family business, should the employee ever notify the owner of a decision?

[My name is not bruce]

SO i'm managing and part own a business. I run it day to day. We're not taking the brunt force of this hurricane so i had no plans to close down. My employees all live within a 5 min walk of the business and have vehicles on top of that. So there was no safety issues either incase it did get worse.
My dad calls in and decides the place needs to be closed down.
I run another business and when i show up later to do my rounds, i find a sign on the door saying we're closed.
Due to it being 2012, I make closing announcements primarily through my website and facebook notifications. So i'm a bit upset to find out my business has been closed for over an hour...clients are upset that we are shut down with no notifications. Other employees are showing up to work to find out the business is closed.
When i bring this to my parents attention, they told me if i ran the business properly, my employees would notify me about closings?!?!??!
Shouldn't this always come from the top down. Is there any expectation for an employee to be notifying me of anything management related......if they do, shouldn't they be paid more than me?