17.

Snow Days, Elections, and Holidays

It’s rare for the power to go out completely in a stationary workplace. When it does, sometimes a manager has a plan for making sure the day’s work still gets done. Other times, and we’ve been there, no one has a plan, and everyone just sits around in the dark for half a day waiting for their lights and computers to come back on so they can get to work.

An organized workplace should have predetermined procedures for snow days, holidays, and special events like championship parades or major road work. Likewise, there’s a need to plan for these events in the virtual workplace—what do you do when the lights go out, the Wi-Fi is down, or delays are caused by upgrades and updates?

Let’s Level Set, Shall We?

While a big part of the format and expectations for “unusual days” are usually outlined and determined by HR, the virtual manager needs to deal with some things no matter the policy or procedure. These are the topics we want to cover in this chapter.

Snow Days, Elections, and Holidays

Virtual managers manage people everywhere, anywhere. One person’s winter is another person’s mudslide season is another person’s monsoon season—and the list goes on. At the end of the day, anyone can experience a terrible weather day that might result in having to keep the kids at home, losing power, or dealing with household or community damage. What’s a manager to do when these problems occur and there is no formal policy?

Determine Communication Flow

Depending on the circumstances, your virtual employees might not be able to access their work technology to even let you know they’re not able to work. Do they have your phone number to text or is it easy enough to call you on a landline or email you on their phone? (Do they know how to send smoke signals? Can you read them?) No matter the details, it’s good to let your employees know how to reach you when problems arise.

Help Your Employee Express Their Needs

You don’t need a full grasp of their problem to understand their needs. It’s not your job to play reporter during times of strife. Whether the problems are big or small, if your employee needs to take time off or reschedule their work, or if they simply (and temporarily) cannot work, we encourage you to meet them where they’re at and work on a solution to the one thing you can control: their workload and work schedule.

Set Expectations on Checking In

Assuming they’re not just taking a few hours off or coming back the next day, make sure to ask your employee to check in each day using your determined communication flow plan.

Sometimes the Problem Is the Tech

Broken upgrades, tech flaws, update problems, and more can limit or prohibit your virtual employees from completely engaging in their job. Make sure as a virtual manager you’re not just aware of these problems, but that you’re helping your employees or the team responsible for solving the problems stay on top of the solutions. It’s never fun to be without the necessary tech, but it’s even worse when you have to deal with it all by yourself.

A Few More Thoughts

Consider what to do on Election Day. More and more employers are giving employees the entire day or the necessary time off to vote or volunteer during national, local, and special elections. Just like any other day, this is a great topic to cover with your policy and leadership teams, but also something to consider independently as a manager, if you’re able and you think it would add value for your virtual employees.

Respect unique holidays and life events. As we covered in the chapter on diversity, inclusion, and equity, make sure virtual employees have the ability to celebrate and experience holidays and special life events that matter to them. As always, plan ahead! Give them the insights and time necessary to make plans while acknowledging how the work will get done (or placed on hold) while they’re out. Also, be sure to keep your international staff in mind. Their election days, holidays, and even acts of nature could be completely different. Keep those lines of communication open so you always know the unique needs they have when it comes to these things.

Signing Off

Virtual managers need to know that all management is essentially change management in the virtual workplace. You should not only anticipate and prepare for change; you should welcome it, forecasting and strategizing within the knowns and unknowns to ensure your employees believe they’re being treated fairly during times of need or frustration. Thriving managers in a virtual workplace never see this as falling under the “other duties as assigned” banner, but instead embrace this reality as part of their managerial responsibilities.

You may think it’s the job of IT to handle technology upgrades or that the individual employee needs to figure out what to do if they lose Internet access at home. And maybe, given your policies, that’s true. But unless it’s written down somewhere, it becomes your job as a manager to forecast likely possibilities and respond to needs or outline the expectations for when they happen. Because they will happen. Snow will fall. Houses will flood. And diabetic cats do need to check their insulin every two weeks at the vet. Yes, that last part is very specific. Don’t ask.