The remote work (or “home office”) policy that was temporarily put in place for the 2022 summer semester will now extend into the 2022/2023 winter semester. University management and the Staff Council: Entire Freie Universität came to an agreement on the issue this week.

Based on their agreement, employees may work from home for up to 40 percent of their regular working days over the course of a given month. This policy change is also temporary and valid through March 31, 2023.

In general, employees should be granted the opportunity to work remotely.  Employees working from home should agree upon regular availability times for daily communication. Those times should fall within the core working hours for their specific unit.

This policy goes into effect on October 1, 2022 and was published in the staff circular Personalblatt 05/2022 on September 9, 2022.

• You can find the staff circular on the following website (in German): www.fu-berlin.de/service/zuvdocs/personal 
• Other important university publications are available in German at: www.fu-berlin.de/sites/abt-1/news 

Depending on how infection numbers develop, the political framework regarding the issue of remote work could change, at which point Freie Universität Berlin would need to reassess the situation and potentially take a different course of action.