NRAO/GBO IDOS status - effective Monday 12:00am
To all NRAO and GBO employees:
In response to concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, the NM, VA and WV Governors have ordered the closing of all public schools, beginning this coming Monday, 16 March (closed three weeks in NM; two weeks in VA; period TBD in WV). As discussed in recent weeks, the closing of schools automatically triggers changes to the operations of the affected NRAO sites and GBO. Note, at this time we have no reported cases of COVID-19 infection associated with NRAO/GBO employees or family members, or recent visitors.
We have an Infectious Disease Policy that can be triggered in these situations. Please read it, there are several key points in it regarding current and future situations. Based on the school closings, I am now activating this policy, and we will begin IDOS (Infectious Disease Operating Status) on Monday, March 16th at 12:00am. The following changes will be implemented:
- During the IDOS period, we will attempt to continue operating our prime North American instruments (JVLA, GBT, VLBA), at least initially. Information about ALMA status will follow next week.
- The NRAO/GBO workforces will be recast into three components:
- People who are expected to and can continue their job responsibilities from home, and should immediately proceed to do so – WFH
- People who will be placed on a “Skeleton Crew” list to continue holding responsibilities associated with the operations of the facilities (located at home or at work) – SC
- People whose job at NRAO/GBO cannot reasonably be carried out at home, or are unable to work due to responsibilities arising from the school closings, and must be at home – UW.
- A new set of paycodes are available for staff. These paycodes support people reporting time worked in the WFH, SC, UW categories. Due to the initiation of IDOS, the WFH group would charge to “IDW”, the SC group would charge to “IWS” or “IDW”, and the UW group would charge time to “IDN”. SC members will be informed this afternoon; other employees will need to assess yourself as “WFH” or “UW”, possibly in consultation with your supervisor, and begin that mode of work on Monday, selecting the appropriate paycode at the next ETK deadline. Please note, in all cases – people will receive their regular wage payments; insurance and retirement benefits will continue as usual. If you have questions about these paycodes, please contact your local HR representative.
- The NRAO/GBO facilities (buildings) should be considered closed for staff not on the SC list. The purpose of the school closings is to enhance social distancing to stop the spread of the virus; we will support that by sending all WFH and UW staff members home for the duration of the school closings. Note, some SC staff may also be working primarily from home. This will be a soft close of the facilities; if people need to come in once or twice a week for 10 minutes to grab a book, turn off a piece of equipment, whatever etc. that can be considered. Please get your supervisor’s permission before entering the facilities, stating your reasons. During this period, most managers and supervisors will be included in the WFH category, and available for consultation.
- People entering WFH status can talk to their supervisors about temporary enhanced IT support at home; in some cases, it may be possible to take your e.g. work monitor home for the duration of IDOS. It is expected that WFH people are carrying out their normal job responsibilities (with some possible decrease in efficiency) during IDOS.
- Both NRAO and GBO will review possible tasks/roles to offer to UW employees during the IDOS, e.g. training or administrative activities. UW staff may be contacted next week.
- People on the Skeleton Crew List will be informed this afternoon (Friday) and over the weekend. SC members should anticipate continuing to support their standard responsibilities. Site management at NRAO/GBO will likely be reassessing and shifting operational responsibilities over the next few weeks, keeping all informed. The SC list will evolve, I expect.
- Travel for both Observatories is already shutdown at this point. Some recruitment activities are continuing; if you are involved in recruiting actions, you will be contacted, or please contact the hiring manager or HR.
During this period, NRAO/GBO management will primarily communicate with staff via email, although we will continue to update our internal COVID-19 webpage with news and status information. We are continuing normal computing service support during IDOS, although helpdesk responses and problem fixes may be delayed due to reduced IT staffing available during IDOS. Individual employees will be contacted via email if necessary, so please monitor your account regularly (phone and text may also be used). Our site status phone systems will also be kept up to date with Observatory summary status:
- Charlottesville: 434-296-0200
- Green Bank: 304-456-2330
- Socorro (DSOC, VLA, VLBA): 575-835-7100
The Infectious Disease Policy, above changes, and other decisions made in recent days are unlikely to address all issues that will arise as we attempt to operate the facilities in coming weeks, so please don’t hesitate to let your supervisor, Department head or Site Director know about issues, concerns, ideas you might have. At present, it seems likely we will all be in IDOS for the next three weeks. After that, it is certainly possible the different Observatories and sites will emerge out of IDOS at different times (due to different school decisions). Also, this new operating status has been triggered by environmental changes (school closings), but we still face the possibility of staff members catching the COVID-19 virus at home or elsewhere, and transmitting it to the workplace. In the next few weeks, if an infection is traced to a staff member at our facilities, this will likely trigger a full closure of the site/location, and halting of telescope and other operations.
We (NRAO/GBO/AUI) are incredibly fortunate to be in a situation where we can attempt to continue our operations, with our staff receiving pay in all scenarios. Many other people in the community are not so lucky. In my opinion, that puts a responsibility on us to help drive the national situation back to normal. By adopting a strong stance on social distancing (WFH, UW), and doing the best we can to continue our scientific services (SC), we are doing our part. Let’s work together in the difficult weeks ahead to achieve these goals.
If you have questions/comments, please direct them to your supervisor, Dept head or me. My next update to allemploy is planned for Wednesday March 18th.
Tony Beasley
