The U.S. Office of Personnel Management announced yesterday that it would start using clearer language whenever weather or an emergency forced the closure of federal agencies, reports Federal News Radio.

Moving forward, whenever the federal government closes, OPM will simply announce it as such: “Federal offices are closed. Federal employees required to work should follow their agency’s policies.” Up until this point, the announcement from OPM stated that offices “are closed to the public,” which led to confusion among government workers.

Last year OPM made changes to how it tells federal workers when and if they can leave early due to weather or other emergencies. The changes stemmed from an ice storm in early 2011 that left thousands of workers stranded in hours of traffic as they tried to get out of the city.