Update: As of Wednesday, Jan. 17, OPM said federal offices reopened with the option of unscheduled leave or telework.
Federal workers got a snow day on Tuesday after offices closed in Washington, D.C. due to a holiday weekend dump of snow and below-freezing temperatures.
The Office of Personnel Management, which monitors offices’ operating status in the event of severe weather, notified government employees in the National Capital Region late Monday that maximum telework is in effect to keep workers off the roads.
Employees who telework or work fully remotely are expected to continue going so and generally do not receive weather and safety leave.
Employees who don’t usually telework will be granted leave for their normal work hours. Emergency employees are expected to report for duty, though further decisions about their schedule are deferred to their managers.
Employees who were already on vacation today will be unaffected.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic made teleworking more available to thousands of employees across government, transitions to working from home in the event of a storm may be more seamless and less disruptive than they once were.
Employees who work outside the nation’s capital are not covered by OPM’s announcements and should rely on guidance given by their agency.
Additionally, the announcements do not apply to legislative and judicial branch employees, the Postal Service, local D.C. government workers or contractors, though these entities may take OPM’s lead in determining their own schedule. A slew of Congressional hearings are still on track for this week.
The winter storm that impacted much of the mid-Atlantic region over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend is petering out, but forecasters expect potentially single-digit temperatures overnight Tuesday and more snowfall come Friday. It was the first time in nearly two years that all three D.C.-area airports received at least an inch of snow, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm warning is in effect until 10 a.m. ET on Jan. 16 for central Maryland, the District of Columbia and northern Virginia.
Be advised that roads could refreeze into early Wednesday morning if slush and snow on the ground melts.
Whether federal offices will be closed again is uncertain. Employees can get updates from OPM by visiting the website or downloading the OPM Alert Mobile App.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Molly Weisner is a staff reporter for Federal Times where she covers labor, policy and contracting pertaining to the government workforce. She made previous stops at USA Today and McClatchy as a digital producer, and worked at The New York Times as a copy editor. Molly majored in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
