ORAU, ORISE permit some work from home

Posted at 12:30 pm March 20, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Part of the ORAU campus in central Oak Ridge is pictured above on May 29, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

ORAU and ORISE—which work for more than 20 different federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—are allowing employees to work from home when possible.

ORAU and ORISE have authorized executives and directors to approve work from home for employees who are able to perform their job responsibilities at home, such as office workers.

Some employees will be required to report to work to continue operations, including in some laboratories, in information technology for computer support, and for security, for example.

ORAU is Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and ORISE is Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

The work-from-home authorization was implemented this week, and ORAU and ORISE don’t have final numbers of the numbers of employees who are or will be working from home.

“We are monitoring the COVID-19 situation on an ongoing basis, and we will continue to follow CDC guidelines,” said in a response to questions. “We are not sure at this time how long our employees will be working from home.”

The organizations said they are not aware of any work affected by COVID-19, the contagious respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus. But they have had meetings or conferences rescheduled, moved to a virtual platform, or in some cases canceled.

Although it can’t comment on COVID-19, ORAU has been supporting CDC’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) program since the development of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) Extranet in 2003. You can learn more about that work here.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

You can contact John Huotari, owner and publisher of Oak Ridge Today, at (865) 951-9692 or [email protected]

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