Letter of Agreement 1: Librarians and Archivists

Guidelines for Off-Site Work Arrangements⁴⁰

Librarian and Archivist Faculty may request to perform duties off-site on an occasional or regular basis.

The employee and the manager should discuss and come to a consensus regarding the unit’s ability to accommodate the proposed arrangement. If a consensus is not achievable, the manager’s decision will prevail.

Employee Considerations

Employees are expected to:

• be productive when working, no matter where they are;
• manage their own time and work their regular work schedules;
• make themselves readily available, within reason, by at least email and phone;
• ensure that on-site work commitments are honoured;
• forego off-site work arrangements in order to attend to on-site work commitments that cannot be re-scheduled;
• understand that expectations and the ability to accommodate off-site work may vary from unit to unit;
• understand that, to be fair and allow all employees to take advantage of off-site work arrangements, their manager may place limits on the nature of off-site work arrangements.

Manager/Supervisor Considerations

Managers and supervisors are expected to:

• Make efforts to accommodate off-site work arrangements within operational constraints.

Constraints include the following:

• Number of employees in unit
• Number and nature (e.g. in-person or phone) of service points
• Existing modified or off-site work arrangements for other employees in the unit es in the unit
• Whether work tasks can be performed from off-site
• Whether the employee who desires an off-site work arrangement supervises other employees and whether those employees rely heavily on the in-person presence of their supervisor
• Ensure that working from home arrangements are administered fairly and provide all employees with an opportunity to make use of these arrangements, if they wish. Staff who do not take advantage of off-site work arrangements should not be negatively affected by those who do.
• Make clear their expectations with regard to knowing where employees are for both occasional and ongoing or regular off-site work arrangements.
• Keep track of ongoing or regular off-site work arrangements and report these arrangements to the AULs and Dean. In addition, report requests for off-site work arrangements that they are unable to accommodate to the AULs and Dean. In the case of the Archives Department, it is the University Archivist who performs these tasks.

General Considerations

• Either the employee or the manager or both may opt to cancel off-site work arrangements at any time, with reasonable notice.
• Due to space constraints faced by the Library and the Archives, vacant office space may be provided to other employees.
• Neither the Library nor the Archives will pay for any additional costs that may result from off-site work arrangements.
• Neither Library Systems nor the Archives are responsible for off-site support of information technology.

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