Later this evening we are supposed to get hit with a big winter storm, so, once again tomorrow I, as will others at my job, will have to decide what is more important their job or their safety.  This answer should be an easy one, your safety of course, but not at my job.  There are probably more companies like the one I work at that have the same rules.  We get points for unscheduled time off, 7 points and you are terminated. We even get percentage points if we are as little as 2 minutes late.  There are ways to get points rolled off by having perfect attendance for certain periods of time, but they come off slower than they accumulate.

We are in a call center environment and staffing is critical to meet our numbers so, I understand why these rules are in place, but I do not have to agree with them.  The majority of people do not and would not abuse their time off but for the few that would, these rules are in place.  Myself and some others including some managers think it should all be up to a managers disgression  on a case by case basis on whether points are allotted.  Things like weather, traffic accidents are not excuses unless it affects many people in the area you are at, then they will consider not issuing points.

In the 5 years I have been here we have only had I think 2 people fired for performance issues and around 20 for attendance issues.  You have to really be a screw up to get fired so its a pretty stable job, just don’t be late or call of sick.

Luckily there were 10 hours available left open tomorrow for  approved time off when I got here so hopefully my request for time off tomorrow will be approved.  And if the weather is not as bad as they thought, then I will just come in and work.