Working from home

• Working from home is based on trust and requires employees to exercise a high degree of personal responsibility since they are performing job-related tasks in a private environment.
• Working from home means that ETH employees work from their own home regularly or occasionally but with no change to their contractually agreed workplace.
• As a general rule, all ETH employees who live and work in Switzerland are allowed to work from home regardless of what kind of employment contract they have and as long as operations permit. Find more information about cross-border commuters and working from abroad (place of work not in Switzerland).
• There is no general entitlement to be allowed to work from home. Supervisors are responsible for making decisions about remote working arrangements.
• The Executive Board of ETH Zurich would like supervisors to facilitate the option of working from home for their employees wherever this is feasible. Exclusive work-from-home arrangements (100% remote) are normally not desirable.

• Working from home must be discussed with and approved by the employee’s supervisor.
• The employee’s tasks, working environment and job design, as well as any operational procedures that apply to them, must be suitable for working from home.
• Working from home may be agreed for a limited or unlimited period of time. If an employee is working from home for an unlimited period, permission for this can be withdrawn by their supervisor within a reasonable period of at least one month if the criteria for granting permission are no longer met or if there are legal reasons for not allowing the employee to work from home.

• The regulations relating to personnel law under the Personnel Ordinance for the ETH Domain (external pagePO-ETHcall_made) apply.
• The provisions of the Swiss Employment Act must be complied with, specifically those regarding maximum daily working hours, required rest periods, breaks and regulations regarding night work and working on Sundays. Work from home must be conducted during the usual operating hours.
• Working hours for working at home are to be recorded according to the same rules as those used for work at the contractually agreed workplace.

Employees are responsible for complying with data security requirements, including when they are working from home. The regulations of the external pagePO-ETHcall_made (professional, commercial and official confidentiality), the ETH Zurich Acceptable Use Policy for Telematics Resources (BOT) and the IT guidelines apply here in particular.

The existing ETH telematics resources are to be used for working from home, meaning that any infrastructure costs are already covered.
 

Employees working from home regularly must have access to a working environment in which they are able to work efficiently and maintain their concentration without being disturbed.

Employees should check their workspace at home in terms of ergonomics.

A secure and efficient connection with the ETH server environment must be guaranteed at all times.

Employees must ensure that they can be contacted by e-mail, telephone and/or other technological means during the usual operating hours.

Employees must be present at the ETH workplace on days on which regular meetings and events are scheduled.