Welcome back!
Head of School greeting to all employees
Head of School Sonja Berlijn welcomes everyone back to a new semester and clarifies what applies to EECS' staff on the decision to return to the workplace.
Welcome back to a new semester at KTH!
I hope you all have had a relaxing and enjoyable summer. As you know, the KTH President decided on 25 May, based on a decision of the Swedish government, that students can return to campus. By that, KTH's staff will return to campus as well, so I want to take the opportunity to make some clarifications.
We follow the President's decision.
The government has prioritised the mental health of the Swedish students and has decided that the universities have to open, implying that we welcome all of our staff back to campus to support the students.
We are flexible and open-minded.
To run our operations and support our students the best way possible, we need all kinds of staff on site. Also, many co-workers have not been feeling well working from home, and they might need someone to talk to and see people in real life. So we need to help each other and create a great work environment.
However, it is important to discuss with your team and your closest manager how to avoid crowdedness and return to the campus in an organised and safe way. Some of us have a private office, and some share their offices – so the solutions might be different. Would you please share your division's or unit's solutions in the Slack channel #eecs-general? I have seen great proposals and examples there if you need inspiration.
EECS will not sign telework agreements"distansavtal" to all employees to allow for flexibility. If you on some occasion would like to work from home, you can discuss with your manager and if you agree upon this, you document this by e-mail.
We are caring.
We continue to think about social distancing, use hand sanitiser and avoid larger gatherings until the restrictions are lifted in full. And if we see students who need to be reminded, we act.
I hope you all consider the above. I'm convinced that you, together with your closest colleagues and managers, will solve this operational puzzle in the best way so we all can have a safe working environment at campus – and continue to do all the great things that we are known for.
Lastly, if our President changes her decision, we will have to adjust to that. I will of course address any news from the KTH management at the next All employee meeting on 2 September. In the meantime, I hope to see you on campus and stay safe!