Guidance for offices and workspaces
Basic health and safety requirements
Symptom monitoring: Before arriving at on-campus offices and workplaces each day, employees are required to complete the Symptom Monitoring Survey. Supervisors and department chairs must check the COVID-19 Clearance Portal daily to make sure that employees who report directly to them have been cleared by the survey to be on campus.
Masks: Employees should wear masks at all time while in the office or workplace, regardless of the physical distance between them. Masks can be removed only when an employee is alone in an individual office with the door closed. (At this time, here is no need for solid or plexiglass dividers between office workstations.) Those employees who might arrive at work without a mask should be offered one.
Eating and drinking: Food and drink should not be consumed in offices, unless an employee is alone in an office with the door closed. Exceptions can be made for hydration or the medically necessary consumption of food or medications as appropriate. This safety precaution extends to indoor departmental meetings and employee celebrations held in departmental spaces. Eating and drinking are permitted outdoors and in restaurants, dining facilities or catering venues.
Workplace cleanings
Throughout the fall term, UCLA Facilities Management will continue to perform cleanings and disinfection of all high-use common areas, restrooms and public spaces throughout campus — including office common areas and restrooms. Details on these cleanings is available here (PDF).
For the cleaning of individual offices, units and departments can purchase cleaning packages through Facilities Management by submitting a facilities service request (please include “COVID” in the FAU project description).
Facilities Management has also installed hand sanitizer stations throughout campus. Individual units and departments are responsible for purchasing their own sanitizer for use in offices and workspaces
Workplace ventilation
UCLA Facilities Management on campus to make sure they meet industry recommendations for air exchanges and filtration. A website has been created that lists the buildings that do not meet the recommendations and should be reviewed by managers and supervisors.
UCLA Facilities Management has evaluated all building ventilation systems on campus to make sure they meet industry recommendations for COVID-19 air exchanges and filtration. Facilities Management has supplied portable HEPA air purifiers to those offices and workspaces that require them in order to meet industry standards — including most single occupancy offices without dedicated ventilation, multiple occupancy offices, conference rooms, and general assignment and departmental rooms.
Managers and supervisors who may still be unsure whether their spaces meet ventilation requirements can request a building ventilation assessment by Facilities Management to determine whether they need an air purifier or not.
A website has been created that lists the buildings that do not yet meet the recommendations and should be reviewed by managers and supervisors.
Office meetings and remote technology
There is no restriction on the number of employees in office meetings, but because a significant number of them are likely to be on a hybrid work schedule or completely remote, some offices may want to update their conference room audio-visual systems to accommodate those who are off site. UCLA’s IT Services has put together a set of technology recommendations based on room types, sizes and purposes to ease the burden of research and product selection. For more information, please contact IT services at help@it.ucla.edu or 310-267-4357.
Workplace COVID signage
To help the campus community navigate health and safety regulations related to working, teaching and learning, UCLA has installed relevant signage and messaging in most common and public areas.
For your convenience, you can also access signs and flyers for posting in offices and workplaces here:
- Classroom and workplace COVID reminders flyer (PDF)
- General COVID signage (UCLA Facilities Management)
When posting materials, pleasure make sure to follow UCLA Departmental Regulations for Posting Signage.
Dealing with violations of health and safety guidelines
UCLA is focused on developing of a collaborative community of compliance to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. Supervisors and department heads should remember to remind employees to complete the daily Symptom Monitoring Survey, to wear masks at all times in the office and to follow other campus protocols. Those employees who might arrive at work without a mask should be offered one.
There may be times when employees, after being reminded, refuse to comply with campus health and safety protocols. If employees demonstrate repeated noncompliance with protocols, a complaint can be made to the employee’s supervisor or unit head. In addition, reports of violations may be made anonymously through UCLA’s whistleblower hotline at 800-403-4744.
A determination will be made whether an employee’s violation was willful or not. Employees with willful violations, repeated violations or violations believed to have resulted in COVID-19 infections will face disciplinary measures up to and including exclusion from campus.
For full details of UCLA’s protocol on compliance and violations, see Compliance With Safety Measures (PDF).
Pivoting to hybrid or remote work
Significant changes in the public health landscape could require UCLA to make changes to work arrangements during the fall quarter — including adjusting workplace density or shifting some offices to completely remote work. Our COVID-19 Pivot Plan and Decision Matrix (PDF) describes the criteria that will inform possible changes in our operations.
Faculty and Staff
