The Resident Life Director’s Suite (2101 Annapolis) is open from 8:30 am-5:00 pm each business day.  Satellite offices are typically open from 8:30 am-4:30 pm, with staff available to respond to phone calls and individual visits during that time. The university’s standard business hours are from 8:30 am-5:00 pm. Specific guidelines can be set by individual supervisors or unit heads (regarding which staff members need to be available, expanded hours during certain times of year, etc.). Please note: Office hours refers to the space, not the staff within the space - guidelines regarding time worked, required breaks, etc. are based on individual staff members.

Coverage by position type (i.e., if at least one CD per side of campus needs to be available or if a member from Leadership Team needs to be accessible each day) will be determined by supervisors and unit heads.

Position expectations about late night coverage for programming, student meetings, conduct hearings and other events will be conveyed by individual supervisors.  

It is important that each staff member use their allotted time away throughout the course of the year to ensure a healthy work/life balance. Please plan your time away in consideration of others in your unit to ensure everyone is able to meet their needs and office coverage is accomplished.  Use of annual and personal leave needs to be requested and approved, in advance, by your supervisor.  Additionally, if you are sick please stay at home and care for yourself and use the sick leave that you have earned. You should notify your supervisor and others who need to know of your absence when you will be out sick, and reschedule any necessary meetings. Your supervisor will set expectations regarding how notification should be made (text, email, phone etc.). 

Resident Life staff will receive automatic email reminders to sign-off on their timesheets (and approve timesheets) every other Friday and supervisors should approve these timesheets by the close of business the following Monday. Supervisors may set their own additional standards for timely completion of timesheets.

Leave types include (but are not limited to) Annual Leave, Holiday Leave, Personal Leave, Sick Leave, Sick & Safe Leave, Parental Leave, Advanced Sick Leave, Family Medical Leave, and Administrative Leave. Each leave type has a different set of standards and accrual rates. For instance, Annual and Sick Leave are earned based on length of employment. Staff members are also given three personal leave days each calendar year. Administrative leave is typically used when the university closes for inclement weather and early holiday breaks. Information about these leave types is available at University HR's Leave Policy webpage.

Staff in Resident Life's Human Resources unit will notify staff regarding the completion of timesheets, particularly for non-regular work schedules (break duty, inclement weather, end-of-year loss of leave, holiday pay during winter break, etc.). Holiday schedules and pay dates are also available. Additional information about entering leave and/or completing timesheets can be found on University HR's Time and Absence webpage.

The University provides guidelines for the approval of different leave types. Each supervisor should review these and their own expectations regarding leave (for instance, how to request and how far in advance to request). For Annual and Personal Leave, staff need prior-approval from their direct supervisor. Some offices or positions or times of the year may require a minimum level of staffing and requests for time away may be denied. Sick Leave does not need prior approval, but when possible, staff should arrange for appointments that do not disrupt office operations. 

When staff are out of the office on approved leave, they should:

• Activate work email vacation responder with an out-of-office auto-reply message that indicates the dates that you are away from the office, and who to contact for assistance during your absence.  Consider using the sample language from the Res Life Style Guide:

Thank you for your message. I will be away from the office from DAY/DATE to DAY/DATE.  (staff is welcome to add text about whether or not you will have access to email but this is your preference. I will have limited access to email.)

If you need assistance from a Resident Life staff member during business hours, please contact the NAME Office at PHONE NUMBER.

If you need assistance from a Resident Life staff member outside our regular business hours of 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., please contact the appropriate 24-hour residence hall service desk. 

If you have an emergency, please contact the University of Maryland Police at (301) 405-3333.

I will respond to messages as soon as possible when I return to campus on DAY/DATE.

• Update work voicemail to indicate they are out of the office and identify a point of contact for callers

• Make arrangements for the completion of any critical tasks that occur while out (this may include regular tasks such as timesheet completion and approval or event specific deadlines and tasks to be completed).

• Touch base with co-workers, suitemates, and other department and university partners who may be contacting you to see if you can answer any questions or complete any tasks before you leave.

When staff are out of the office on approved leave, they are not expected to check or respond to email, check or respond to voicemail, or complete most work tasks (except critical non-negotiable deadlines like timesheet completion).  However, staff are expected to plan, in advance, for approved leave to ensure that a point of contact is identified so those who need assistance can seek help during your approved leave.  Some positions may require some level of engagement while out of the office, but this should be negotiated with supervisors when the request to be out is made. Staff will be compensated for time worked during approved leave, according to university policy.

Staff may wish to consider some work schedules that provide increased flexibility. The three most common of these adjusted work schedules are flextime, compressed work schedule, and telework. 

Flextime is a work schedule with daily start and end times that are different from the University's standard business hours of 8:30 am - 5:00 pm, or that are different from the work unit's standard shift hours. 

A compressed work schedule allows an employee to regularly work a traditional full-time workweek in less than the traditional number of workdays. For example, a full-time employee scheduled for 40 hours per week could work four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days. Or, an employee works a standard 80-hour pay-period in fewer than 10 workdays. 

Telework refers to working from home or another remote location on a regular basis. Your supervisor should be able to provide you with our more detailed departmental telework guidelines and an approval form. Additional information is available on UHR's Telework webpage. 

These options may not be suitable for every position or during certain times of the year. Suitability will be considered by the supervisor upon an analysis of the employee’s job responsibilities. If a position is determined to be suitable for flextime, a compressed work schedule, or telework, then the employee and supervisor will work out a mutually agreed upon work schedule. These options may be more suitable during summer months when we have fewer students in residence.

These arrangements can be for part of the work week or work day, a temporary arrangement, or a semi-permanent arrangement, and can be reevaluated by the staff member and supervisor at any time. Standards for episodic, as-needed arrangements are very different from permanent, long-term arrangements. Circumstances may also arise that warrant your presence on campus on a scheduled telework day or to work a more traditional work schedule. Adjusted schedules must not impede customer service or operational effectiveness.

Information about these options and forms to complete are provided each semester by the Human Resouces team within Res Life.

The State of Maryland and the University have detailed information regarding pay, overtime, and compensatory time. This section is just a summary of some of the available information and how it applies to our department. These specific policies can be found on the University of Maryland System website.

Exempt positions are salaried positions that are not subject to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Exempt employees are ineligible to receive overtime and a full-time commitment typically requires a minimum of 40 hours per work week. Exempt employees are expected to work the hours necessary to complete assignments on a schedule that satisfies the requirements of the job.

Nonexempt positions are subject to coverage under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Full-time nonexempt employees are normally required to work 40 hours a week and they must record and account for all hours and fractional hours worked. Nonexempt staff must be paid for all hours worked. Any hours that are worked in excess of 40 hours in a work week must be paid at a rate of time and one-half the regular hourly rate of pay, or non-exempt staff can take comp time instead of overtime.

All changes to the set workweek must be approved by the Unit Head or designee in advance. The hours and days of employment may vary to meet operational demands, provided they adhere to wage and hour laws and provide reasonable notice to the employee.

In Resident Life, our staff sometimes have responsibilities in the evenings & weekends (programs, events, duty, move-in & move-out activities, etc.). In those cases, staff can work with their supervisors and unit heads to establish temporary schedule adjustments to account for these additional hours. For instance, a staff member on duty who has to respond to a lengthy duty call in the middle of the night may arrange with their supervisor to come in at a later time the next day. Or a staff member who works many hours over move-in weekend may take off one of the days the following week. In each case, the staff member is temporarily adjusting their work schedule, but is still marking those days as “duty days” in their timesheet.

The Resident Life practice of accounting for hours worked in evenings and weekends should never contradict the system policies or deny nonexempt staff the right to receive overtime.