Staff Handbook

Introduction

The staff handbook will be a collection of the essential policies and procedures we expect a staff member to be aware of. The online version will be the most up to date, but if needed we should be able to print out a hard copy for new staff members to formally agree to when they are hired. We can include all relevant pages in a single document without duplication using the following syntax:

=Staff Discipline Policy=

{{:Staff Discipline Policy}}

=Hiring Policy=

{{:Hiring Policy}}

Since we will want a sane table of contents we should develop a consistent format for all included pages.

Advances on Payroll to Staff Members

Advances on Payroll to Staff Members

Arriving Late and Cancellations

Arriving Late and Cancellations Policy: You on staff? You going to be late? You better read this.
List of Policies - Policy Development

Policy

This is a long standing policy, set by the staff collective prior to 2005. Updated by the staff collective and HR in Spring 2011.

Revised by the staff collective in February 2012 as the Call-In_Policy.

Asking for Vacation Policy

This old policy has been superseded by Staff Vacation Policies.

The Free Geek Collective ceased to exist on February 28, 2013. For information on current staff, please go to Staff. For detailed information about the re-organization of Free Geek's management structure, please go to 2013_Restructuring_Documents.

Policy

This policy was last updated on November 7, 2007 at the HR Meeting.

Rate of Accrual for Collective Members

Collective members accrue sick and vacation time at the rate of 3.6 weeks per year. This is a straight fraction of every hour paid that currently works out to 0.0692 hours for each hour worked. There is no difference between sick and vacation time in terms of accounting.

Taking hours before they have accrued

Collective members must have already accrued their vacation hours prior to taking the vacation time. However, the collective member should be allowed to take sick time in advance when necessary for actual sickness or otherwise approved by the collective. (For instance in the case of a family emergency, the collective could allow the worker to take time not yet earned.)

Notification

Workers should use common sense in announcing general vacation plans as far in advance as is possible within reason.

Workers must request vacation time in advance with the specific times they will be away from work clearly stated. This should be done on the staff mailing list and at a staff meeting. All requests should be posted to the staff calendar as soon as feasible. Also make relevant coordinators aware of scheduling changes that affect their areas (i.e., if hours go down or if a different person will be covering a shift in their area).

If there is enough lead time, discussion should take place at a staff meeting, rather than on the staff list.

Approval

The staff can grant or deny specific vacation requests. When denying a vacation the staff must clearly state the reason for denial. The staff must make efforts to accommodate any worker asking for vacation providing the worker has accrued the hours required for the vacation and gave a reasonable amount of notice.

In the event that two or more workers want overlapping vacations, the staff may determine that there is a conflict and will need to decide which worker may take the vacation. In that event the following procedure must be followed:

• First, the contending workers should be asked to try to work out the conflict.
• If the conflict cannot be resolved, the staff should grant vacation using the following priority:
  • Already approved requests receive the highest priority.
  • If neither request has yet been approved, the worker with the most seniority receives the next highest priority.
  • In the event that two workers have equal seniority, the vacation will be decided by a coin toss.

Collective Member Review Policy

The Free Geek Collective ceased to exist on February 28, 2013. For information on current staff, please go to Staff. For detailed information about the re-organization of Free Geek's management structure, please go to 2013_Restructuring_Documents.

This policy was last updated at a Staff Collective meeting on Friday, June 29, 2012.

Purpose

Regular performance reviews of staff is a best practice for organizations of all sizes and missions. They should not replace informal communication or serve as a formal complaint process; instead, they are opportunities to help staff align themselves with the expectations that are placed on them and to assist them in achieving their stated goals in their positions. Where appropriate, Free Geek also uses the review process to help the Collective make a decision about the status of a member within the Collective.

Performance evaluation is a core supervisory function. Supervisory relationships must be characterized by open and honest communication in order to be both effective and ethical. At Free Geek, we have chosen to have collective supervision of Collective members. It is therefore inappropriate and counterproductive to have anonymous commenting by Collective members during the Collective performance review process. It is also inappropriate and ineffective for a supervisor to refuse to conduct performance evaluations. Timely participation in all Collective reviews is a performance expectation of each Collective member, and anonymous commenting is not allowed.

Free Geek aspires to a democratic and, where possible, non-hierarchical organizational culture. Bargaining unit employees are therefore invited to provide feedback as part of Collective member reviews. This participation is never mandatory, and it will always be anonymous unless an individual employee requests to be identified in connection with their feedback.

Collective members currently are reviewed around 3 months after hire, around 6 months after hire, and annually around their dates of hire.

The HR Administrator is currently the review coordinator for all Collective members except for him- or herself. Another member of the HR Committee should be chosen in a timely manner to coordinate the HR Administrator's review.

Procedure and Timeline

1. HR should maintain a list of current job descriptions on the wiki.
2. HR should create or update a separate instance of an online review survey for each staff member to be reviewed.
3. In the last week of each month, HR should sends out an email publicizing which Collective members' reviews are coming up in the next month. (Who they are and whether the reviews are 3-month, 6-month, annual or ad-hoc.) The email has links to the job descriptions and the review surveys.
4. The deadline for feedback that will be formally incorporated into reviews should be the 10th of the month. Feedback received after that should still be looked at, but it should be treated as informal.
5. Review coordinators should encourage direct co-workers in person to complete their forms by the 10th.
6. Each review coordinator should forward the results of each survey to the reviewed staff member by the 15th.
7. Review coordinators should sit down with reviewed staff members by the 20th.
8. Reviewed staff should complete their written responses to questions, concerns and criticisms by the 25th. Collective members should send their full responses to the staff collective list and redacted (as necessary) responses to the paidworkers list.
9. Collective member reviews should be discussed at the Collective meeting on the last Friday of the month, unless it falls before the 28th, in which case they should be discussed on the first Friday of the following month. These discussions should be substantive and should occur in the absence of the reviewed Collective member.
10. The HR Committee should take the results of the Collective meeting discussion of reviews and prepare draft goals and expectations documents to be approved at the next Collective meeting. These documents should guide staff activities and feedback over the next review cycle.

Outcomes

• Each review should result in an overall performance evaluation of Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory.
• An evaluation of Satisfactory or above is needed at a 6-month review in order to promote a Collective member to full Collective status.
• An evaluation of Needs Improvement at a 6-month review triggers an ad-hoc review to occur in another 3 months, i.e., a 9-month review. An evaluation of Unsatisfactory at a 6-month review triggers termination.
• An evaluation of either Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory at a 9-month review triggers termination.
• Since consensus is required to award full Collective status, failure to reach consensus about an evaluation following a 6-month or 9-month review triggers termination.

Converting Interns to Collective Members

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The Free Geek Collective ceased to exist on February 28, 2013. For information on current staff, please go to Staff. For detailed information about the re-organization of Free Geek's management structure, please go to 2013_Restructuring_Documents.

Policy

At the Council meeting September 15, 2004

An existing non-collective worker may be moved directly into a collective position that's sufficiently similar to their current work without going through a lengthy, biased hiring process if the collective can reach a unanimous decision (no stand asides).

notes

Context

The staff collective would like to be able to (in certain circumstances) move an intern or another paid person from a position outside the collective into the collective without going through an open hiring process. For example, Kathie and Marlin both started at Free Geek through the SMS program and (before we had a hiring policy) we decided to include them in the collective, rather than leave them hanging while we went through an open hiring process. The same might apply to interns paid by Free Geek.

We recognize that this could open us up to some scenarios we'd rather avoid, so we'd like the Council to help us formulate a policy on these matters.

The conversation in staff so far has hit several points, among them:

• We would want every member of the collective to be unanimously behind (consensus with no stand asides) having the person in the collective.
• We don't want to create a system that could become open to "nepotism" or whatever -- that is people's friends can slip in under the radar by becoming an intern and then "just sort of" tranisition to full staff members.
• We don't want to leave good solid candidates for a job hanging when they are already doing the job and have support of the current collective and the Free Geek community at large.
• We do want to outreach to diverse communities and fresh perspectives as needed.
• The current hiring process for a collective member tends to be more rigorous and usually wider open than for an internship position. This makes it easier for us to hire interns that are often people who need to build up a resume and have proven themselves as volunteers but we don't expect to qualify for a collective level position. We think that's a good thing (the ability to hire people who need to build up a resume), since there's no other place for them on the Free Geek staff, and we don't want that good thing to go away.

So taking all that (and more I'm sure) into account, what kind of policy can we create?

Determining Seniority Policy

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Determining Seniority Policy: Determining Seniority Policy FINAL DRAFT.
List of Policies - Policy Development

Policy

This policy was proposed by a subcommittee of Geiner, Kathie, and Richard, posted to the staff email list, and then discussed and agreed upon at the weekly staff meeting on April 16, 2004.

Seniority is defined using a 'who started working as a paid collective member earliest' criteria.

If a worker ceases working at Free Geek for a period of more than one year, that worker loses their seniority. If they are re-hired within one year's time, their seniority remains intact.

Note

(Another twist we considered would have been to limit the number of times a person can be gone for up to a year without losing seniority. For example, we could have said it can only be allowed to happen once. The full staff has not talked about this yet, but could implement policy regarding it in the future.)

Current Ordering of Seniority

(verified 3/26/2011)

1. Richard Seymour -- Administrative Services Department Coordinator
2. Liane Kocka -- Reuse and Recycling Department Coordinator
3. Darryl Kan -- Recycling Coordinator 2
4. Sean Ellefson -- Reuse Program Coordinator, Laptop Build
5. Cynthia Prevatte -- Reuse Program Coordinator, Macs and Prebuild
6. Darren Heiber -- Education and Hardware Grants Coordinator
7. Stephen Getman -- Volunteer/Front Desk Coordinator

Hiring Policy

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http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2003-April/000474.html

1. Priorities -- The Council work group Optimus Prime formulates hiring strategy and policy, including setting priorities about which positions should get filled first.
2. Job Description and Criteria -- The Council discusses positions as they come up, reviewing and developing jobs descriptions and the criteria for hiring people to fill positions.
3. Implementation -- The Staff then implements Council policy and does the actual hiring.

(Note: We also discussed the reality that there are different kinds of vacancies. In some cases, people are already working at Free Geek either unpaid positions or positions paid from outside sources. If the "new" position simply amounts to a change in funding, an actual hiring process may not be needed, but this gives rise to new complications. For instance, there may be more than one person in the Free Geek community who can do the job, so an internal process is still needed).

The staff has developed a Hiring Checklist as a procedure to implement the above policy.

Layoffs and Hours Reduction

This page left for historical purposes. -- Mkille (talk) 16:49, 13 August 2013 (PDT)

Layoffs and Hours Reduction: '
List of Policies - Policy Development

(Approved by Staff Meeting February 18, 2005)

Scope

This policy addresses looming financial problems that might require a cut in staff costs. It is not intended to be used in lieu of a staff discipline policy. If a financial crisis is looming and there are staff discipline issues pending, there should be an attempt to deal with the discipline issues early on and apart from this policy.

Layoffs and Reduction Report Committee

The HR committee would nominate an ad hoc Layoffs and Reductions Report Committee. Staff would discuss the nominations and make a final decision on the makeup of the committee. In determining the makeup of the committee staff members should prioritize who would be appropriate to the committee, including people with a long-standing history with Free Geek and people with a working knowledge of the finances. Also, the staff should consider the overall balance of the committee. There may be other considerations as well.

This committee should only be formed after alternatives to staff cuts have been considered including various ways to increase revenue and reduce other costs.

The staff must provide to the committee a target amount of savings that needs to be achieved.

The committee will then consider the issues involved and make a Layoffs and Reductions Report to the staff collective suggesting options for consideration.

Considerations

The ways to determine where to make the cuts should be considered in the following order. All items below must be considered before a recomendation is made.

Review alternatives first

The committee must review what fundraising options and other cost cutting measures have been considered before recommending to reduce hours or lay off staff members.

Consider a staffwide wage cut

The committee must calculate how much of a staffwide wage reduction would be needed to meet the target amount. This must be a percentage reduction that applies consistently to all staff members. The committee should determine if this will solve the problem without causing unreasonable hardship for anyone.

Consider a voluntary hours cuts

The committee must consult with each staff member to determine if anyone is willing to temporarily or permanently voluntarily reduce the number of hours they work and if so, by how much. The committee must also ask if anyone is willing to take a voluntary unpaid leave of absence.

Staff members offering that their hours be cut should actually plan to work less hours. They should not volunteer to work "for free" since this can lead to an imbalance in staff expectations.

Job performance based cuts

The committee must consider data from existing staff reviews. For each staff member (including those without existing staff reviews on file), the committee must consider the impact on the organization if that staff member were to leave the staff. This should be based on the staff member's overall job performance.

Program and job function based cuts

The committee must consider what jobs and programs could be eliminated or scaled back, and what effect that would likely have on the organization as a whole.

The committee must consider overlapping job functionality.

The committee must consider how each job and program addresses the mission of the organization and how much money it brings in and costs.

Seniority

After the above criteria have been considered, seniority may be considered as a method of determining hours cuts or layoffs.

Report of Options and Recommendations

The report must provide options for consideration to the full staff collective. Options that were discussed but rejected must also be reported on, along with the reason for rejection.

The committee may recommend options. If included, these recommendations must be based on the considerations listed above.

For each option listed, the report must consider the impact on Free Geek's mission and the operational and financial impacts to the organization.

The report should also consider the possibility of shuffling people to other positions to minimize negative impact on Free Geek.

The report should consider if temporary layoffs or hours cuts might solve the problem, and if so, the report should state the expected length of time that the cuts would be in effect.

Staff action on the report

The staff must then review the report and decide on a course of action.

If the staff decides to layoff or cut hours at least two week's notice should be given to the staff members affected.

Related Documents

(Not part of the policy, but useful during implementation.)

• Reduction Committee Tasks
• Fundraising and Other Cost Cutting Measures
• Layoffs and Hours Reduction Survey
• General Options for Reducing Staffing Costs
• Results from the Layoffs and Hours Reduction Survey
• Specific Options for Reducing Staffing Costs

Limits on Vacation Accrual

This old policy has been superseded by Staff Vacation Policies.

Policy wording

Since we can't find the actual text, here's a shot at wording that reflects what I think we decided on:

Limits on vacation accrual

• Staff members earning vacation time must take that vacation within two calendar years of having earned it.

• Unused vacation time that exceeds that limit is lost to the staff member.

Payment to exiting staff members

• If a staff member is owed vacation time when he or she resigns, is laid off, or is otherwise terminated the amount of vacation time owed shall be calculated and reported to the staff member.

• Free Geek may take up to 12 weeks after a staff person's last working day to pay for any vacation money owed.

Goals to allow Free Geek to follow this policy

• The Free Geek staff has a goal of building up a pool of reserve money that will allow Free Geek to pay for all vacation time accrued when staff members leave, taking into account a reasonable rate of staff turnover.

• The Free Geek staff has a goal of increasing the amount of money available for the hiring of substitutes to cover staff vacation in an effort to encourage staff members to take vacation hours (and thereby limit the likelihood of staff members being owed money when they decide to leave).

Locks

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1. REDIRECT After Hours Access Policy

Paid Internship Policy

Paid Internship Policy

Receiving and depositing money

Maybe we can subsume this and certain other money-related items under a "Money Handling Policy" or "Accounting Practices Policy"? Ali 21:31, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

The jobs of receiving money for Free Geek, recording it in the books (or accounting software), and depositing that money should be split between at least two separate people. Under normal circumstances:

• The C7 committee designates who on staff can receive money and who can do the books.
• The C7 committee recommends to the board who can deposit the money.
• C7 should design appropriate procedures for tracking money that comes in.
• The person receiving the money (receiver) is responsible for following procedure, recording the amount and other information, and putting the money in a secure location.
• The person doing the books (bookkeeper) is responsible for following procedure and correctly entering the transactions in the books (or accounting software).
• The person depositing the money is responsible for getting the money safely to the bank and reporting the deposit information to the bookkeeper.

It is likely that the receiver and the bookkeeper will be the same person. If a check comes in the mail it should be given to a receiver. Front Desk and Thrift Store staff must be able to be receivers.

Resolution Committee

Resolution Committee: Defines resolution committee
List of Policies - Policy Development

This was developed over several years and finally agreed to at a staff meeting on September 4, 2009.

1. A resolution committee (RC) is composed of members of the staff collective selected by the Human Resources committee (HR) when a problem or group of related problems involving a staff member arises and reach(es) a critical level.
   • The procedure for establishing a Resolution Committee:
     • HR committee recommends that a Resolution Committee be set up and suggests the committee's make-up; HR also suggests the scope of the Resolution Committee.
     • The staff collective discusses, and approves, these recommendations.
2. An RC is always created within the framework of any current grievance and discipline policy as agreed to by the staff collective. This policy is not outlined here, but must be followed by the RC. (This would include documentation of incidents, warnings, meeting professional goals, etc.)
3. An RC is charged with the task of resolving the problem(s). The RC's first duty is to specify the scope of the problem(s) and communicate that to the staff collective and any others are likely to be directly affected by the problem. The staff collective should raise any concerns, including changes in scope and the appropriateness of the RC's formation at the first available opportunity. The staff collective may require the HR committee to dissolve the RC, re-form it, or adjust its scope.
4. An RC is empowered to communicate with all other groups, committees, and individuals at Free Geek for the purpose of investigating the problems within its defined scope.
5. An RC must propose a recommended strategy for resolving the problem as quickly as possible and in the best interests of Free Geek as a whole. This strategy should be outlined in specific steps that can be implemented to address the problem.
6. The RC may put items on agendas of any group at Free Geek in order to bring the problem(s) to resolution. These items should be dealt with by those groups as items with a high degree of importance.
7. An RC may recommend to the staff collective that a staff member be terminated, removed from the collective, and/or change his/her employment status at Free Geek. In the case of termination, the reason for termination must be specifically described and the decision must be considered by the whole staff collective. The person under consideration for termination must be able to speak, but is not allowed to block the decision of the larger group. The person under consideration for termination may choose a representative, either a third party or another member of the staff collective to speak on his or her behalf as well.
8. An RC must report on its findings in writing to the staff collective and any others are likely to be directly affected by the problem.
9. An RC is automatically dissolved when its recommended strategy is proposed, items have been placed on the appropriate groups' agendas, and its written report has been provided to the staff collective.

Retroactive Vacation Credit

This old policy has been superseded by Staff Vacation Policies.

From staff meeting minutes

From October 5, 2004 staff meeting:

a. vacation backlog- oldsters have till 06 to use the back time.
sunset clause will be created for dealing with the final death of that
accumulated vacation.

Policy wording

Since we can't find the actual text, here's a shot at wording that reflects what I think we decided on

Retroactive vacation credit

• For staff members hired prior to January 1, 2003 and still working, credit for vacation time between their hire date and December 31, 2002, shall be applied retroactively. Staff members included are:
  • Oso Martin (hired 2000)
  • Richard Seymour (hired 2001)
  • Laurel Hoyt (hired 2001)
  • Marlin Sweitzer (hired 2002)
  • Rick Konold (hired 2002)
• This vacation time is exempt from the regular limitations on accrual.
• This vacation time must be used by the end of the year 2006.

Staff Contracting Policy

This policy should either be killed, or massively amended. It appears to be a remnant of the Collab era. Ali 21:15, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Policy

Scope

This policy applies to staff members, both those inside the collective and interns. It does not cover contractors that are not on Free Geek staff (for instance most contractors currently working for Collaborative Technologies).

Definition

A contractor is someone who, outside of ongoing waged or salaried work, is being paid by Free Geek for work. This includes people contracting through third party organizations and people contracting directly with Free Geek.

Accountability

Before beginning a project, contractors must brief the Collective on the work to be undertaken. The Collective will ask questions as necessary to gain an understanding of the project and determine how it will impact Free Geek. The contracting work must not interfere with the contractor's regular Free Geek duties.

As the project progresses, contractors must brief the Collective when a change has been made to the contract, and as a good faith procedure when the Collective hasn't heard about the project in a long while.

Contractors must report the details of their work including the number of hours spent and the type of work done to the Collective. The Free Geek Collective, staff, and Community Council must be able to see these details at any time upon request.

Need for a Billable Client

Contractors must be working directly on jobs that are being billed to an outside client. There must be a budgeted line item for the work being performed.

Double Billing

Contractors may not bill a client for hours for which they are also receiving a salary from Free Geek. If hours spent contracting overlap with the worker's regular Free Geek hours, these hours must be made up some other time or taken as vacation time.

Regarding Cost Overruns

In the case of a project with cost overruns there may not be enough money to pay all the contractors in a timely manner. In such cases contractors who are staff members should not be paid until all contractors who are not staff members have been paid.

Hiring of a Contractor

A coordinator may hire another staff member as a contractor providing a standard hiring process for contractors is followed and that process is open and transparent to the Collective members, all other staff, and the Free Geek Community Council.

Reasons for Hiring

When hiring a staff member as a contractor, the hiring decision should be made based on the ability and availability of the contractor. The hiring process should not give an advantage to the staff person over consultants who are not on staff.

Conflicts of Interest

A staff member may not hire himself or herself as a contractor without prior approval of the Free Geek Staff Collective.

Additionally, when something the contractor is doing could be reasonably construed as a conflict of interest by Free Geek staff, he or she should proactively alert the collective to the issue.

Staff Discipline Policy

Staff Discipline Policy: http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/minutes/2012-March/001293.html, http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/minutes/2012-March/001290.html
List of Policies - Policy Development

Scope

Free Geek's Disciplinary Procedure will be used only when necessary and as a last resort. Where possible, informal and/or formal counseling will be used to resolve matters prior to any disciplinary action being taken. The procedure is intended to be constructive rather than punitive but recognizes the fact sanctions must be applied in some circumstances.

These principles apply to discipline of bargaining unit employees and staff collective members. However, this particular procedure applies to the discipline of staff collective members.

A collective member can discuss any part of this policy with any other member of the Staff Collective. They can help clarify an employee's rights as well as give guidance and support where it may be needed. Every individual has the right to representation at any point during the disciplinary process.

This Procedure is to be maintained independent of any Procedures for performance review.

This Procedure is an interim solution, designed to provide needed clarity regarding discipline issues in a manner consistent with Free Geek's current structure and culture. It strives to balance the need for transparency, fairness, effiency and due process. As an interim policy, this policy's execution and effects should be reviewed occassionally by both the Staff Collective and Board, and the policy should be amended, replaced or abolished as the situation demands.

N.B. Nothing in this policy may usurp any party's legal rights, including the right to bring legal proceedings where appropriate.

Procedure For Formal Discipline & Investigation

The procedure for discipline is a five stage policy starting with counseling and moving through a series of verbal and written warnings before ending with the possibility of demotion or dimissal as a last resort. It is intended that this be followed sequentially, moving from one stage to the next only when it is clear that a staff member has been shown not to have met a clear set of expectations set in the previous stage. Exceptions are to be made only in the case of Gross Misconduct when, at a Department Point Person's discretion, they may start at a later stage as they consider appropriate.

At each stage, excepting dismissal, care must be taken to record in writing:

• the reasons for the action taking place
• the expectations that have now been set for the employee
• what are the next steps to be taken by employee and Department Point Person
• when the expectations are to be reviewed.

It is important that the expectations set meet the S.M.A.R.T. criteria of being Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Realistic and Time-bound. Wherever possible, Department Point Persons should work with staff members to arrive at a mutually agreed upon set of expectations and time scales.

Department Point Persons have a clear duty to consider whether they have any personal involvement, or whether any conflict of interest might arise. If so, they must bring the matter to the attention of another Department Point Person and hand the matter over to them.

Staff members have the right to have a work colleague attend any disciplinary procedure with them and to consult that person in private. Staff members may request this at any time before or during a meeting. When such a request is made, the Department Point Person must delay any meeting until the work colleague has arrived and has time to consult privately with the staff member or end the meeting. Though counseling is considered informal, it should still meet the criteria set within this policy - i.e., it needs a written record and a set of clear expectations to be agreed upon.

Department Point Persons have the right to bring in others in order to aid them in investigating the matter and deciding on the course or outcome. They are strongly advised to do so if they have any doubts or questions about anything. At the first opportunity, they should gather evidence and take statements from witnesses and/or the staff member's supervisors or co-workers and prepare a written report.

Counseling

Prior to any formal disciplinary measure being undertaken, a Department Point Person has a responsibility to resolve any issues through informal counseling, where appropriate. Counseling is a non-punitive measure and may come at the request of a staff member as well as a Department Point Person, with the clear understanding that such a request will not have any effect on any subsequent disciplinary measure or performance review, or the conditions of employment in any way.

Verbal Warning

The first step after counseling is the verbal warning. It is appropriate when it is necessary to take action against a staff member for minor misconduct, or where improvements sought through counseling have not been forthcoming. Despite the name, it is important that a written record is kept and provided to the staff member. They are at the discretion of Department Point Persons and may not be blocked. There is no appeal of a verbal warning, but staff members have the right to have a statement entered into their personnel files if they wish to dispute anything.

When issuing a verbal warning, Department Point Persons should arrange to meet with the staff member to discuss the matter and set expectations. They should be warned that failure to meet these expectations, or repetiton of the misconduct, may lead to further disciplinary action. A copy of the written record must be given to the staff member within seven days of the disciplinary action, and a copy filed in their personnel files. A copy must be also be sent to all other Department Point Persons for review. This procedure is to be followed in all subsequent stages.

Verbal warnings expire after 6 months, as explained below under section "Time Scales/Terms of Expiry".

First Written Warning

The next step of the disciplinary procedure is the first written warning. It may be issued in a number of circumstances:

• as a second stage after a verbal warning if the expectations documented in the written record have not been met at the end of the specified review period or if there is a re-occurrence of the misconduct within six months.
• where the offense is of a serious nature that falls short of Gross Misconduct, and where a verbal warning is not appropriate.
• where the recurrence or accumulation of offenses will lead to more severe disciplinary action, for example persistent absence without explanation.

First written warnings expire after 12 months. They may be appealed by the staff member to the relevant body as described under the "Appeals" section. The staff member must be informed of this right at the meeting with their Department Point Person.

Department Point Persons should follow the same procedure as verbal warnings and must submit a copy of the written record to all other Department Point Persons for review. If there is consensus among them (excepting those who have a direct involvement or another conflict of interest) they may retroactively revoke the written warning and refer the matter back to the originating Department Point Person. The other Department Point Persons have a duty to consider the fairness, appropriateness and consistency of other Department Point Persons' actions and should use this power to ensure these.

Final Written Warning

Final Written Warning is the last stage in the Disciplinary procedure before demotion or dismissal takes place. It is used when:

• A staff member engages in Gross Misconduct that falls short of the need for instant dismissal
• A staff member persists in minor misconduct that has already been the subject of a First Written Warning.

Like a first written warning, it may be appealed by a staff member and is subject to a retroactive block by a consensus of the other Department Point Persons.

A Final Written Warning expires after a period of 18 months.

Demotion/Dismissal

A Department Point Person may recommend dismissal or demotion of a staff member if:

• Prior attempts to address the situation at all appropriate lower levels have failed
• The situation is one of Gross Misconduct, deemed by the Department Point Person to supercede less severe steps

If the recommendation is not overridden by consensus of the other Department Point Persons, the staff member is given notice of the recommendation and placed on paid administrative leave for five business days. This leave is meant to serve as a cooling off-period, giving the staff member a chance to prepare for and file an appeal of the recommendation or to tender their resignation. This period also gives the Department Point Person time to consider and reflect on the situation before making a decision of such consequence.

The staff member may appeal the recommendation, according to the Appeals procedures outlined below. If the first appeal is unsuccessful, the recommendation continues on to the Staff Collective as a whole. The Staff Collective as a whole, excepting those who have a direct involvement or another conflict of interest, makes the decision to accept or reject the recommendation.

If the Collective as a whole fails to reject the recommendation, the recommendation is carried out, and the staff member is either dismissed or demoted in accordance with the recommendation.

A decision to demote results in the staff member being placed on an additional five business days' administrative leave. During this leave, the Collective must present the staff member with the specific terms of the demotion, including:

• New job status/description, if applicable
• New reporting/oversight arrangements, if applicable
• Any changes in compensation, including benefits
• Any other terms or conditions that have changed as a result of the decision
• Notice that any further repetition of the issue will result in Dismissal

A decision to dismiss results in the immediate termination of the staff member. At this time, the staff member is to receive written notice of the decision, explicitly including the steps to undertake a final appeal to the Board of Directors. Steps regarding end-of-employment procedures are to be carried out, as established, at this time.

Time Scales/Terms of Expiry

The steps of the Discipline Policy are meant to be corrective, not punitive. Each step in the process involves a clearly stated time frame, during which repeat failure can trigger movement to the next step in the process. Escalation of the disciplinary procedure occurs only on repetition or failure to address a specific problem or closely related matters.

The time frame for each step increases with severity, as defined here:

• Verbal Warning -- 6 months
• First Written Warning -- 12 months
• Final Written Warning -- 18 months

This term is defined for each step of this procedure, and is to be communicated to the staff member as part of the written record.

If no further incident is recorded, at the conclusion of the time frame, the infraction is considered resolved, and the incident is to be removed from the staff member's personnel file, in accordance with [Personnel File Policy]. Once expired, the matter is considered resolved; any further infraction would be treated as a new incident.

Goals and expectations set by a staff member and his/her Department Point Person should involve their own time frames, to allow for adequate scrutiny within the review process. These time frames are independent of those set by the Discipline Procedure. Achievements and improvements may be noted, even if involving prior misconduct or failures from beyond the time frames defined here. But disciplinary steps may not compound based on behavior/performance that would be considered expired as defined in this policy.

Consecutive/Concurrent Warnings

The steps of this policy are meant to address serial failures around similar issues. It is possible for a staff member to have multiple, consecutive disciplinary actions regarding separate issues. These are to be addressed independently.

Appeals

Staff members have the right to appeal disciplinary actions, as follows.

A staff member may have a coworker of their choosing attend hearings as an advocate.

A staff member will have the opportunity to attend the appeals hearing, and to directly address the appeals body; however, all information to be considered will ideally be contained in the written appeal.

Deliberations are considered an Executive Session, open only to the members of the appeals body; however, the the decision is to be provided to the staff member directly, in writing, and maintained as part of the written record.

Makeup of Appeals Panels

The HR Administrator or any current member of the HR Committee shall be ineligible to serve on an Appeals Panel at any time.

When an Appeals Panel is needed, one should be selected based on random chance of three or four Collective Members who have not yet had any role in the matter or any other conflict of interest. A quorum of three panel members is needed to make any decision.

If at any point the appropriate appeals body is not available (due to lack of quorum, vacations, illness, recusal or any other circumstance that necessitates it), that appeal is channeled directly to the Board of Directors, and the Board will name one or more designees to either round out an existing, short-handed panel of Collective members, or to form an ad hoc panel to serve in a manner consistent with this policy.

It is assumed that Department Point Persons will not participate in appeals, as they will almost certainly have interacted with each proceeding already. However, if circumstances allow (e.g., a DPP returns from extended leave), it is possible for them to serve in such a capacity, provided it is their first contact with that specific incident.

First Appeals Panel

This panel communicates and convenes on ad hoc basis, as required. It may be asked to consider:

• appeal of a First Written Warning
• appeal of a Final Written Warning
• appeal of a recommendation for demotion/dismissal

Second Appeals Panel

This panel communicates and convenes on ad hoc basis, as required. It may be asked to consider:

• appeal of a Final Written Warning

Board of Directors

An appeal regarding a Collective decision to demote or dismiss an employee may be appealed directly to the Board of Directors. The Board may:

• consider an appeal as the full Board
• appoint a subgroup of Board members to hear the appeal
• appoint an one or more outside designees to hear the appeal
• appoint any combination of the above, as they deem fit in accordance with this policy

In the interest of maintaining a transparent and fair procedure, it is expected that the Board adopt a strategy for assigning designees prior to facing an actual appeals situation. The mechanics of deciding appeals remains fully at Board discretion, but it should be consistently applied.

Board members and their designees should also recuse themselves if they have prior involvement in the matter or any other conflict of interest.

Threshold for Overriding

Consensus of members in favor of a specific appeals claim is required to override a disciplinary decision or recommendation, at all levels. This consensus requires a quorum of 3 members.

Time Frames for Appeals Actions

At every level of appeal: Appeal must be made within 5 business days of receipt of written decision. Appeal must be heard within 10 business days of receipt of appeal, and the decision communicated in writing within 5 days of hearing.

Grounds for appeal

An appeal should be based on one or more of the following:

• The disciplinary action is based on factually inaccurate information
• Free Geek policy or procedure was not properly followed
• The resulting disciplinary action was inappropriate
• New information/evidence has arisen
• The need for disciplinary action was not warranted
• Separate offences/incidents were inappropriately considered in aggregate

Appeal of Verbal Warning

No appeal per se is allowed for verbal warnings, but a staff member has the right to include a statement to be maintained along with the record of the verbal warning. This statement would be considered should the matter proceed toward further disciplinary action. Information from this statement may, at that time, be sufficient to overturn the initial warning, causing the new incident to be considered as a first offense.

Appeal of First Written Warning

May be appealed to the First Appeals Panel. The First Appeals Panel's decision is final.

Appeal of Final Written Warning

May be appealed to the First Appeals Panel. The decision of of the First Appeals Panel may further be appealed to Second Appeals Panel. The Second Appeals Panel's decision is final.

Appeal of Demotion/Dismissal

Recommendations for demotion or dismissal may be appealed to the First Appeals Panel, prior to the recommendation being acted upon by the Staff Collective at its next regular meeting or at a special meeting held prior to next scheduled meeting.

The decision of the Staff Collective may be appealed to the Board of Directors. The Board's decision is final.

Should a final appeal to the Board of Directors prove successful, the person is reinstated and placed on paid administrative leave retroactively to the date of dismissal. The employee remains on paid administrative leave until the logistics of their return to work are determined, including the resolution of the issue based on the details of the successful appeal.

For example, the Board may determine the reason for dismissal was not merited at all, meaning the person is hired back just as before. Or they may have decided that dismissal was too severe of a consequence and demotion more appropriate. This would require additional details regarding terms of the new position be worked out before the staff member can return.

Oversight

Oversight is a necessary component of any successful discipline policy. An Oversight Committee will meet periodically to review disciplinary actions and report on them to the collective and to the Board. The Oversight Committee shall be composed of the HR Administrator, another Collective member, and two Board members or their designees. The purpose of the review is to ensure that:

• Proper procedures were followed, internally and legally.
• The cause of the disciplinary action is a valid concern.
• All necessary documentation has been completed.
• Discipline is being meted out consistently and without favoritism.
• DPPs and/or others recused themselves from discussion when appropriate.
• No DPP sought to unduly influence the choice of another DPP.

If the Oversight Committee finds that any of the above criteria have not been met, they are empowered to dismiss the complaint, downgrade the offense, or remove/add notes in the personnel file. If the disciplinary action by a Department Point Person constitutes gross misconduct, the Oversight Committee is empowered to, if necessary, initiate disciplinary action against that Department Point Person.

This committee will meet periodically only according to need; if there are no disciplinary actions to review, no meeting is necessary.

Discipline of Department Point Persons

Any DPP shall be empowered to initiate and conduct disciplinary action regarding any other DPP, subject to the other terms of this policy.

A DPP who is currently the subject of disciplinary action may not initiate and conduct disciplinary action regarding the DPP who is conducting their own disciplinary action, i.e., it is an automatic conflict of interest.

The Collective as a whole shall be empowered to direct a DPP to initiate and conduct disciplinary action regarding a staff member in their department, as well as to formally call for a DPP to initiate and conduct disciplinary action regarding another DPP.

Definitions

Administrative Leave

At the discretion of their Department Point Person, a staff member may be placed on leave for up to five business days. Administrative Leave may be necessary, for example, to allow an investigation to take place, to give the staff member or Department Point Person time to gather evidence or necessary paperwork, to prevent a staff member from interfering with evidence necessary for an investigation, to prevent them from exerting an influence over others, or to prevent them from being so influenced.

Administrative Leave is not punitive and shall not be used as a disciplinary measure. Nor shall it be used as evidence in, or be allowed to influence, a disciplinary procedure or performance review. Administrative Leave will be at full pay and will not be counted towards a staff member's paid time off. A staff member who has been put on Administrative Leave should receive written notice within three days outlining the reason for suspension, the date and times the suspension starts and ends, and notifying them of their right to appeal. Whenever possible, the staff member should receive written notice prior to, or at the start of, their suspension.

Administrative Leave shall not normally last for more than five business days. If it is felt necessary to extend it, the Department Point Person must first discuss it with all the other Department Point Persons and obtain their consent. The staff member shall then be notified in writing that their suspension will be extended, explain the reasons for the extension, how long the extension will last and notifying the staff member of their right to appeal the extension.

Business Days

Any and all references to time frames in "days" refers to business days, meaning days of Free Geek's normal, full operation. Days Free Geek is closed, or at less than full-time capacity by virtue of its normal schedule, are excluded from these time frames.

Demotion

Demotion will take the form of a removal of a staff member's collective status and/or transferral to a position with fewer responsibilities or one in which they will receive more direct supervision. It will be used:

• in instances where previous attempts to resolve the issue have failed, as a final attempt to solve a problem without dismissing a staff member.
• where a staff member is determined to be incompetent or otherwise unable to carry out their duties but dismissal is not felt to be appropriate.

Dismissal

Dismissal is the sanction of last resort. It is used when misconduct has persisted and all other avenues have been exhausted, or in cases of Gross Misconduct such as theft or violence against another person.

Appendices

Examples of Minor Misconduct

Listed below are examples of minor misconduct which may trigger the first step of the Disciplinary Procedure. This is not an exhaustive list, and does not pretend to anticipate the nuance of every situation. It is intended to provide guidance to Department Point Persons, and concrete examples to all staff members.

• Persistent lateness without notice
• Absence without notice
• Failure to work in accordance with Free Geek procedures
• Failure to meet stated expectations, including those established as part of prior disciplinary process
• Incompetence

Examples of Gross Misconduct

Listed below are examples of misconduct which may be considered to be Gross Misconduct and may warrant a Final Warning, Demotion or Dismissal. It is stressed that this list is not exhaustive and that a full and proper investigation must take place prior to issuing a Final Warning, Demotion or Dismissal.

• Unauthorized possession or use of Free Geek property
• Being unfit for duty due to intoxication
• Breach of confidentiality procedures
• Breach of data security procedures
• Breach of network/physical security procedures
• Physical assault
• Verbal abuse
• Willful damage of property
• Incompetence or willful action that creates an unsafe working condition

The Written Record

A record of any counseling or disciplinary actions must be given to the employee, as well as maintained in their personnel file, in accordance with this policy, and with the [Personnel File Policy].

All aspects of the Discipline Procedure should be documented as part of the Written Record, including:

• Investigations
• Evidence and statements as part of an investigation
• Recommendations for Demotion/Dismissal
• Disciplinary Actions
• Appeals
• Results of Appeals

An employee shall be furnished with all items of the Written Record at the time they are entered into their personnel file, unless explicitly exempted by the [Personnel File Policy].

(some aspects of investigations may be deemed confidential, such as grievances, testimony, etc. [Personnel File Policy] will clarify these specifics, based on established best practices, tbd)

The written record shall also contain relevant information to ensure the employee is aware of options and rights available to them, including:

• specific steps to appeal
• terms of expiry
• possible consequences of non-compliance
• how to find additional information/resources

Line Manager/DPP Responsibilities

All Department Point People shall have certain Line Manager responsibilities in order to successfully carry out disciplinary measures within their departments. These include:

• Provide counseling to workers in department
• Ensure workers in their department are adequately supervised
• Resolve disputes
• Start investigations
• Put someone on paid administrative leave for up to 5 business days
• Issue verbal warnings
• Issue written warnings (with oversight of DPPs)
• Issue final written warning (with oversight of DPPs)
• Recommend demotion/firing

Staff Vacation Policies

1. REDIRECT Out of Date Staff Paid Time Off Policy

Taking out loans for Free Geek

This is a page concerning a policy or procedure in development.
Once fleshed out, we'll consider it for adoption as official policy at Free Geek.

• When Free Geek takes out a loan, the amount of the loan and the terms on which it was taken should be made clear to all collective members.
• The money from the loan should be tracked in an account in the books so that it is clear what the money is spent on.
• Before the loan is approved, the staff must specify what the money may be used for.
• Before the loan is approved, the staff must outline a plan for repayment of the loan.
• The board must approve loans. It's in the bylaws.

When to write off overdue invoices

This is a page concerning a policy or procedure in development.
Once fleshed out, we'll consider it for adoption as official policy at Free Geek.

Free Geek bills customers from time to time rather than collect money at the time of an equipment drop off (or pick up). There are three general categories of inovices we create:

1. Monitor fees only
2. Promised donations only
3. Combination of monitor fees and promised donations

• The staff should provide timely invoices and maintain procedures for reminding customers that have payments overdue, in order to avoid writing off unpaid invoices.
• On a monthly basis, any amount owed on a donation only invoice should be written off if the payment is more than 100 days in arrears.
• On a monthly basis, any amount owed for promised donations on a combination invoice should be written off if the payment is more than 50 days in arrears.
• At the end of the year, any amount on an invoice of any type not yet paid should be written off if the payment is more than 100 days in arrears.

Who do we invoice?

Who do we invoice?: '
List of Policies - Policy Development

Policy

Anyone can be invoiced. We currently don't check credit. We encourage people to pay via cash, check, or credit/debit card rather than us invoicing them.

This was decided at a C7 meeting on October 14, 2006.

How do we invoice them?

See the procedure for Invoicing Donors.

Writing Checks

Policy needs a little attention. Ali 20:57, 21 July 2010 (UTC) Need to clarify if this means Collective member.

I split this into three roles and brought it up to our current practice. I used beancounters to approve the bookkeeper, and the staff collective to approve who could write (not sign) a check. In the past we've had volunteer interns do some of the bookkeeping type work (under staff supervision), and we've talked about outsourcing bookkeeping to contractors as well. RfS 00:39, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

This is a page concerning a policy or procedure in development.
Once fleshed out, we'll consider it for adoption as official policy at Free Geek.

Staff Handbook: This policy specifies who can sign checks issued by Free Geek.
List of Policies - Policy Development

Policy

Body that set the policy(s) on [lists.freegeek_meeting_Minutes Date Adopted].

• When a check needs to be written one staff member, approved by the beancounters, should write the check. A person authorized by the staff collective should record it in the books. A staff member, authorized by the board, should sign the check. This is meant to ensure that at least two different people on staff know why a check was written. In no case should a person who signs checks be tasked with entering transactions into the books or reconciling the books.

Notes

• As of 2010, Liane and Caitlin are the two authorized check signers.