When you’re not working, do you still answer your work phone?

If you have a certain kind of job, you might need to be on call all the time. If you own a small business, you probably always have your phone on. Even if you have other people helping you, if something goes wrong, it’s on you, and it’s on you to sort it out right away. Or if you work in medicine, you might be expected to answer the phone when you’re not there, because the consequences tend to be grave. But the rest of us who aren’t fully responsible for their place of work… we’re allowed to keep our «me» time to ourselves. It’s okay if we ignore a call or two if we’re not working, because our time is our own. Especially if you’ve already called out or been given the day off. You get to protect that time. 

But what about exceptional circumstances? Right now, a lot of the Northeast United States is covered in snow. And if you have the type of job that requires a commute, you’re probably thinking twice about going in. You would hate to incur unnecessary risk just to get to your office job. These are the types of situations where we should all have grace for ourselves and each other, and let things slow down just a little bit. It’s not often we get a true snow day, and if we can afford to take one, we absolutely should. But that’s not what happened to this worker.