SBP and others that work in Chicago (RE: NATO)

[Daria Morgandorffer]

I'm in charge of gathering info to decide whether to close our office next Monday for the NATO summit. Is anyone else's office completely closing? Ours is a little unique as it's mostly indie contractors and they don't actually *have* to come into the office anyway, but man would I love having 2 three day weekends in a row.

Help me build my case people!

[Daria Morgandorffer]

May 14, 2012 10:54:09 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

May 14, 2012 10:46:49 GMT -5 Daria Morgandorffer said:

I'm in charge of gathering info to decide whether to close our office next Monday for the NATO summit. Is anyone else's office completely closing? Ours is a little unique as it's mostly indie contractors and they don't actually *have* to come into the office anyway, but man would I love having 2 three day weekends in a row.

Help me build my case people!

We have a friend who is a cop and he recommended I "work from home" on Friday and Monday. I don't think my office is officially closed, but I won't be here and I don't think either of my bosses are coming in either - both of them would have to come in from the burbs and are completely uninterested in dealing with that headache. The metra train that one of them takes has stated that it will stop prior to entering the loop and every car will be searched before it is allowed to proceed. I usually take the L in, or drive in and park at DH's office which is outside the Loop. I might right my bike to avoid both train and traffic delays, but even at that, I'm not sure it's a good idea because there is no guarantee that the roads with the bike lanes will be open and there will be a TON of people driving who are not locals.

So, I guess you could say, I would endorse your desire to close your office. I will say, that if you decide to keep it open, my cop friend suggests that anyone working during the conference dress extremely casually. Basically dress like a tourist or a protester. They anticipate that people who appear to be part of the 1% (even though Chicago in general is kind of an anti-1% sort of town) might get targeted by protesters. What does targeted mean? Yelled at, hassled, at least. Possible assaulted or targeted violently.

No suits, no ties, no important looking briefcases. Jeans and golf shirts are recommended.

This helps, thanks.

Yea, I have no desire whatsoever to take the Metra in that day. I had heard about the dressing down recommendation, which would be especially relevant to our office since my manager normally doesn't even let my agents take their ties off *in* the office.

Fingers crossed that I can make the man see reason.

[moreace01]

I'm closer to union station/ogilvy. Our office is remaining open but giving everyone the option of working from home. I'm pretty sure our office will be dead on friday (it is anyway) and monday.

I take the L in and hadn't heard anything special about stations being shutdown or anything. Some more info can be found here about roads being closed, etc: chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/05/04/security-plan-revealed-for-nato-summit-weekend/

[debatethis]

We're advising all employees in our downtown office to WFH since the traffic in and out of the city will be a nightmare. We also heard the suggestion about not wearing suits/carrying briefcases.
The Metra rules are going to be pretty tight, too, so those of you who commute in from the burbs, beware: metrarail.com/content/dam/metra/documents/NATO%20Customer%20Checklist.pdf

[dev22]

I don't work in Chicago, but out Chicago office is going to be closed. We got an email today saying that Counsel was going to work from home but everyone else was going to be completely off due to security and traffic/transportation concerns.

[lilibet]

I don't work in Chicago but my company has an office in the city. They are letting most people work from home or in one of the offices in the suburbs. If you have to come in they are saying to give yourself lots of extra time to get in.

I don't think there was any mention about dressing down though. Hopefully that is something that has been mentioned in the office.

[thekikimonster]

Our office is in the suburbs but we were asked not to make any appointments in the downtown area.

[mkesweetie]

I work in the City, in the Loop, right near the financial district and we're completely closed. We have security on-site, but that's it.

Between road closures, train delays, and protestors there's just no hope that work will go on as normal.