Supervisor insists employee can't work from home after blizzard drops 10 inches of snow, employee takes vacation day instead, gets a free snow day fully paid after working 10 minutes: '[He tells me] I need to drive the 50+ miles to work or take vacation'

Frigid weather froze communications between this employee and their supervisor when the supervisor insisted on not allowing the employee to work from home, despite the employee being perfectly capable of doing so.

Flexibility begets flexibility. How many times has that been written in the annals of this site?

The issue of rigid rules that only exacerbate simple problems is so common in the workplace, and it almost always comes down to a disconnect in trust, expectations, and communication. Apart from failing to address a growing problem early, which is almost always more cost-effective. Any time where rules and expectations are too rigidly set, with little room for self-determination and agency, you'll end up with the other party becoming demotivated, disengaged, and not determined at all to work with you. 

However, on the other hand, when you are shown trust and adaptability, you're likely to show the same in turn. Someone's willingness to meet halfway will go, well, a long way to getting the other party on board and cooperating. 

So, even when you hold all the power, or all the cards, and the deck is stacked in your favor, it's always best to let the leash out a little and create an environment that is collaborative rather than authoritative, that seeks to work toward a common goal together rather than yanking them along on the leash. It's all in the art of the deal, properly communicated needs being met with actions that show true understanding and respect.

On this issue, this employee recounted a workplace story that he had experienced firsthand from the times before a certain-global-event-that-can-not-be-named that made us all realize that most of us with jobs that park us behind a computer can be done from anywhere in the world, and that the unnecessary restriction of being tied to a desk for eight hours each day was just that. And, actually, without all that distraction and performative dancing that is the office life, we could actually be more productive instead of less, as we had always been told.

But I digress, this was still back in 2018, in the before times. And when a treacherous snowstorm befell the area in which this employee lived and worked, his supervisor insisted that everyone still come in to work, refusing to let anyone work from home despite the fact that this employee could quite easily and successfully perform his role remotely. The supervisor insisted that it was impossible for him to work from home, which forced the employee to make a judgment call.

Instead of braving the frozen roads, the employee opted to take a vacation day and took the day to enjoy himself and spend time with his wife and family. Later in the day, the supervisor, desperate because no one had shown up for work, contacted him asking him to complete some small tasks, but the employee declined, citing the supervisor's own policy; the supervisor was check-mated. 

Ultimately, the employee recorded a small amount of work time for the time that it took to respond to the text messages, meaning that they then received the vacation day for free according to their contract. Was that one step too far for what was already a satisfying result? Who is to say, but you can be the judge.