Human Resources & Workplace Safety

• Positions that are posted are frozen.
• All dining and facilities positions are frozen.
• Positions that are at background-check stage—but with no offer letter yet—are frozen.
• Positions with a verbal offer, but nothing further from HR, are frozen.
• New hires with a future effective start date, who already have a letter in hand, may start work as planned, assuming they can work remotely if the future effective date is within the next 30–60 days. If remote work is not possible, managers should consider modification of the start date.
• Positions with upcoming termination dates that would have to go before the Ways and Means Committee should still be presented to the WMC.

Please visit our website devoted to working safely at Middlebury.

Teleworking is a business arrangement that enables employees to work from a remote location by electronically linking to Middlebury.

Teleworking may not be suitable for all employees and/or positions. Your supervisor will notify you if you’re eligible for temporary telework and confirm with you any position-specific terms and conditions. If your job can be done remotely, please consult with your manager to make this possible. As we stated in an earlier communication, we ask that you and your manager put a plan in place—by Wednesday, March 18—that anticipates any equipment or materials you’ll need to be up and running at home. The Temporary Telework Policy explains the process and parameters. Please note: Temporary teleworking is not intended as a substitute for childcare or caring for another adult. If a child or adult needs care during work time, another responsible individual is expected to be the caregiver.

Please check with your supervisor. We’re asking supervisors to be flexible.

Only Middlebury employees with essential roles are permitted to work on campus now. Among Middlebury’s essential functions that must continue—and may require the presence of employees on campus—are:

• Health Center operations
• Public Safety activities
• Facilities Services, including custodial, plant, and other maintenance roles
• Dining Services
• Residential Life
• Information technology support for our network and infrastructure
• Faculty and staff providing instruction and/or supporting remote teaching and learning that must be done on campus

Please check with your supervisor if you have questions about what you should be doing.

COVID-19 is more dangerous to certain individuals with existing medical conditions. Employees with such health conditions who can work remotely should make arrangements to do so with their managers. Employees are encouraged to contact the Human Resources Office to explore reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act: hr@middlebury.edu.

If you have challenges with childcare or with caring for a parent, please consult with your manager about possible shift changes, flexible schedules, or other options. We will be as flexible as possible, but we do expect people whose jobs require them to be on campus to come to work.

To the extent possible, an employee’s job duties and responsibilities will not change due to temporary teleworking. Temporary teleworking employees should be available during business hours via email and phone for communication, as necessary. To the extent possible, the amount of time an employee is expected to work, as well as productivity expectations, will not change due to teleworking. However, temporary telework schedules may include flexible work hours outside of regular business hours, or reduced work hours, to accommodate the challenges employees may face in their homes and in their communities as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, as determined by the supervisor in conversation with the employee.

Employees should work with supervisors to organize their workflow and should schedule regular check-ins either by telephone or by Zoom videoconferencing. Program managers or meeting organizers will be responsible for (re)scheduling meetings and communicating as needed. Zoom is recommended for group meetings.

Nonexempt teleworking employees are covered by the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act or IWC Wage Orders (California employees), and therefore must comply with all recordkeeping requirements. Nonexempt teleworking employees must accurately record and report, in a timely fashion, all working time as a condition of continued participation in the teleworking program. A supervisor must approve, in advance, any hours worked in excess of those specified per day and per week, in accordance with local, state, and federal requirements. Please note: Middlebury may revoke the temporary teleworking privileges of any employee failing to comply with this requirement.

The Vermont campus is not currently closed, and individuals may continue to access the campus and their office spaces. However, many buildings have restricted access to those staff who work in them. In Monterey, if anyone else has a need for a short-term visit to campus or to a building, prior arrangements must be made by your supervisor or chair through a member of the Institute Council (Jeff Dayton-Johnson, Laura Burian, Fernando DePaolis, or Patricia Szasz).

If we need to close either or both campuses, it would trigger a mandatory remote-work model. However, we would still need to provide services, particularly for the students who remain on the Vermont campus. Staff whose jobs are essential to providing those services would be required to report to campus. Supervisors would make those determinations.

If you need a laptop or other equipment to work at home, contact your supervisor. Computers and other equipment will be provided on a case-by-case basis. You’ll need to return them once we resume normal business operations. Middlebury will supply appropriate office supplies like pens, paper, etc.

Electronic equipment must be encrypted and meet all of the Middlebury’s security requirements. Employees need to provide a secure location for Middlebury-owned equipment and agree not to use it, or allow others to use it, except for Middlebury business.

Middlebury may pay or reimburse the employee for business-related expenses, such as phone calls, shipping costs, etc., that are reasonably incurred in accordance with job responsibilities. Middlebury will not be responsible for any other costs the employee may incur while teleworking unless an agreement is reached beforehand.

Generally, Middlebury will not pay for or reimburse for expenses prohibited by Middlebury policy, including, but not limited to the following:

• Maintenance or repairs of privately-owned equipment
• Utility costs associated with the use of the computer or occupation of the home
• Equipment supplies (these should be requisitioned through the department)

Telecommuting arrangements made due to COVID-19 are temporary. We plan to bring employees back on campus once the administration determines it is safe to do so.

During the next two weeks, Facilities Services and Dining Services staff will conduct deep cleaning of residential and dining facilities. In addition to the measures performed by our colleagues in Facilities, employees are encouraged to routinely clean all frequently touched surfaces in their workspace such as telephone receivers, countertops, doorknobs, computers and keyboards, etc.

An employee who believes they have been exposed to COVID-19 should contact their healthcare provider and their supervisor. They should take precautions to prevent the spread of the virus by remaining at home and restricting activities outside the home except for obtaining medical care. If you do contract COVID-19, contact your supervisor. If you are unable to return to work following quarantine or as a result of complications from the virus, contact the Human Resources Office: hr@middlebury.edu.

Any employee who is sick with symptoms that could be COVID-19 (fever, cough, shortness of breath) should stay home from work. Fever in this case is defined by the CDC as 100.4° Fahrenheit or greater using an oral thermometer when the person has not used fever-reducing medicine. Employees do not need to provide a note from a healthcare provider confirming COVID-19 or its symptoms to be absent from work. Clearance from a healthcare provider is required to return to work/campus after a COVID-19 illness. Faculty or staff who develop COVID-19 symptoms while at work should return home as soon as possible and immediately consult their health care provider. Individuals who are feeling sick should make reasonable efforts to isolate themselves from others until they are able to leave campus.

Employees who share a home with someone who is diagnosed with COVID-19 should follow the precautions recommended by the CDC and review the CDC guidance for how to conduct a risk assessment of their potential exposure. They should monitor their own health for symptoms of the virus and stay home from work if they develop symptoms that could be COVID-19. Fever in this case is defined by the CDC as 100.4° Fahrenheit or greater, using an oral thermometer when the person has not used fever-reducing medicine. If advised by their healthcare provider or a local official that they may be contagious even before they are symptomatic, employees should stay at home.

Unless a flexible schedule is agreed to, employees should not permit non-work-related events and activities to disrupt or interfere with scheduled work time. Requests to use sick leave, vacation, or other leave must be approved in the same manner as for employees who do not telework. If a nonexempt employee becomes ill while working remotely, the employee must report the hours actually worked and use sick leave for those hours not worked.