Thank you for your rapid and comprehensive responses to completing and submitting your return-to-office plans. We have received approximately 70 county plans for partial re-openings of offices to address essential and time-critical Extension activities that cannot be performed virtually. The majority of our employees are still in telework most days, but are planning to stagger or alternate days at the office to accomplish those activities that are increasingly impossible to achieve in telework environments, especially as it relates to preparation for junior fairs, canner testing, soil testing and diagnostics, and some general responsiveness to community access. Most counties have identified certain days of the week for various program areas and are alternating days and hours to ensure physical distancing of staff, while offering well-rounded coverage. There are approximately five offices where county commissioners have not opened their buildings and, therefore, no county partial re-openings are currently needed.
By Appointment Only (clarification of expectations): Most of the plans include office doors locked, but with certain days and times available for being open to the public by appointment only. The expectation is that if you are advertising that you are open to the public by appointment only, you need to be physically available in the office so if clientele call or drop by, they can request and receive an appointment without having to wait until someone drives there or be forced to wait for a different day. It doesn’t help to advertise available to the public by appointment if we are not there on-site to actually take and hold appointments.
Required Daily Health Checks: For those of you who are now going into the offices as part of the return-to-office exemption, remember that you are to make your supervisor aware of your completion of the daily health check. Please send them an email including the following:
I am required to report to my supervisor, *** a “health check” when reporting to the office during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to reporting to the office on [insert date]:
- I checked my temperature, and I do not have a fever of 100 or more.
- I do not have any COVID-19 related symptoms.
- I have not been exposed to, nor live with someone who has tested positive with the COVID-19 virus.
Signed,
Your name here
We are hoping to have an Ohio State app soon for daily health checks to replace these emails. We will make you aware of the tool when it becomes available.