Office Closures, Early Departures and Delayed Arrivals Due to Weather or Safety Events. When a foreseeable weather or safety event causes the agency to close or authorize late arrival or early departure, any employee with a signed telework agreement (i.e., a Program participant) must be prepared to telework, flex around the full or partial closure, and/or take leave. Except as provided below, no employee with a signed telework agreement of any type (regular, situational, etc.) may receive Weather and Safety leave, regardless of whether the employee was scheduled to telework that day. In order to telework during a weather or safety event, participants must have their Universal Laptop at their alternate worksite. Unscheduled telework due to a closure, early dismissal, or delayed arrival due to weather or safety events will not count against the allowable telework days provided by this Program. If weather related physical conditions affect the alternate worksite in a way that limits the employee’s ability to perform their duties (e.g., power or internet outages at the participant’s alternate worksite or the USPTO office), the employee may request Weather and Safety administrative leave or to work at a secondary alternate worksite. Participants may telework at an alternate worksite where there are dependents or others. However, for any time that the employee claims as work time, their attention must be oriented to work activities and not dependent care. If dependent care prohibits the ability to perform telework for some portion of the work day during an office closure, early dismissal or delayed arrival, an employee may use a combination of flex time and unscheduled leave, with supervisory approval, to meet any dependent care needs and still accomplish work. See Section I.K.1. for additional information on dependent care. Weather and Safety leave may be available to a Program participant if the participant was not prepared to telework at their approved alternate worksite because either (1) the weather or safety event that caused the agency to close or authorize late arrival or early departure was not foreseeable or (2) reasonable circumstances prevented the employee from preparing to telework (e.g., the participant had been on leave until the day of the weather event, and the participant was not able to obtain their laptop before the weather or safety event). Find additional information on weather and safety leave at Leave Administration, Appendix A: Impact of Weather and Safety Events on the Alexandria Campus and Xxxxxxxx Square Building.
