Telework FAQs

• Generally, it does not matter where an employee teleworks as long as the setting allows the employee to complete tasks, maintain confidentiality if applicable, and be safe while working.​
  • The employee and manager should ensure any work-related needs to be onsite are understood in advance.​
  • International telework should be discussed with Labor and Employee Relations in advance. 
• UC is registered in all 50 states, but there are tax, salary and travel implications for employees living outside of California.​
• See Long-Distance Telework for additional details (log in to access). 

• The TWP Leadership group drafted guidance (log in to access) that department heads can use to equitably and consistently make objective decisions about job functions for onsite, offsite, or hybrid work.

• Departments can approve use ​of University property at home ​as well as BearBuy purchases or reimbursement for equipment according to existing policies.
• Please encourage staff to review recommended minimum requirements for safe workstations.
• IT is working on remote connection improvements to provide more stable Zoom and VPN experiences.​

We don’t know the specific answer to this yet, however one telework principle established by the Chancellor’s Cabinet is to “Seek ways to optimize space utilization, including creating shared worked spaces and “returning space” that is underutilized”. Therefore, if your department has a large percentage of staff that are teleworking, the expectation is that some of the department’s space would be relinquished for high priority needs. 

As UCSF embraces ongoing telework, a FAS staff member needs to be consistently on-site at least four days per week to have an assigned space. Administrative staff on-site less than four days per week will use shared space. 

We will use EMS, a system already in place for scheduling spaces at UCSF, available through MyAccess. More information will be available once we know which spaces will be shared. 

Telework may not work for everyone. If telework isn’t working for you, talk to your manager about returning to onsite space at UCSF.  

This will be an ongoing process as we work to understand what is needed to perform our work in this new work future. 

We are currently working with Steelcase to conduct focus groups to understand each department’s workspace needs and how teams collaborate. Steelcase will provide recommendations, and department leadership will make decisions based on what works best for them. 

We can’t know how our new spaces are working out until we use them, so we will hold vacated space for a period of time so we can check and adjust. Doing so will allow us to test our assumptions about how much space we actually need. After our check and adjust period, vacated space we don’t use will go back to the Chancellor, to be made available to other UCSF departments.