Another massive snowstorm rolled into Baltimore on Wednesday that forced many businesses to cut back or completely shutter their operations, and left many workers trying to be productive from home.
Some businesses that needed essential workers in the office made plans to have employees stay overnight in hotels, as city officials ordered all vehicles, except official emergency transports, off the streets due to white-out conditions.
"We're open for business today because the security markets are open," said Edward T. Giltenan, spokesman for T. Rowe Price. The firm has several hundred "essential" workers, traders, portfolio managers, client service representatives and operations workers, at both its downtown Baltimore headquarters and in Owings Mills.
"We've been encouraging others since early in the day to either go home if they can safely do so, and if not, we're providing hotel rooms," Giltenan said.
Many of Price's "essential" workers stayed in hotel rooms Tuesday night or walked to work if they live downtown. The company was running shuttles between the Owings Mills offices and area hotels, where the company expected that most essential workers would be staying Wednesday night.
Even before the blizzard hit over the weekend, companies across the Baltimore area were coping with a tough economy and demands for increased productivity. Facing a second major storm in less than a week means that employers and workers are once again navigating leave policies and trying, in any way, to keep working and earning.
For Wednesday night, some businesses expect their workers will sleep at the office or at nearby hotels. And some manufacturing workers have found that a plant's production must go on.
At the Sparrows Point steel mill in eastern Baltimore County, it's "business as usual," according to spokeswoman Bette Kovach. Some workers were called in early and others are working double shifts, and are prepared to sleep at the facility overnight -- just like they did earlier this week, Kovach said.
"We need people to operate equipment, and you can't do that remotely," said Kovach, spokeswoman for Severstal North America, which owns the Sparrows Point steel production facility. The plant's blast furnace can be slowed but not stopped without steep costs, so employees worked double shifts and slept where they could find space at the plant over the weekend. Workers were instructed to bring a change of clothes, and a caterer was hired to serve them hot food.
"Our employees were tremendously faithful," Kovach said. "People worked long hours and they did so safely."
Baltimore-based Under Armour shut down its Locust Point headquarters Wednesday for the second day this week after closing Monday, too. Still, the work of sales, marketing and serving customers went on remotely.
"The office is closed, but we're in a virtual world, with everyone having phones or BlackBerrys," said Diane Pelkey, a spokeswoman. "I've been responding to e-mails and working as I normally would. The work still goes on."
Some of the sports apparel company's 700 downtown employees were able to have meetings and conference calls through e-mail and by phone. "We've been reminding people how they can do it, and encouraged people to bring laptops home in the event we were going to cancel," she said.
Other manufacturers, such as spicemaker McCormick and Co., based in Hunt Valley, canceled work shifts Wednesday. It's the second time in less than a week it stopped production, the first being on Saturday. The last time the company was forced to close for severe weather was in the mid-1990s.
"In severe circumstances, a decision is made to shut down operations," said Jim Lynn, a McCormick spokesman. "We have inventory to buffer a short stop in production."
Northrop Grumman Corp. shut down the later shifts, the ones starting at 3:30 p.m. and at midnight, at its Linthicum-based electronic systems sector on Wednesday. The shutdown affected facilities in Linthicum, Annapolis, Sykesville and Elkridge. The company planned to reopen at 8 a.m. Thursday.
The facilities were open earlier in the day Wednesday, though many employees took advantage of the company's liberal leave policy.
Office employees across the Baltimore region found themselves on Wednesday working from home, holding virtual meetings by video and collaborating on projects as high winds buffet homes across the region.
Annie K. Sullivan admits she's not a fan of working from home, yet that's what she and many other co-workers did Monday as the Baltimore area coped with snow. Using the Internet, she joined in conference calls and kept in touch with her colleagues via instant-messaging software on Monday. On Wednesday, her marketing and public relations firm, IMRE, closed, and she and the rest of the firm's 75 employees are working from home again.
Feeling guilty about not being able to show up at the office earlier in the week, Sullivan, 22, said she finds herself working even harder from her Mount Washington home.
"It really wasn't that big of a difference, I just did everything in bed as opposed to sitting at my desk," said the associate account executive, who made it into the Sparks office on Tuesday. "I felt guilty about not being [at work], but I think the guilt fueled me to work harder."