Telework Forms & Requests

To request a telework arrangement, please get in touch with your department's administrator, and they will start a case on your behalf in Interfolio. Once the form has been filled out your direct supervisor/manager will need to review and approve/deny. If approved it will go on to the unit leadership (Chair or Director), who will review and approve/deny. Finally, the Dean's office will review and if approved, retain a copy of the finalized agreement for HR purposes.

For training, please refer to the following videos:

• Interfolio Administrator: Creating cases
• Chair or Director: How to review and approve/deny cases
• Employee: How to fill out and submit a telework request
• Supervisor or Manager: How to review, add your comments, and submit a telework agreement for your employee
• How to find and log in to Interfolio

A couple of operational tips and tricks;

• All telework requests must be submitted utilizing Interfolio.
• When the direct supervisor tries to add their comments the form doesn't always appear, please clear your browsing history and cookies, then refresh the page. The form should then appear, but please feel free to reach out to Susan Miller if you continue to have problems. 
• When the Chair or Director sends the case forward to the Dean's office for review please uncheck the "send email notification" checkbox. The Dean's office can do without an email notification for each case.
• Notifying the employee sends an automatic email notification to the employee.
• Submitting the case to the direct supervisor/manager automatically emails your immediate supervisor/manager. 
• When submitting the case to the unit leadership (Chair/Director) you can chose to send an email notification or not. 

Guidance and Principles for Chairs - Concerning Remote Work by Staff
                                                                       
College of Arts and Sciences – August 2023

The College of Arts and Sciences supports limited Telework by staff to the extent that the department can accommodate this privilege following the attached guidelines and meeting departmental objectives.
As a general best practice, telework arrangements must be consistent with departmental goals and policies and should be for no more than two working days per week. Any proposed telework arrangement for more than two days is an exception to this guidance and is subject to greater scrutiny.
Requests to work remotely will only be approved if the work to be performed can be efficiently completed at a remote location AND if the department's or program's needs to staff the office can be met while accommodating remote work.
In considering requests from staff for the privilege to work remotely either for part (hybrid) or all of the work week, please keep in mind the following:

• The University of Washington (UW) is a Washington State agency. The State, and therefore, the UW, expects us to be open to the public, especially to our students, during regular business hours. Therefore, department and program offices must have staff physically present to receive and guide stakeholders during regular business hours. For most offices, regular business hours will be from 8 am until 5 pm, Mondays through Fridays. Nor should it be solely the responsibility of a single staff member to "cover" the office while all other staff work remotely. For personal safety reasons, we strongly recommend that no staff member be left alone in an office for extended periods.
• Requests from staff to work off-site (Telework) for one or more days of the week should be evaluated first and foremost concerning the unit's mission and the business needs that flow from that mission. For example, an instructional unit may have significantly less flexibility to approve remote work requests than a research unit.
• Formal telework agreements are required to establish a remote work schedule. All such agreements should be reviewed before September 15, 2023, and modified as necessary. The Department Chair and the Dean's Office must approve all such agreements before they take effect. Approved requests are only effective for one year and must be renewed annually. 
• Requests for remote work should be grounded in equity, and staff with similar work responsibilities in departments and programs should have equal opportunities for flexible work agreements.
• In an emergency, such as an earthquake or a fire requiring evacuation of a building, there MUST be a clear record of who is working in the building on any given day. Formal agreements for remote work are necessary to ensure such a record exists. A staff member's official workplace is their UW office. UW will not provide office equipment or furniture for a home office, even if a staff member has been approved for remote work.