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Coronavirus

NASA MSFC Is Now At Stage 3 – Mandatory Telework

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
March 14, 2020
Filed under
NASA MSFC Is Now At Stage 3 – Mandatory Telework

From: [email protected]
Subject: MSFC – Mandatory Telework – Stage 3 Effective Immediately
Date: March 14, 2020 at 7:50:46 AM MDT
This is an emergency message from NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center. Effective immediately, MSFC has gone to mandatory telework, Stage 3. For additional details, please check the email sent by the MSFC Director, Jody Singer.

Statement By NASA Marshall Center Director Jody Singer
“On the evening of Friday, March 13, we received confirmation that one of our employees tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). Contact tracing will begin immediately in order to identify and notify individuals who may have had significant contact with that employee. “Access to the center will be restricted to mission-essential personnel only, as defined in the response framework. More guidance will follow for those who do not have equipment to work from home or who work in labs or other facilities requiring similar technical equipment that is a fixed asset.”

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6 responses to “NASA MSFC Is Now At Stage 3 – Mandatory Telework”

  1. fcrary says:
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    I wish they’d stop using the phrase “essential personnel”. What they really mean is that there are tasks which have to be done by on a certain schedule or a project will fail, that there are people responsible for those tasks, and they need to identify those people. Either to make sure they have physical access, if that’s necessary for the task, or that they have an identified backup, in case something happens to them, or for similar reasons.

    But the term “essential personnel” doesn’t communicate that clearly. Some people don’t want to say they are not essential; it feels like volunteering to first in line for the next reduction in force. Some people just like being able to say they are essential. Since this is something done for employee safety, I wish they could use clear, unambiguous language.

    • whatagy says:
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      In many cases the essential personnel aren’t ISS or project related. They are also security, maintenance, facility support. janitorial, and fire fighting personnel who are required to continue working to ensure our facilities remain safe and are ready to be reoccupied when we return. In the present case, I’m non-essential and I hope it stays that way until this thing passes.

    • kcowing says:
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      This is a formal personnel designation. They have called it that for decades. They have to call them something.

      • fcrary says:
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        I know, but sometimes established terminology doesn’t communicate clearly, and sometimes terminology which has been used for decades becomes dated. Last Thursday, the science division of my lab had a meeting about shifting to telecommuting to the greatest extent possible. The university hasn’t closed down, but sometime in the future, they might close the lab to everyone except essential personnel. So they want a list of those people and what fraction of their time required physical access. If it takes ten or fifteen minutes to explain what that term means to a room full of PhD scientists, I have to think it doesn’t communicate clearly.

        And it turns out it the people using it don’t even use it correctly. These days, there are many essential personnel who do not have to be physically present to do their jobs. We were told the term technically means someone who has to do something, either on a regular basis or on short notice, to make sure things keep working or to avoid some serious consequences. I’ve had jobs like that, but even fifteen years ago, I could do them from anywhere. It required a laptop, some custom software, an internet connection, VPN and a cell phone. So the term, its definition, and using it in the context of physical access are a bit dated.

    • jimlux says:
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      There are also projects that NASA does that *can* be delayed for a week or three. So, unless you’re on a project that requires “touching hardware” and that project can’t slip (i.e. you’re waiting for the Earth/Mars conjunction for launch), then that might make you essential. There was a discussion about this when one of the shutdowns occurred as they were getting ready to launch Maven (I think?) – you’re in the final phases.

      But, is, for example, someone doing software fixes for Starliner “essential”? If Starliner slips a month because everyone can’t get into work, is that a big deal or a little deal.

      Some projects might fall on COVID-19 as a wonderful reason to declare a slip – it’s “force majeure” – The EVM counters stop running, or can be adjusted, etc.

      • fcrary says:
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        Physical access can mean more than touching hardware. Some spacecraft operations work is done on isolated networks (for security) and you can’t make VPN connections to them. You have to be on console. Another example which came up at my lab is someone who might be called in to diagnose an anomaly in one of several flight instruments he built (should there be a problem.) For various reasons, he does not and isn’t supposed to take his circuit diagrams home with him. So if he needs to look at them, he has to come in to his office and unlock the filing cabinet. (And, yes, some of those instruments are old enough that the diagrams really are pieces of paper…)

        The MAVEN business during a government shutdown was just weird. Getting ready for launch was, initially, not considered an essential task. The mission and its science would not have been harmed by missing the launch window and waiting 26 months for the next one. (The mission’s budget would have been a different matter…) Then someone pointed out that the Mars rovers depend on communications relays from various orbiters, and all the orbiters currently at Mars well past their design lifetime. So launching MAVEN on time, and getting a new relay in orbit around Mars, was a potential health and safety issue for currently operating rovers. That was enough to make MAVEN launch preparations “essential.”