Pay for "making arrangements"

[jlight]

Can an employer require you to "make arrangemets" to be at work with forcasted bad weather? By this I mean, if they mandate this, are they responsible to pay you for your time and hotel room if necessary? With the previous snow we had in northern NC, I was told that I should have made arrangements when it started snowing...which would have been at 1300 on Sunday (my day off). I was to be at work at 0700 on Monday. It seems to me this is the same thing as a mandatory meeting in which they have to pay you for attending.

[caliotter3]

They can require you to be at work or lose your job but I don't see how they can require you to take expensive steps to make this happen. I've been told that I had to provide my own transportation even if it meant me calling for and paying for a taxi. I don't think the employer cares how you do it. They just want you there.

[momathoner09, BSN, MSN, APRN]

I work in the Raleigh area and have had to deal with this several times these past few months. I was basically told that the policy is "be there." You can get a hotel but it's out of your pocket. The other option is you can stay overnight at the hospital if you don't think you will be able to make it in. I chose neither and simply got up really early on days predicted with snow and assessed the situation from there. One day I left 2 hours before my shift just to make sure I got there on time!

[caliotter3]

I had a preceptor one time who lived in the city about 65 miles from her job. The hospital had an empty floor that was set up with beds for the doctors to use for sleeping. Nurses were allowed to stay in these rooms also, but had to vacate if a doctor needed the bed. My preceptor would stay at the hospital for her shift days and drive home to be with her family when off. At another place, people would hang out on the couches in the lobby, among other places. They just made sure that they were cleared out and everything was presentable when the dayshift was about to start.

[NC Girl BSN]

When you decide to go into Nursing, you have to know that its not like a bank. When it snow, the patients still have to be taken care of so you have to make arrangements to get to work. If that means renting a room across the street from the hospital or leaving 2 hours early, them you need to do it in order to get to work. Its a scarafice that you make when you in health care.