Storms Prompt Issue with Essential Personnel

On Nov. 24, 2014, the administration made adjustments to its Hazardous Weather Policy, a policy that ensures the regular payment of essential employees—Academy personnel who are vital to the basic operations of the Academy—during times of hazardous weather conditions. In light of the recent winter storms, the aforementioned adjustments, which include a change in the payment of the essential employees during days of dangerous weather, have been questioned and debated by campus staff members.

The Hazardous Weather Policy previously stated that essential employees, such as dining hall and facilities management workers, would receive payment for their regular hours if they could not make it into work due to weather conditions. Now, however, essential employees are required to use Paid Personal Leave (PPL) or vacation days to be paid if they cannot come to work in dangerous conditions. Essential employees who are able to work during these periods are paid “their regular rate plus time and one half.” Nonessential employees are paid their regular rate whether or not they make it into work on these days.

Essential employees are individuals whose work on campus is vital to the basic operations of the Academy and whose absence from duty could endanger the safety and well-being of the Academy community members. Essential employees include campus safety, heating plant and maintenance personnel, snow removal employees, food service and health care staff.

According to the Academy’s Chief Financial Officer David Hanson, the original policy, created in 2004 alongside the terminology essential personnel, originally required essential personnel to use their PPL or vacation days during hazardous weather periods. This was adjusted in 2012 so that essential personnel who could not make it in were paid their regular rate and those who could were paid 2.5 times their regular rate.

This created a disincentive for employees  to “meet their obligations,” according to Hanson, and was unfair for employees who did make it into work because their workload became difficult to manage.

Hanson said that the reduced number of employees on campus created concerns for safety because of its impact on snow removal operations. This also created a high demand on Dining Services.

The adjustment to the policy was created by a cross-functional committee that intended to alleviate these safety concerns. According to Hanson, essential employees were avoiding the risk of traveling to campus and thusly leaving the school with a noticeable “decrease in level of service and response times for major weather events.” To both remedy this issue and “ensure fairness and equity in compensation,” the policy was updated to define which employees were essential.

Some Academy staff are upset about this new policy, as it docks some employees’ pay. Athletics Equipment Manager Donald McElreavy said the policy is something “a school with the resources [the Academy] has should not be doing.” McElreavy, among others, thinks the policy change is unfair and creates inequality between certain staff and faculty on campus.

“A lot of people risked their lives coming in here. I think that [if] we’re willing to come in and work, then we should get what we should get and we shouldn’t have to take it out of our PPL or vacation pay.”

Staff have reacted strongly, according to one essential employee, who chose to remain anonymous. The employee said that everyone he or she talked to was “aghast” by the change. Essential staff do not understand why the policy was changed because even before the new policy, “most [essential employees] would love to come into work [on hazardous days],” if only to receive increased pay, the employee explained.

Not all essential staff found issue with the policy because they felt the change does not affect them or their department since employees must make it to work regardless of weather conditions. Director of Nursing Nancy Thompson, who works in the Lamont Health and Wellness Center, said the change “doesn’t make that much of a difference [to her department]. We know that we have to run,” Thompson said.

Management staff member Patrick Cahill agreed with Thompson, saying that it is the responsibility of an essential employee “to come in any way [they] can, since the Academy depends on them.”

The original Hazardous Weather Policy allowed for what are now considered essential employees to miss work and still receive pay. Because of the new policy’s rule requiring a PPL or vacation day to be used, some employees felt that the policy could have dangerous side effects. Certain essential employees felt that the majority of personnel do try to make it to work during hazardous weather periods and that the new policy does not consider those who live far away from campus or those who cannot come in because their commute is dangerous. This forces a decision between a dangerous trip to campus or the usage of a limited number of days off.

“A lot of people risked their lives coming in here,” an employee who requested to remain anonymous said. “I think that [if] we’re willing to come in and work, then we should get what we should get and we shouldn’t have to take it out of our PPL or vacation pay.”

Another essential employee agreed. “When it snows, everybody does everything to get in—it’s our job.”

Out of 10 staff members in the Dining Services, Health and Wellness, Facilities Management and Interscholastic Athletics departments who agreed to be interviewed, six requested to remain anonymous. Many feared there would be repercussions if they went on record against the policy.

The essential employees who were interviewed agreed that the change in policy affects equality among essential and nonessential staff on campus. Creating more equality between staff and faculty has been a goal which Principal Hassan “made great strides on” during his time at Exeter, said one essential employee. This new action, however, “[is] a step in the wrong direction.”

The same employee added, “All of a sudden, we find out this new rule when it comes to hazardous days and we are not equal anymore. The question that a lot of essential personnel are asking is why are we all of a sudden not considered equal around campus.”

Another employee said that it was unfair for the administration to cut the pay of only one group of workers on campus. “We’re getting mistreated a little bit, maybe, because everyone else still gets their pay,” the employee said. “If it’s going to change in one position, it should change all around campus.”

An essential employee added that the new policy made it seem “that the office people are more important than dining hall facilities.”

Some staff also said they were not aware of the policy change until recently when it became relevant. While some employees, such as dining hall workers, were informed of the change during a regular meeting in November, others had only heard of it in the past week or not at all. One employee felt the administration was trying to “slide [the changes] under the radar.”

Nevertheless, employees have recognized the change and are feeling the effects. “The school supposedly prides itself on taking care of people and taking care of everybody’s family,” McElreavy said. “They’ve been doing this for quite a while and to just [make this change] this recently is not a great thing to do.”

Despite this reaction from the employees, Hanson said the administration has recognized employees for their hard work and have made many public and private arrangements of thanks for staff members, such as a “wide note of thanks” to the community sent by Hassan, massages for essential employees and planned coffee and snack gatherings.

“Many forms of ‘thanks’ have been extended” to the Academy’s essential employees, Hanson said.