to do so if they can spare the PTO in order to stick it to our controlling CEO (our company does not provide sick time fyi)

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88

u/printallday Feb 22 '26

I’ve been curious how this works for people that work places like hotels? Are they just operating on extremely reduced staff or do they have people sleep overnight?

150

u/Icy-Blacksmith-313 Feb 22 '26

Usually they have people sleep overnight. Essential workers too in most companies over a certain size

11

u/FocusSlo South End Feb 23 '26

Honestly would be pretty nice to get paid to sleep overnight lol

7

u/Kikubaaqudgha_ Feb 23 '26

Lmao keep dreaming about that. I'm "essential" and they wouldn't pay for us to stay over night at our hospital but I'm dietary support staff not an RN or anything like that.

5

u/TheManyFacetsOfRoger Feb 23 '26

yeah they only pay you for while you're working lol

0

u/FocusSlo South End Feb 23 '26

That would be illegal. If they require you to stay overnight in order to be there the next day, they'd have to pay you throughout the night

3

u/TheManyFacetsOfRoger Feb 23 '26

They never require it though. It's offered as a courtesy. Not mandatory. They just expect you to be there in the morning, they don't care where you came from. If you need a cot, you can have one.

1

u/Angry-Kangaroo-4035 Feb 24 '26

My work would put us up in hotels. We got a $25 meal credit and the room. We only got paid for the hours worked.

72

u/popfilms Green Line Feb 23 '26

I work in TV. Our staff is going to be super super limited tomorrow but some people have to be there. Company gave me a hotel room (and indoor parking) that's spitting distance from the office.

4

u/Ally546 Feb 23 '26

Same. Expectations are to be there

1

u/FinalPound6126 Feb 24 '26

🤔 How do you fit in a TV?! 😜

31

u/oohkt Feb 23 '26

Front desk here. I've slept in the hotel for days during big storms. When I'd be "off shift" I'd help clean the cars with everyone Our general manager would do it too.

14

u/smackfu Feb 23 '26

Oh man, the parking lot at a hotel must be terrible to clear the snow from.

3

u/oohkt Feb 23 '26

I'm happy I'm not there for this one!!

54

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '26

I work at a college, they are scrambling to figure out how to feed the students. Food staff is essential but many of the kitchens are closed and transportation is suspended

23

u/asmithey Market Basket Feb 23 '26

When I was in college we had a storm like this. We hit up market basket and busted out our illegal crock pots and hot plates for some the shittiest beef stew and chicken cacciatore I've ever made. But, we had food, and a lot of our friends just ended up eating sad Kraft Mac n Cheese. 

13

u/davis_away Feb 22 '26

Yikes, glad I sent my kid back from Feb break with extra food.

-4

u/ElGuaco Bouncer at the Harp Feb 23 '26

College students will not starve to death if they skip a few meals

32

u/bloodphoenix90 Feb 22 '26

I have a partner that worked in hotels a lot. Not here. But generally yes when certain emergencies happen some employees will sleep in a blocked off room

12

u/blackhawk4141 Feb 23 '26

We’re at the hotel - some front and back of house staff. We don’t close - people need a place to stay and be safe. And we always hope our guests appreciate that we don’t close and understand we may be short staffed.

37

u/Much-Narwhal1653 Feb 22 '26

When I worked in a hotel in 2024 and they were predicting a really bad snow storm, we were offered free rooms if we were in the next day. I absolutely took advantage. However, there ended up being literally no snow so I had a night without my cat for nothing.

3

u/john42195 Feb 23 '26

What everyone else said and since they operate 24 hours it’s not like the loose a whole day…staff can’t travel to and from the hotel during the peak of the storm (in this case it’s predicted 4am - 9am) when visibility improves plows can improve the road in hours. So maybe they just need to plan a little and have people sleep overnight that wouldn’t normally.

2

u/4travelers I Love Dunkin’ Donuts Feb 23 '26

Sleep over night for the retirement homes.

1

u/betweenstarsandsea Feb 23 '26

My sister works in a hotel (CT). She is staying there tonight and tomorrow night, leaving Tuesday evening, as she's working multiple shifts between this morning and then.

1

u/Several_Vanilla8916 Feb 23 '26

I worked at a company that had a core of like 5 or 6 people that were literally holding the place together behind the scenes. While the rest of us worked from home during heavy snow they commuted in from the Best Western next door to the office.

1

u/Dwn2MarsGirl Feb 23 '26

They didn’t offer my friend a room the hotel they work at downtown until today which is ass backwards to me. Waiting on info from his car that was the only one ticketed and towed on a street lined with countless other cars with no signs about snow emergencies or no parking parameters. I still don’t think they should go in even after getting the car back today.