NETS Policy Document
ALL NCAR/UCAR POLICIES MUST BE ADHERED TO AND HAVE PRECEDENCE
OVER THESE INTERNAL NETS POLICIES
See the UCAR Policy Manual
Absences
"Absence" means vacation, sick leave, family sick leave, overnight business travel,
leave without pay, generally any reason why you are not at work. The absence type,
i.e. vacation, sick, etc., should be stated in the notice. Section Head (SH) or
the Assistant Section Head (ASH).
- If you take vacation, regardless of the duration, you must have prior approval
of the SH or the ASH.
- If you ask for vacation, your request must be submitted in writing via
electronic mail to the SH and ASH for prior approval.
- If you know ahead of time that you are going to be absent from work, your
absence, regardless of reason or duration, must be announced via email to
nets@ncar and recorded on your and the section
calendar.
- If you are absent unexpectedly, the SH must be notified directly via on
of the NETS Administrative Assistants (NAA). Preferably send email to nets@ncar.
- If you are going to be gone for more than one day, the following should
be done:
Work Hours
- As networking professionals responsible for principle production networks
at a national laboratory, we are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. By
nature, the exempt employees do not have 8-to-5, forty hour a week jobs. However,
we do try to exclude staff who are absent for some reason from receiving trouble
calls from Operations due to problems with the production networks.
- We will attempt to keep non-exempt staff to a forty hour a week job if
at all possible. Any nonexempt overtime must be approved by the Section Head
or the Assistant Section Head ahead of time.
- When the SH is absent, they will delegate an acting Section Head to act
on their behalf. A formal "Delegation of Authority" email memo is issued to
nets@ncar.ucar.edu and deleg@ucar.edu.
In addition, a hard copy of this document must accompany any paperwork which
bears the acting Section Head's signature while acting in that capacity. This
is required by UCAR by-laws in order to temporarily transfer signature authority.
A copy of the "Delegation of Authority" can be found with the NETS Administrative
Assistant.
- It is always possible that we may have to cancel vacation or bring you
back from business travel prematurely. We work hard to minimize this, and
it will only be used as an absolute last resort. But it is always a possibility.
- While traveling, whether on business or vacation, some of you may be required
to take a portable computer, pager, and/or a cellular phone.
- There is no official UCAR policy regarding compensation time ("comp time"),
that is, time off for extra time worked. As professionals, we are all frequently
called upon to work longer than the standard work week. However, the Section
Head is willing to allow staff to negotiate special hardship situations. All
comp time must be approved by the Section Head or the Assistant Section Head.
Hardship situations still have to follow the rules in this document and in
the UCAR Policies and Procedures manual.
- Flexible work hours ("flex time") and compressed work weeks (e.g. four
day weeks) are officially up to the discretion of the Section Head with the
approval of the Division Director. Your request must be submitted in written
hardcopy to the Section head for prior approval. Any flex time or compressed
schedules must follow the rules in the UCAR Policies and Procedures manual.
- Based on the Fair Labor Standards Act, nonexempt employees are to be given
a 15-minute break in the morning and afternoon. These breaks are paid. Total
breaks are not to exceed 30 minutes in one day. These breaks cannot be waived
in order to shorten the work day.
- Add nonexempt overtime
Presentations
- When you are going to make a presentation for an SCD group or external
audience, that presentation must be "dry run" to a group chosen by the Section
Head. You have the responsibility of scheduling the dry run based on availability
of the Section Head and notifying the NETS of the time and place via email
and via the section electronic calendar.
Travel
- When you travel on business, including attending classes, conferences,
workshops, etc., regardless of duration, you must write a trip report, typically
just a page or two, describing where you went, why, how it was valuable to
the Section, what you learned, etc. You must submit the report, by electronic
mail to nets@ncar. This must be done before
the Section Head will sign any travel reimbursement paperwork. This shares
the knowledge with others and helps the Section Head to evaluate the value
of attending specific conferences, etc.
Purchases
- All purchases must be approved by the pre-approval team before the purchase
is made. This includes purchase requisitions, blanket purchase requisitions,
petty cash, credit card charges, books, periodical subscriptions, etc. All
purchase requests will be made using the proper electronic form.
- All books and periodicals purchased by UCAR/NCAR are the property of UCAR/NCAR.
Laptop Carriers
- NETS will reimburse up to $40/person/4 years (the life of a laptop - so when you get a new laptop you can request a new backpack/carrier). If you want to spend more on a backpack/carrier than that, that is fine, just bring the receipt to the NETS Administrative Assistant, and they will put through a check request for $40.
- For carriers less than $40 that are from companies UCAR can purchase
direct from (verified per order), you can submit a PR and the NETS Administrative Assistant will order directly.
Safety
- All safety issues will be brought to the attention of the Section Head
immediately, including any workman's compensation issues. The Section Head
will determine the appropriate actions. The Section Head will contact or delegate
a section member to contact the UCAR Safety Officer if needed.
Work Requests
- All work requests will be submitted using the appropriate electronic form
or directly through Extraview. Work requests will be closed and/or updated
using the appropriate electronic form or the Extraview System.
- All work requests designated as requiring Section design approval by the
Section Head will be approved by the entire NET Section in parallel before
proceeding with any work or purchases.
- Requests for work by other sections in SCD should be submitted using the
appropriate electronic form found at: https://cislcustomersupport.ucar.edu/evj/ExtraView
- Requests for work by FSS should be submitted via the web form at: https://nets.ucar.edu/nets/forms/internal/MaintReq.html
Time Cards
- Time cards will be filled out appropriately based on the work done and
charge numbers indicated in the work request. Specifically, the time spent
on SCD work requests should be charged to 130801 and repair/maintenance parts
should be charged to 130209. Parts that were charged out of 333680, which
are used for SCD (or any other division) and are not used for normal growth
must be charged back. Time should be recorded against 333680 if the account
key is for any other division besides SCD. The chargeback is to be prepared
with materials and labor by NETS administrative staff.
- Time spent working on requests which are to be charged back to divisions
should be recorded against 333680 on the time card. This time must also be
recorded on the work request so NETS can be reimbursed.
Meeting Scheduler
- To allow meetings to be set up in such a way that anyone in NETS can make
changes, an account has been created in Meeting Maker. The name of the "user"
is netsadmn (NOTE: it stands for "NETS Administrator", but the "i" is missing
to make it hard to remember). The password is in the usual place. A
UNIX account exists on NIWOT with the same name and password. You can propose
and change meetings to netsadmn by becoming a proxy; you do not have to login
as netsadmn.
Change Control
- All changes made by NETS personnel must use the appropriate change control
procedures.
- When troubleshooting, contact the appropriate responsible expert NETS personnel
if at all possible when a problem is escalating in order to minimize network
downtime and troubleshooting time. See the following for the appropriate responsible
person: NETS Responsibility
Matrix
Educational Outreach
- NETS supports activities for Education and Outreach in the area of networking.
- If you are requested to participate in an Education and Outreach event,
such as a presentation, science fair judging, education proposal review, etc.,
simply email the Section Head and Assistant Section Head to confirm the appropriateness
of this event to be sanctioned by NETS and approval to use work time for this
event, and if approved, submit a Work
Request noting this is for Education and Outreach.
NETS Standard Services
- Option to purchase a laptop backpack or travel bag with the approved order
of a work laptop
- Digital camera
- Monitor size
- Port replicator/docking station
- Printers
- Scanners
There are exceptions to all rules. These will be considered by Section Head
on a case by case basis.