Teamwork and Resilience: Today’s Ask the Administrator
Teamwork and Resilience
Thank you for all the great questions submitted for this week’s virtual Ask the Administrator. With the assistance of Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk and Chief Health and Medical Officer Dr. J.D. Polk, we got through as many questions as possible in this session. I encourage you to take a moment to watch the video online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCKR9Ge-5Gw . The video also will be posted to https://nasapeople.nasa.gov/coronavirus .
Pay for On-site and Off-site Contractors
NASA is working intensively to implement an approach for our industry partners to ensure they have adequate support. For our on-site and off-site contractors, we are issuing guidance based on current authority that should enable the contractor companies to preserve their workforce and readiness. These provisions provide a path to ensure contractor employees continue to be paid despite a pause in work. We are also closely watching pending legislation related to COVID-19 stimulus and are hopeful that this will include helpful language about this topic. We are continuing to work to support our grantees and space act agreement partners. Our goal in all this is to ensure this crisis does not rob us of our most precious resource, our team.
Excused Leave for Employees Working at Home with Children
For civil servants, the agency has leveraged existing flexibilities for telework, and weather and safety leave where an employee is unable to work remotely. We also are working with the Office of Personnel Management to enable excused leave, which will be of great importance for our employees who are finding themselves at home with young children and no available child care. Watch your email for further guidance on this important issue.
Please check https://nasapeople.nasa.gov/coronavirus regularly for updates and helpful information on leave, telework, and other important topics.
I appreciate you and your dedication to this agency as we work together to carry out an incredible mission. One of the key elements to maintaining resilience in the face of challenge is the ability to find meaning and purpose in the situation at hand. At NASA, our mission gives us that deep meaning and purpose, but it’s the people who fuel that mission. Let’s continue to take care of ourselves and one another, as we work through this unprecedented situation.
Ad astra,
Jim
