Operational interruptions

Official duty station

The official duty station is driven by the Unique Facility Identifier (UFI) and represents the location of a position’s assigned, permanent state facility worksite (if a state owned or leased facility), field assignment city/ state, or home-based city/state. A state official or employee’s official duty station is to be assigned by the agency

Official workstation for travel reimbursement

The official workstation for travel reimbursement may be the city, town, or unincorporated area of the state official or employee’s official duty station or official worksite as determined by the agency for purposes of travel reimbursement

Official worksite

The official worksite is the city, town, or unincorporated area where the majority of the employee’s time is spent. The determination is not based on the preference of the state official or employee. The agency maintains the authority to exercise flexibility in determining the employee’s official worksite, considering the agency’s requirements and nature of the position.

Teleworking

Involves the use of telephones and computers to enable an employee to work at a location other than their official duty station. Teleworking is a Commute Trip Reduction strategy that must be approved by an employee’s agency.

Temporary duty station

A fixed location where a state official or employee has been temporarily assigned to work for a specific period of time which is less than one year.

Duty Station County

Prior to the addition of the UFI address fields in HRMS in 2016, Duty Station County was the primary field for identifying the position’s assigned duty station. As long as a Unique Facility Identifier (UFI) address exists for the position, the Duty Station County field can be considered obsolete. The Duty Station County field remains in various reports for historical reporting purposes. See Unique Facility Identifier (UFI) Code Infotype: Position Job Attributes (1660) (included in HRMS F1 Help).

Many of our state collective bargaining agreements refer to the location an employee is assigned as their duty station, or official duty station.

Agencies should consider where the employee typically accomplishes most of their work. In HRMS, use the employee’s Unique Facility Identifier (UFI) code and address to identify the location where the employee primarily conducts their work, if different than their position’s official duty station. The UFI does not need to be updated for temporary changes, but a telework agreement can – and should – document approved alternate locations for the employee to work remotely. If an employee is approved to work set days within a state office and set days from home or another alternate location, the telework agreement should include those details; including the official station designation for travel purposes for those set days. The SAAM does not require payment of mileage or travel time for a set “split” schedule as described above, unless unanticipated or unplanned travel is required without sufficient notice.

Example:

A position’s official duty station is assigned to 1500 Jefferson St SE, Olympia, WA. The position’s UFI Code is set to A10186. The employee has an approved telework agreement to work from their home in Tacoma 3 days per week. The employee’s UFI Code is set to Z00320 – “Home-based Tacoma”. If the agency has designated the official station to be the location the employee is scheduled to work, then travel to the 1500 Jefferson office is considered their normal commute on those days when they normally come to the office.

For more detailed information and HRMS data definitions, see the HRMS Data Definitions Resource Guide.

An alternate duty station or work location is an approved location, reflected in a telework agreement, other than the employee’s primary work location where they may be able to continue to work if their primary assigned location is inoperable. These can be long term, such as a standing telework agreement where the employee works from home; occasional, such as an employee being approved to work from a state office in another city when in travel status a few times per month; or temporary, such as a safe place with power and internet service during a suspended operations event.

We encourage agencies to be flexible with temporary work sites, as long as the employee is able to safely and securely complete their work. Some examples may include, but are not limited to:

• Shared office space with employees from different agencies
• A different building your agency leases
• Library
• Coffee shop
• Parking lot with a WiFi hotspot
• House of a friend, family member, neighbor, or other alternative residence

When the employee’s primary telework site is not functional or cannot be safely used.