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: Practical Paralegalism

Snowpocalypse 2011: Go to Work or Stay Home with the Kids?

By Lynne DeVenny

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Reading about Indiana legal assistant Eldred Coleman-Jones' weather-generated dilemma last week, i.e. go to work or stay home with her eight children, ages 6 months to 17 years, took me back to the days when I was a single mom and my oldest daughter got the chicken pox. My daycare said she couldn't return for 7-10 days.

My bosses were understanding - but not that understanding. The firm was small and only had three legal staffers supporting five attorneys. Without the Internet and email, it took a lot more time out of a legal assistant's day simply to get documents mailed, filed and/or delivered via good old snail mail, facsimile, and my fave stress-inducing job duty, driving to the closest federal courthouse 45 minutes away in heavy traffic, trying to beat the sight of locked doors.

According to Coleman-Jones' LinkedIn profile, she has worked for Beasley & Gilkison, LLP in Muncie, Indiana, for over twelve years. Her Honors statement is cute: "Best mom in the deep blue sea (so says my 4 year old)." Luckily, her bosses are understanding, and she returned to work on Thursday.

In my case, I ended up missing about three days of work as well, and then taking my daughter to stay with great-grandma, who lived two and a half hours away, until she was daycare ready. Yes, I felt like a creep abandoning my baby to her itchy misery, but I had to keep our sole source of income flowing.

With Snowpocalypse 2011 affecting so many of you, what decisions has this record-breaking weather forced you to make about work? Are you required to come in regardless of the weather? Do your bosses understand if you don't? And what have you done with your young children when school has been closed for way too long due to the weather?

Source: Muncie Star Press

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on February 08, 2011 (boomark / email).