With the new semester underway and new people using the symptom tracker for daily health assessments, below is a consolidation of information shared about the symptom tracker over the last few months. Attached to an email from HR yesterday, you will find an overview of the symptom tracker application, as well as LLCC guidelines when the symptom tracker stops you from coming to campus. Supervisors – please save and share that email with any new employees who are not yet set up and receiving this email today and in the future. Below is some additional information that will be helpful in using this tool.

Registration/Notifications Set Up

If you are or will be coming to campus, you will need to be set up in this application. Once we have entered your information into the system, you will receive a registration email to complete the set up process. This email will come from symptom-tracking@hc360.io. It looks somewhat like a phishing or spam email, but it is not. You will access the link in the email to complete set up. You will need to identify the days of the week when you want to receive your daily questionnaire and at what time of day. Please note that the set up defaults to all days being selected. You will need to click on those days, such as Saturday and Sunday, when you do not want to receive a notification. You may also opt to have the daily questionnaire sent by text message. You will need to indicate that you are opting for that and provide a cell phone number. If you should need to change the days and/or times for your notifications, you will need to contact Human Resources and request a registration email to complete the set up process again.

Appropriate Responses to Survey Questions Regarding Symptoms

The questions in the survey will ask you to identify whether or not you are experiencing certain symptoms. We know that some employees may experience these symptoms regularly or sporadically due to pre-existing health conditions. When responding to these questions, please keep your baseline health condition(s) in mind. If you have asthma that comes with a persistent cough, you will respond to the question about the cough based on what would be considered a new or different experience you are having with your baseline cough. If you experience seasonal allergies, you may have a sore throat one morning due to your allergies flaring up. Again, you’ll only want to report a sore throat if it is a new and different sore throat from what is your baseline for that particular health condition. These are just a few examples. We are asking you to self-report in a truthful manner, but it is not the intent for you to report symptoms that are normal for you based on underlying health condition(s) you may have. We need your help in creating a safe working and learning environment and being vigilant with your health is critical to that. You know your body best, so please self-report symptoms truthfully, while taking these factors into consideration. When in doubt, though, report the symptom. The intent of this tool is not to catch you in a lie but to help you be accountable to yourself regarding your health, for the sake of your co-workers and students. If you would like to talk through your specific circumstances in more detail, contact Nicole Ralph, associate vice president, human resources.

Appropriate Responses to Survey Questions Regarding Direct Contact

One of the survey questions asks if you have had contact with someone in the last 14 days who has tested positive for COVID-19 or is being evaluated for Coronavirus. In reviewing CDC guidance, there are three factors that need to be considered when determining if you have had direct contact with someone who has tested positive or is being tested for COVID-19:  physical proximity, duration and whether the exposure was to a person with symptoms (e.g. coughing likely increases exposure risk). When determining whether you have been in contact with someone, there are obvious situations that make answering this question easy:  sharing the same household, intimate relationships, family contact, etc. What may be less obvious are casual interactions with co-workers, friends, strangers, etc.  The CDC states that exposure is prolonged AND close contact. Close contact would be less than six feet and prolonged would be greater than 15 minutes. Another important factor to consider when determining whether or not you have actually been exposed is if the person in question was exhibiting any symptoms at the time of the interaction. When you respond to this question, really assess what interaction you may have had and whether it would really be considered exposure based on CDC guidance. Again, the purpose of the symptom tracker is not to catch people in a lie, but instead, to help you make the best decision about your health and the health of others. We want you to respond to the questions using your best judgement, in an effort to make the campus safe for ourselves, our colleagues and our students. When in doubt, though, it’s best to report the contact.

Thank you for all that you are doing to keep our campus safe during these challenging times. The most important rule of thumb right now … if you are sick, please stay home! Stay safe, wear your masks and have a great semester!

Visit the LLCC Employee Assistance Program’s portal page to access an EAP orientation video, which reviews the many services offered by our new EAP provider, Deer Oaks. During the short video presentation, you will learn about Deer Oaks’ legal services, free online will preparation, financial services, identity theft and recovery services, daily living/convenience/concierge services, child/elder care, ride reimbursement, critical incident response, an interactive website, a smartphone app, monthly seminars and newsletters, and so much more.

While on the EAP portal page, you can also review the timely resource guide for parents, “Resuming School During COVID-19” (located under Important Articles). It provides information and addresses concerns about the upcoming school year.

This is a friendly reminder that vacation accrual carryover put in place as described in the April 1 email from HR (also in April 2 LincIn article) expires on Sept. 30, 2020. Any carryover balance you have must be used by Sept. 30. Normal vacation accruals will occur at that time. If you need to check what your carryover balance is, please email Kayla Weitzel at Kayla.Weitzel@llcc.edu.

If you have any questions, please contact Nicole Ralph at nicole.ralph@llcc.edu.

As we approach the start of the semester, there is an update from HR regarding leave as it relates to COVID-19 and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Please read the following (and attachment in yesterday’s email from HR) carefully as some items have changed since the email dated March 24, 2020:

On March 18, 2020, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act was signed into law providing expanded FMLA leave specifically for the care of a child or children in the event of school or daycare closures related to COVID-19 and emergency paid sick leave. Per the Act, these provisions are temporary, ending Dec. 31, 2020. As remote operations, either in a hybrid format or in whole, are currently in place, these provisions would not apply if you continue to be able to work remotely.

Expanded FMLA Leave

This legislation permits eligible employees to use FMLA leave to care for a child or children due to a school or daycare closure due to COVID-19. Eligible employees are entitled to 12 weeks of job-protected leave to care for a child or children if their school or place of care has been closed or the childcare provider is unavailable due to COVID-19. An eligible employee is any employee who has been employed for at least 30 calendar days by LLCC. Leave under expanded FMLA will be as follows:

• The first 10 workdays (80 hours for full-time employees) will be unpaid unless you opt to use your own accrued, available benefit leave time OR paid emergency sick leave (payable at 100%).
• Any leave beyond the first 10 workdays will be paid leave at 2/3 your regular rate of pay for the hours you would be normally scheduled to work. The remaining 1/3 of your leave will either be unpaid or you may opt to use your own accrued, available vacation/personal leave time.
• Maximum amount payable under the 2/3 paid leave is $200/day or $12,000 over the course of 12 weeks. If 2/3 paid leave would exceed $200/day, you may supplement the remainder of the paid leave with your accrued available vacation/personal leave time in addition to the 1/3 leave time remaining.

Please contact Kim Elder for more details, should you be unable to work remotely or become unavailable to work and need this expanded FMLA leave.

Paid Emergency Sick Leave

Please read the attachment in yesterday’s email from HR regarding eligibility for paid emergency sick leave and how leave is handled for various symptom tracker scenarios.

If you have any questions, please contact nicole.ralph@llcc.edu.

Maureen Curry, facilities office coordinator, had recently celebrated 20 years of service with the college, and the LLCC family will certainly feel this loss. For those who may be struggling with reconciling this loss, there are support options for you. For those who may want to seek more individualized support for coping with the loss of Maureen, please reach out to our Employee Assistance Program at 1-888-993-7650. Licensed counselors are available to assist you during this, or any, difficult time you are experiencing. You may also access resources online at www.deeroakseap.com (login & password: llcc.edu).

We would also like to offer group grief counseling sessions for those who may want to support each other in their grief, facilitated by a licensed counselor. If there is interest in group sessions, we would like to offer it this coming Friday in the afternoon, in order to give the most employees access across all shifts. If you would be interested in participating in a group grief counseling session, please email nicole.ralph@llcc.edu with your interest yet today. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, these sessions will be conducted virtually. For those who may have technology access issues, we can arrange for locations around campus for those who wish to participate. Please indicate in your email if you will need access to technology.