Handbook Additions

Expansions on Handbook Items

Staff must not post identifiable information or photographs of collection objects that are not available to the public.

503 Resignations and Retirements

Staff should give at least 2 weeks of notice before leaving the Library’s employment. Staff must submit a Letter of Resignation/Retirement that states their intended final date of employment. During the period between giving notice and the final date of employment, staff should complete or prepare to transition any ongoing projects. Staff must complete a full work day on their final day of employment.

Staff must submit the Letter of Resignation/Retirement to their HR Business Partner in order to start Library offboarding processes, including transfer of any benefits and closing accounts issued by IT. Staff may request an exit interview with HR. Supervisors may request access to any exit questionnaires or interviews after the final date of employment.

Staff should give notice to their supervisor in order to start the departmental offboarding processes. Supervisors must work with staff:

To document the current status of ongoing projects
To inventory and check-in any equipment that has been issued to the staff
To terminate access to any shared computing resources or accounts
To transfer ownership of documents and email accounts as necessary
Supervisors should invite staff to an exit interview to understand staff reasons for leaving and to solicit opinions on the current and future state of the program. Staff may choose to decline.

Supervisors should offer staff options on how to share their resignation/retirement, including:

No announcement
Email announcement by supervisor
Email announcement by staff
Email announcement and a get-together with colleagues

901 Annual Leave

Staff must notify their supervisor of Annual Leave (AL) plans via email. If possible, staff should give advance notice of AL (1 week).

For short-term AL of 1-2 days, staff should: set an out-of-office notification on their email cancel any events on their personal calendar

For longer-term (3+ days) or repeating (e.g. every Friday for a month) AL, staff must:

set an out-of-office notification on their email
create all-day events on the DigPres Out of Office calendar
create all-day Out-of-Office events on personal calendar
notify any meeting leads of their absence if they will miss a meeting as a result of taking AL

Staff should take all AL allotted to them in a timely fashion. Supervisors should remind staff about potential expiration issues in order to make sure they can take AL with reasonable accommodations.

Supervisors must notify staff of the reason for denying an AL request. Potential reasons include, but are not limited to:

Lack of staff on-site
AL coinciding with major project deadlines

While on AL, staff are not expected to check or respond to email. Out-of-office auto-responses should state when staff will return to work and an alternate staff to contact. Supervisory staff must establish a channel, ideally not email, to be notified of emergencies or urgent situations.

1001 Sick Leave (Healthcare Leave)

Staff should take Sick Leave (SL) for their own health and for the health of their colleagues. Staff medical information is private. Supervisors may not inquire about the reasons for using SL unless required by Library policy, and they should share only the dates of the leave and not the nature of the leave with other staff.

Staff must notify their supervisor of SL usage via email. Notifications are not required to state a reason for taking sick leave. Staff must then follow procedures for approved AL. If possible, staff should give reasonable advance notice.

The healthcare reasons to take SL are understood to include, but are not limited to:

Contagious disease
Healthcare appointments
Medical care for a family member
Medical recovery
Menstrual health
Mental wellness

If staff are able to work, but unable to come to the workplace for wellness reasons, they may request to work from home instead of taking SL.

The Library allows staff to use up to 40 hours of accrued SL for Parental Leave.

SL does not expire and accrues over time.

606 Hybrid Work (Telecommuting / Work from Home)

Staff must establish the expectations for a telecommuting arrangement with their supervisors before submitting plans to Human Resources. These include the days of the week which will be used for telecommuting and the types of work which will be performed.

Supervisors may request alternate days for telecommuting. Potential reasons include, but are not limited to:

Lack of staff on-site
Meetings that require on-site attendance

If staff plan to use AL on a scheduled telecommuting day, they may request to change their telecommuting schedule.

Staff must indicate days that they are telecommuting on their public calendar by noting their location as Remote.

Staff may request temporary long-term work from home arrangements. Staff should establish a regular communication with their supervisor and how their work hours will align with NYPL work hours. If possible, staff should give at least 1-month notice before extended work from home will start.

Staff may request additional work from home arrangements in the event of inclement weather, planned public transit delays, and similar situations. These work from home arrangements are in addition to any normal work from home days. These requests should be made as soon as staff believe that work from home is a better option. When possible, supervisors should proactively arrange work from home during inclement weather. See the section on Inclement Weather for more detail.

Additional Guidelines

Professional Development

Staff may use up to 154 hours per year on professional development, skills related to their job but not directly related to a current task. Staff must provide their supervisors with a written plan for each fiscal year for usage of this time. This plan must clearly outline dates, times, topics, and objectives for any planned or regularly scheduled usage. Staff professional development plans are subject to supervisor approval and staff may be asked to provide more documentation or adjust based on department needs or timelines.

Uses of professional development include, but are not limited to:

One-off webinars / workshops
Self-directed learning on a specific topic
Long term courses which do not interfere with work schedules or deadlines

Staff may use this time remotely or on-site. Staff must request in advance (and include in their written plan) if they must use more than one full work day for professional development within a 2 week period.

Staff must indicate when they are using professional development time with a public event on their calendar.

Annual Reviews and Goal Setting

Staff must document annual goals and plans to accomplish those goals during the first 3 months of a new fiscal year. These goals should support the following areas:

Goal(s) established by a supervisor
Personal professional development

These goals should be the basis of the annual goals reporting required by HR.

Supervisors should discuss the status of all goals with staff at least once every month.

Meetings

When creating a recurring meeting, staff should find a time on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday in order to avoid regular re-schedules due to holidays.

Salary Transparency

Staff may choose to share their salary and compensation information with other staff.

Supervisors shall only disclose the salary and compensation of reporting staff with the consent of those staff. All staff may request to learn the salary and compensation ranges of consenting staff on an annual basis, typically as part of annual performance reviews.

Inclement Weather

Announcements of inclement weather conditions by NYPL HR, the National Weather Service, and/or the Environmental Protection Agency trigger preparations for extended periods of time when staff may be unable to access the office.

For an NYPL HR announcement, NWS warning, or EPA AQI forecast over 100 or 150 depending on their sensitivity to air quality, staff should complete the following preparations:

Take home laptops and any other equipment needed for work from home
Request work from home from their supervisor
Move collections from active workspaces to storage
Check the location of collection emergency response supplies

Supervisors should consider proactively announcing work from home for the duration of the warning. Supervisor announcements should be made before 5 PM the day before, or as soon as possible otherwise.

For an NWS watch/advisory or EPA AQI forecast over 150 or 200 depending on their sensitivity to air quality, staff should complete all the preparations associated with a warning. Staff do not need to request work from home for the duration of the watch/advisory but should inform their supervisor.

Staff should maintain enough Library-provided computing equipment at home to continue to work from home regardless of when the office is closed due to inclement weather. When staff do not have equipment to telecommute due to sudden inclement weather, they will be requested to join meetings with their personal equipment and must work with their supervisors to identify offline work from home tasks.

Work Day Expectations

Staff should establish regular working hours that include 7 hours of work and 1 hour for lunch between 8 AM and 6 PM ET. Staff must indicate their working hours on their calendar.

Staff may request a Compressed Time Schedule in accordance with section 605 of the Handbook.

Staff must not be expected to respond to messages outside of their established work hours, unless their job duties involve responses to collection emergencies.

Staff should respect others’ established work hours by scheduling after-hours messages to be sent at the start of their next work day.

Explanations

Non-union Exempt/Non-exempt Status

The exempt/non-exempt status for salaried employees refers to the ability for staff to earn overtime pay. Non-exempt staff must not work more than 35 hours per week, unless explicitly permitted by their supervisor.

Non-union Seniority Benefits Accrual

AL annual accruals increase by 1 week after 8 years and 16 years of NYPL employment.