How Inaccurate Can You Be at Work?

How wrong can you be in your job and still have it qualify as acceptable?

As I wake up just outside St. Louis, MO, I am thrilled to hear that we did not get the blizzard conditions that many of you are probably just experiencing farther to the east and north.  For the last two days, St. Louis has been literally held hostage by the threat of “Snowmageddon”.  The weather forecasters all predicted that we would have ice and sleet worse than we’ve seen in years and more snow than has fallen in decades.  Predictions at my house were several inches of ice followed by 1- 2 feet of snow.

The meteorologists told stories and showed pictures of blizzards from years ago.  We heard from people who lamented about how horrible it was going to get.  We watched as the police, sheriffs, transportation department, city and county executives, and many others gathered in the command center to deal with the situation.  They told the viewers to stay off the roads at all costs.  There was absolutely no traffic on any pictures of our metro highways for a full day.

But Snowmageddon did not hit us. At my house, several inches of sleet accumulated.   Other parts of the city had the snow and ice mix which continues to make driving a major challenge, but the 1-2 feet of snow did not happen.

First, I’m happy about that because it would have been horrible on so many levels.  But my question is, at what point do these forecasters need to be held accountable?  I may just be ranting because it’s so early and I’m not thinking clearly.  And, I can accept days when they tell me to grab my umbrella and it doesn’t rain.  But when you tell a whole city to shut down, not work, close all our major grocery and other stores, all our government offices, etc. THAT is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

For me, this is a major blunder.  There should be some consequence or impact on them.  Maybe no bonus, a cut in pay.  I don’t really know.  I just know that a great deal of economic hardship happened in my city yesterday because of a less-than-accurate performance by a handful of people.

Think I’m being too hard?  What say you?  Oh, and if you are north or east of here, tell us how much snow and ice you were hit with where you live.