Pines Encourages Flexible Summer Schedules for Faculty, Staff

University of Maryland President Darryll J. Pines sent the following email to the campus community today:

Our university community persevered through an unusually challenging period, particularly over the past two academic years. You have met many challenges with professionalism, creativity and great energy.

A guiding principle of our new strategic plan is: "We invest in people, their well-being and advancement, and the conditions that support their ability to fully participate and thrive in our community, state, and world." Our employees are critical to the university's success as we move Fearlessly Forward. We value the dedicated work of our faculty and staff, and acknowledge that perceptions and experiences around work and the workplace are changing.

Recognizing that many faculty and staff need a break from the intensity of work of the past 2 ½ years, we encourage:

• Employees to take advantage of annual leave this summer.
  
• Increased use of our flexible work policies this summer. For the period May 31 through Aug. 19, the university encourages supervisors to be generous with flexible work options for employees. These options include:
  
• Flexible work hours;
  
• Alternative work weeks (for example, working four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days); and
  
• Telework opportunities for eligible positions.
  

We recognize that more flexible schedules do not work uniformly for all staff in all units. For some, the summer is an extremely busy time. It is our hope that those who cannot take advantage of this flexibility during the summer will do so at another time this year. University Human Resources will follow up with additional details and guidelines for supervisors.

We want to continue to invest in our people and our communities. We hope this flexibility will provide the needed change in pace as we prepare for the start of a new academic year. We are grateful for your service to our university.

Sincerely,

Darryll J. Pines
President, University of Maryland
He/Him/His