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Professional Staff Organization

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UWHR updates COVID-19 related policies and online resources

UWHR continues to work with senior leadership on guidance and resources to support you and your organizations in welcoming staff working remotely back to campus this September and we anticipate guidance and resources being available in May. The Back-to-the-Workplace Task Force web page is kept current with planning efforts.

On the UWHR website, you can now find a new hiring resource

Developing and extending the offer: Learn what to include in a conditional offer of employment and understand timing of the final stages of the hiring process.

COVID-19 related policy updates and extensions

FAQs related to COVID-19 vaccine release time: Find frequent questions and answers related to the COVID-19 vaccine release time policy.

I-9 completion requirements change: The waiver of physical review requirements for employees operating remotely remains in place until either May 31, 2021, the termination of the national emergency, or when normal University operations resume under the phased reopening proclamation, whichever comes first.

Accommodation for employees at high-risk for COVID-19: Governor Inslee’s Proclamation 20-46 High Risk Employees – Workers’ Rights was updated April 8, 2021 to allow employers to request medical verification when a high-risk employee (as defined by the Centers for Disease Control) requests an accommodation, beginning April 23, 2021. Additionally, no changes may be made to an existing accommodation without providing an employee 14 days’ advance written notice itemizing changes.

Waiver of the1,050 hour limit for temporary hourly staff has been extended, approval for campus positions remains required: Temporary hourly staff employees working in critical positions essential to maintain safe hospital and institutional operations during the COVID-19 state of emergency period remain exempt from the UW’s 950-hour limit and the state’s 1,050-hour maximum until June 30, 2021.

  • Campus departments: Contact your HR consultant to request approval for a temporary hourly employee to exceed 1,050 hours. The department must explain how the temporary hourly employee meets the criteria of working in a critical position essential to maintain safe institutional operations during the COVID-19 state of emergency.
  • Medical centers positions are considered essential to maintaining safe hospital operations and do not follow an approval process.

It is unlikely that this exemption will remain in place past June 30, 2021. Employees who have exceeded the 1050-hour limit as of June 30, 2021 will be unable to work additional hours in a temporary hourly capacity after that date.

Other Working during COVID-19 website changes

The following webpages that were specific to the early phases of the pandemic and are no longer necessary have been sunset from the Working during COVID-19 website.

  • Managing student hourly employment
  • Managing temporary hourly employment
  • Recruitment and hiring during COVID-19
  • Spring quarter 2020 academic student employee appointments
  • Time off extensions

Please contact your employment representative if you have hiring-related questions or your HR consultant if you have questions related to policy.

PSO Spring Celebration 2021

Join the PSO Board to celebrate and connect as a community!

Hear from UW President Ana Mari Cauce, meet the newly elected PSO Board members, and celebrate our year together. Look for more information coming soon.

When: May 26, 3-4pm
Where: Zoom

Register today!

BE THE MATCH PANEL: advocacy organization managing the world’s largest marrow registry. 

The Whole U invites you, your family, and friends to join for an evening panel with Be The Match – an education, research and advocacy organization managing the world’s largest marrow registry.

This registry is essential to connecting people living with life-threatening blood diseases and cancers, to life-saving donors—like YOU! A cure to cancer exists, but matches are needed on the registry from all of us. Growing and diversifying the registry is essential to saving lives, and The University of Washington is committed to diversifying the donor list so that all people have an equal opportunity to find a cure.

This event is on Monday, April 26 at 5:00 p.m. Don’t miss this Zoom.

Register Here

April 15th: UW Accreditation Staff Forum

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), the accrediting body for the UW, will conduct the university’s evaluation on April 14-16, 2021. This occurs every seven years and will assess the UW’s initiatives and efforts related to student success, institutional effectiveness and mission, as well as governance, resources and capacity. As part of that process, the NWCCU will hold an open forum for staff on Thursday April 15th from 9-9:50 a.m.

Staff members interested in meeting with the evaluators should register via this link. Zoom links and passcodes will be sent to registrants the morning of the forum and posted on the provost’s website.

More information on this process and to access links to the student and faculty forums can be found on UW News.

LinkedIn Learning for higher education staff!

FREE Professional Development for UW Staff – LinkedIn Learning brought to you by the Student Technology Fee.
The LinkedIn Learning team has developed a webinar specifically for higher education staff at 9:00am on April 14th:
LinkedIn Learning https://careers.uw.edu/linkedin-learning/ is an on-demand video learning platform for enhancing professional, personal, and academic skills.
Learn more about LinkedIn Learning and log in with your UW credentials at www.linkedinlearning.uw.edu
Hope to see you all at the webinar!

Apply now to join the 2021 – 2023 PSO Board Member Cohort

Seeking Professional staff from the Medical, Research, Administration and Academic sectors of the University system

Submit your application to the PSO Board here

Why Join the PSO Board?

 

  • Learn more about UW and the professional staff role, share ideas, resources and connections, and make impactful contacts all across campus! 

 

  • Support and advocate for professional staff by working with UW leadership at the President’s office, Human Resources, WholeU, faculty committees, and the membership.

 

  • Develop leadership skills by chairing a committee, organizing outreach, and supporting our various events with a supportive group of colleagues.

 

  • Make an impact on the more than 10,000 professional staff! Board members work together to advocate for and enrich our roles at the UW.

 

  • Meet and network with other professional staff from across the Seattle, Bothell, and Tacoma campuses, Harborview Medical Center, and UW Medical Center  

 

Commitment: Elected board members, on average, spend a few hours per week on board activities (monthly meetings, committee meetings, faculty councils. See Job description for more details)

We are now accepting applications for 2021-2023 board members.  The application deadline is:  April 30, 2021.

Term starts July 1st, 2021

Submit your application to the PSO Board here

Statement of solidarity with AAPI community

The Professional Staff Organization condemns the abhorrent violence against Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community members. The horrific shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday March 16, that claimed the lives of eight people, six of whom were of Asian descent and seven of whom were women, exemplify the intersectional oppression that so many minoritized people face: racism, misogyny, classism and beyond. We recognize that these murders punctuate the context of a sickening increase in anti-Asian violence, harassment and bigotry around the country as well as locally, as President Cauce and others have noted. Over the past year, Asian diasporic people have been targets of nearly 4,000 reported hate incidents in the United States, and in King County these reports have risen from 39 in 2019 to 59 in 2020. Even before the pandemic started, Asian Americans were the third most targeted race/ethnicity group, following Black Americans and Jewish Americans. Such violence is a particularly despicable aspect of the deep, tangled roots of bigotry and xenophobia in our society. The myth that the AAPI community has not been impacted by white supremacy and systemic racism dismisses and ignores people’s experiences and stories and has sometimes left AAPI community members out of the anti-racism conversation.

 

The PSO stands in solidarity with the communities under attack right now, and holds space for the grief in this moment. We are with you. We see you. 

 

We encourage all those who can to take action. This may include the following (thank you to The Revolutionary Love Project and Common Power for posting these ideas):

  1. Learn the names and stories of those we lost. Six names have been released so far. Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Julie Park, 70’s; Hyun-jeong Park Grant, 50’s.
  2. Check in with family and friends in the AAPI community, listen to their stories, for as long they want to talk about it.
  3. Contact your representatives and advocate for policies that thwart hate crimes and violence, and that support progress toward institutional anti-racism and justice for all.
  4. If you see racism, say something. Strong allyship behavior needs to be modeled over and over again.
  5. Donate to stopaapihate.org. Historically, less than 1% of philanthropic resources go to AAPI communities.
  6. Donate to napawf.org, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, specifically their Atlanta chapter.
  7. Get involved with groups like the Revolutionary Love Project who are helping to direct resources to victims’ families and organizers on the ground.

 

Other resources: 

 

MARCH 2021 EVENTS – Join us

MARCH EVENTS:      

Click to register now (find more details below)

 

  • Professional Staff Organization (PSO) Social Hour – March 18, 2021,  4pm-5pm 

We are all stuck at home, but things are still happening! 

Professional staff is still working; people are still using scholarships, the PSO is still trying to connect with and advocate for Professional staff members
Join us for a fun social hour and a guided drink-making session on March 18, 2021, 4:00-5:00 PM
Sign up to receive an ingredient list for the cocktail/mocktail recipe:
REGISTER HERE
Talk to us &/ find out more about the PSO and meet other Professional Staff in the UW community.  We look forward to seeing you there. 

 

  • The Power of Positivity with UW Alum Tony Adkins – March 19th, 2021,  2pm-3pm 

Sessions

Location Date Start Time End Time
Virtual 03-19-2021 2:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
DescriptionUW Alum Tony Adkins has taken social media by storm. Currently a physician assistant at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Southern California and neurosurgery physician’s assistant at CHOC Children’s, his joyous videos and words of encouragement inspire over 2 million followers and garner media attention and the affectionate “Dancing Doc” nickname.

Hear Tony share his personal journey and his unique approach in connecting with his young patients and healthcare colleagues in a meaningful way. His message of inclusion, connection, and showing love through dance is one that resonates clearly as we continue to face a multitude of social pandemics.

Following his story, a diverse group of leaders from across UW will join Tony to discuss developing a positive mindset and making a difference in the work you do.

 

  • State Relations 2021 Legislative Update – March 26, 2021,  1:00-1:30pm

Week 11: Budget proposals and their potential impact
Register to join here. UW NetID required to participate.
Join the Office of State Relations on March 26th for a quick update on the 2021 legislative session. State Relations Director Joe Dacca will share the latest news from Olympia and answer your questions. In addition to reviewing the status of current budget proposals, he will provide an update on several bills the State Relations team is monitoring, including SB 5323. You are invited to submit your questions in advance of the meeting to extrnaff@uw.edu. 

 

 

 

You may also be interested in this event:   

36th District Legislators Virtual Town Hall

Monday, March 15th at 7:00 PM PDT

View via YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook.

 

March 18, 2021, PSO Social Hour

We are all stuck at home, but things are still happening! 

Professional staff is still working; people are still using scholarships, the PSO is still trying to connect with and advocate for Professional staff members
Join us for a fun social hour and a guided drink-making session on March 18, 2021, 4:00-5:00 PM
Sign up to receive an ingredient list for the cocktail/mocktail recipe:
https://washington.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYpcuugrzwjHNWy-TfGe3epF5HL-sJhDCPu
Talk to us &/ find out more about the PSO and meet other Professional Staff in the UW community.  We look forward to seeing you there.