Communication & Etiquette
- Talk to your supervisor: Make sure your supervisor and colleagues know what you are working on. If you’re not having regular in-person interactions, it’s easy to duplicate efforts.
- Agree on common tools and a virtual space: Follow a standard practices within your team to maintain communication.
- Your supervisor will provide guidance so everyone knows how the team plans to stay connected and updated.
- Create collaboration groups as needed. Common tools are listed on this site.
- Be predictable: Work regular hours. Let your supervisor and team know about variances so key contacts know when you are available versus when you are out sick or taking vacation time.
- Use Auto Response: Consider an automated response on your email such as: “Thank you for your patience if my response is delayed. I am working remotely to promote a healthy work environment and will respond as soon as possible."
- Be respectful: Technology makes it easy to reach out to cell phones via a call or text at any time of day. In some cases, there may be legitimate reasons to communicate quickly. However, be sure to respect boundaries; not every message or issue is urgent.
- It’s challenging for people working in non-traditional settings, be patient if you do not get a response to messages right away.
- If you have something that doesn’t need a response quickly let the other person know that, too.
- Learning to work outside the office is challenging, so avoid breaking coworkers’ concentration unless it is necessary.
- Forward your phone: Make it easier for coworkers to reach you by forwarding your university phone number to your email.
Tips for Supervisors
- Get help: Contact your local IT support for help assisting team members who need hardware at home. Connect with your HR staff for guidance if you are uncertain about how to handle requests.
- Keep regular hours: Make those hours known.
- Be available: Be sure your team members know when you’re available, and the best way to reach you. – email, text messaging, cell phone, etc.
- Get on the same page: Establish standard practices within your team to maintain communication. Choose a standard technology – whatever works for your team – so everyone knows how to stay connected and updated.
- Address common concerns: If you are finding a common concern, anything that multiple people have raised, address it using the tool you have established as the best way to stay in touch.
- Connect with your team: Continue team meetings and one-on-one meetings with team members. Move these meetings to Zoom.
- Collaborate: Use collaboration tools to share work and keep work teams and project teams updated on progress and stay on track. Examples are Microsoft Teams and Slack.
- Maintain boundaries: Set standard rules for escalating person-to-person communications. There may be legitimate reasons to communicate via cell call or text, but caution your staff to respect boundaries; not every message is urgent.
- Walk the talk: Reinforce communication norms. If you don’t do it, don’t expect anyone else to.
- Be flexible: Different environments, different job duties and new developments mean employees will have different needs. Please work with each employee individually to ensure they have the technology they need to do their job.
Employee Telecommuting Guidance for Supervisors
Consideration and Approval
- Initially, confirm that the employee can appropriately address assigned work from home, and that the work identified is essential, required and/or needed.
- Once confirmed, determine a reasonable time-frame required to address the work assigned.
- Address a request to allow the employee to work from home using MC’s Telecommuting Form.
- The remarks box in the Telecommuting Form should address the responsibilities being addressed by the employee, and any other justification determined needed in seeking approvals.
Before Telecommuting
- Insure that the employee’s voicemail goes to his/her email.
- Address voicemail message if needed.
- Give specific assignments, timelines, goals, etc. to the employee.
- Insure that the employee has what is needed remotely to complete assigned tasks (paper files, access to G-drive, MC laptop, etc.).
- Insure that the employee is clear on security issues and will follow security measures relative to MC information, data, etc. when using MC laptops, personal PCs, or other devices while off-campus.
During the Telecommuting Period
- Require employee to check in with assigned/designated supervisor (designate at least once/twice a day and in the morning/afternoon). This can be done via email or phone.
- Require the employee to stay connected to peers, as/if applicable, through continued collaboration and by using communication methods normally used.
- Insist that emails are checked often.
- Insist that assigned work is done.
- Insist that employee is available during MC’s normal work hours.
- No telecommuting employee will be approved to work overtime hours.
