Federal workers received no sympathy after getting out of work four hours early as a snow front carrying an inch of snow moved into the area.
The Office of Personnel Management announced on Tuesday that all federal workers would be heading home by 1:00 p.m. because of a snowstorm projected to bring one inch of snow. In a tweet announcing the decision, the department wrote, “Federal offices in the Washington, DC area status: Early Departure 4 hour staggered early release all employees must depart no later than 1:00 PM.”
The department’s social media posts announcing the decision were heavily mocked online. One Facebook commenter wrote, “OMG snow. Who’s gonna get the milk and bread!?” Another added, “Run for your lives!”
The announcement received just as icy of a reception on Twitter, with many ripping the city as “soft” for sending home federal employees over the flurries. One user wrote, “Nothing projects US strength to the world than ‘OMG it’s going to snow for a couple of hours! Flee!’”
— Bill Clark (@billclarkphotos) January 7, 2020
Society is already breaking down. The city is returning to the state of nature. An inch of snow is all that’s necessary to return humanity to its natural state, where all must kill or be killed. https://t.co/GRgAO4Y9xg
— Quinta “Pro Quo” Jurecic (@qjurecic) January 7, 2020
Nothing projects US strength to the world than “OMG it’s going to snow for a couple of hours! Flee!” https://t.co/YUmyFhmh3x
— Doug Heye (@DougHeye) January 7, 2020
Why? Because there could be 1-3 inches of snow. You can’t make it up. https://t.co/zmmtE2W01U
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 7, 2020
Nothing like a tiny bit of snow to shut down the capital of the free world https://t.co/pyu4IHSRMq
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) January 7, 2020
this town is so soft https://t.co/IBvAafId7e
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) January 7, 2020
D.C. is so *cute* about how it responds to snow. https://t.co/p0L6CeFLTU
— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) January 7, 2020
Washington, D.C., was placed in a “winter weather advisory” by the National Weather Service. The service noted that the city could see one to three inches of snow, with the heaviest accumulations hitting the Baltimore, Maryland, area. The weather could lead to slippery roads and sidewalks in the region.
