I was the Commanding Officer of a Navy Reserve unit based in Great Lakes, IL, just North of Chicago. Plenty of opportunities to make this call for inclement weather on a drill weekend.
Priority 1 - Keeping my sailors safe
Priority 2 - Getting them paid
My policy was often aligned with the Base Commander, who was a friend and a good man, so the base put out policy for reporting for work (essential personnel only) that we simply followed. But for Reserves, the reporting for duty was a part of getting paid for the weekend. For many of my folks, that extra bit of pay was a critical part of their budget, so getting them paid was really important.
In every single case, I was able to do both 1 & 2. Every single single sailor, every time the weather was bad.
For many of my folks, it was a long drive from their home up to Great Lakes. Some came from as far as Indiana. The decision on reporting for duty had to be made well in advance.
The Navy didn’t have a “work from home” policy at the time, however, I interpreted the existing policy for work accomplished outside of the unit to include on line training done for the Navy via their home computer. They were on duty, in a remote location, and I got them paid if they couldn’t come in because of weather. Naturally, most of them were too “tough“ to take advantage of my interpretation, and would come in regardless, with the “I’m from Wisconsin, this is just a little snowstorm” attitude. I practically had to order the single mom from Indiana to stay home during one blizzard, and assure her that I would take care of her pay. I did, and she got paid on time.
I am genuinely shocked at the cavalier attitude towards employee safety in the OP post. Taking care of your people is rule no. 1 for a leader.
Sadly, management and leadership are very different things, and managers abound…