Power Outage Raises Serious Issues

The great power outage of 2003, for those of you who live in the affected areas, brought to my mind the need for disaster planning for both home and work. Fortunately, About's Robert Longley pulled together several terrific online resources to help you prepare for any disaster. The power outage lasted several days, but it may foreshadow more scary future incidents. Be prepared.

Check out FEMA Provides Disaster Preparedness Guide.

In another issue related to the power outage, I arrived back from my annual family reunion to find an employer waiting for my opinion. Their plant was closed during the power outage and they wondered whether to pay their employees for that day. In a precedent-setting decision, the employer paid the employees. They decided that "act of nature" days, on which employees were scheduled, but unable to work, were out of the employees' control.

Employers of choice make decisions such as this one which bring immeasurable returns in positive employee morale. The following information is a fairly standard approach to managing "act of nature" days such as the power outage.