Is this common? Org. closes due to weather & requires all employees to take a vacation day.

[Hekate]

9. Doesn't sound like it's "cruel and unusual." We had Xmas to New Yr's off...

At one of my former jobs the college was closed from Christmas to New Year's because nearly all the students and faculty were gone. Closure meant they saved money on lights and heat and a lot of other things. So support staff employees were told we had the non-holiday time (3 days) off, but we had to make it up out of vacation or comp time. Some of my cohorts griped, but it worked well for me, because I would have had to hire a baby sitter for those three days for my two kids. This way I had the entire week off that the kids had off from school, and I used it to take the kids to visit family.

Inconsistency reigns though: years later we had some heavy rain, flooding, and mudslides that cut the freeway off to commuters, and employees were still expected to try to make it to work, which was nuts. My home was surrounded by water for several days and I had the flu, and the professor I worked for was having hissy fits.

Having your employer have the good sense to tell employees to stay home is actually a good thing, imo.