How to manage other appointments (paid to unpaid; terminations; maternity/paternity leave; etc.)
FAS Office for Postdoctoral Affairs
- http://www.postdoc.harvard.edu/
- The Postdoc Office's web site is an excellent resource for both postdocs and administrators.
- The following page on their site is dedicated to resources for administrators: http://postdoc.harvard.edu/FASadminresources
Appointment Lengths
The default length of a research appointment is one year. However, appointments can be shorter. Anyone working in a lab over 30 days should be appointed. While appointments under three months do need to be approved by the Assistant Dean for Science, this approval is usually granted. In cases where this approval is needed, Joe Lavin will contact the Assistant Dean for Science.
Social Security Numbers
If a non-citizen does not have a social security number, you may leave the field blank in Asperin. Joe Lavin will obtain a temporary social security number so that the new researcher can be paid. A new researcher is eligible to apply for a social security number after being in the country for 10 days. Once the researcher has an actual social security number, he/she should visit Joe Lavin in order to complete a new I-9 form.
Social security numbers are not required for non-citizens with an unpaid appointment. However, FAS Payroll requires any U.S. citizen to supply us with his/her social security number in order to have an appointment, paid or unpaid. Please enter the social security number in the Asperin appointment. If you are unable to enter it into Asperin, please give it to Joe Lavin. (Note: Social security numbers should never be put into a non-secure email message. If sent by enail, it should be sent as an attachment in Accellion.)
Appointment Corrections
If the original appointment was for less than a year, please extend a researcher with an appointment correction for the remainder of the year, rather than entering a reappointment. With an appointment correction, you only need to change the end date.
Asperin Path:
Actions - Appointment - Correct - Appt
Moving from Paid to Unpaid
When moving an individual from paid to unpaid, you will first need to enter a termination, and then do a new appointment. It is no longer possible to reclass an employee from paid to non-paid, due to issues with benefits.
Terminations
When entering a termination, please enter a forwarding address (if you have it) and include the person's next position in the Asperin comments. You should use one of the VOL codes. Please contact Joe Lavin before processing any involuntary terminations.
Note: If there are performance issues with a postdoc who is being reappointed, it is best not to reappoint the postdoc for a full year. He/she can be reappointed for less than a year while his/her performance is being reviewed.
Termination Policy from the FAS Appointments Handbook
Ordinarily, non-tenured appointments are made for a specified term. However, regardless of the term length, appointments are always contingent upon satisfactory performance. In the case of involuntary termination before appointment end date of a non-ladder faculty or research appointment, the following documents must be sent to the Office for Faculty Affairs.
- A record of communications between the faculty member/researcher and his/her supervisor, documenting a pattern of expectations/benchmarks on specific tasks, and corresponding deficiencies. Ideally, these exchanges should state that there will be real consequences, if performance does not improve.
- A documented formal conversation between the faculty member/researcher and his/her supervisor, summarizing the issues and alerting the faculty member/researcher, that their performance is not consistent with continued employment.
- A letter terminating the appointment (“fair notice”). There is no standard length of time by which termination is effective; however, 30 days should be given unless circumstances require that less notice be given. It can be less, if stages 1 and 2 have been clear.
Maternity / Paternal Leave Policy
This policy is detailed on the Postdoc Office's web site: