BURRR……… It’s that time of year when we have office closures and delays, and what we must remember, is that if there is bad weather, we will receive an emergency notification through your desktop/laptop, work email, and government issued mobile devices. We will also receive text messages from phone number (333) 477-2578 or an email to our personal email. Alerts that are emailed will come from IRS Emergency.ALERT@AtHoe.gov. Additionally, you can also find out about closures and delays by calling the IRS Emergency Information Hotline at 866-743-5748 and pressing option 3. If you are hearing impaired, you can connect to the hotline via the Federal Relay System at 800-877-8339. If you are an employee with an approved Telework Agreement, Article 50, Section 7(C)-(D) applies to you, which states the following:
C. When an employee with an approved Telework Agreement may reasonably anticipate that a weather or other safety-related condition may force the closure of their IRS facility (e.g. forecasted snow storm), the employee must take reasonable steps (within an employee’s control) to become Telework-ready – i.e., take necessary work equipment and necessary work files to their Telework location – for the anticipated day(s) the facility may be closed. In such circumstances, managers may authorize employees who are not in their POD to travel on administrative time (duty time) to their POD to obtain necessary work equipment or files to become Telework-ready.
D. When an employee is Telework-ready and a weather or other safety-related condition forces the closure of their IRS facility, the employee is expected to perform work at their approved Telework location for their entire TOD.
For additional information on Telework Requirements During Weather and Safety-Related Conditions, please see Article 50, Section 7 (A)-(K) or contact Chapter 73 for assistance.
Loretha Hudson
