There will be a sit-in tomorrow in Conference Room A.

It's been precipitating basically all day today, your standard wintry mix that is to be expected when the sky is overcast and the temperature is in the mid-thirties. But they are calling for at least a quarter of an inch of ice tonight, and so the federal government closed at two.

This is fine, in fact more than fine, because we follow the federal government for our schedule of openings and closings. So when the government announced its early closing, our office manager sent out an email saying that we could all leave at two o'clock as well. However, if we didn't go home and do work, we had to charge those last three hours to our vacation time. Even though the federal government is closed, and their employees get paid for this afternoon without having to waste vacation time.

Then, after I'd been at Torsten's for over an hour, working, our office manager sent out an email from our headquarters in Boston. Apparently, if the government is closed, we are closed as well, and this is considered a paid workday whether or not we actually work while we stay home. We are just supposed to divide the time for the day among the projects we usually charge our time to on our timesheets.

But apparently this clarification from Boston only applies starting the next time the federal government closes due to inclement weather. Today's afternoon "off" still requires us to use vacation time.

I feel cheated.