During Winter Storm Benedict (Wednesday, January 12), most departments at ESPN were able to have their staff work from home. But many employees in Bristol are considered “essential” (there are tv, radio and online services, that need attention after all), and need to be at work on time regardless of the weather.

One of these employees is Craig Perkins: He’s a Master Control operator, and the area is staffed 24/7 to keep the networks on the air. Craig told us that he left his house in Meriden at 8 a.m. for his 9 a.m. shift. He arrived at 11. His car got stuck in the snow two separate times on his local street. The infuriating thing is that when he got out to shovel, he was still within sight of his house!

“It’s my fourteenth year, and I’ve never come in during weather this bad. Not like this.” Craig says.

Marco Poulin is a Transmission System Specialist in the Transmission Maintenance department. He told us that it took him half an hour for his three-mile commute. His department is responsible for cleaning the snow off of the satellite dishes.ESPN’s 26 satellite dishes have heaters, but the snow overwhelmed some of them. Marco had to use this tool, a roof rake from the local hardware center to clean them.

He makes several sweeps during his eight-hour shift to make sure the dishes stay clean, and goes out immediately if there’s a problem. Thanks to

Marco’s department’s hard work, there was no dish-related disruption to either incoming or outgoing feeds during the snow event.