Click here to skip navigation
An official website of the United States Government - whitehouse.gov

Pandemic FAQ

Question
[hypothetical] Due to the pandemic, schools are closed, and many employees have school-aged children home with them. Can these employees telework?
Answer
Generally, telework is not a substitute for dependent care. Employees cannot effectively accomplish work while actively caring for a child or adult who needs their full attention. However, during a pandemic, other emergency situation, or even during the normal course of events (e.g., a child is home due to routine illness), the employee could use a flexible combination of telework, leave, and schedule to meet their dependent care needs and still accomplish work. Managers and employees should discuss this scenario in advance to determine the limits of the employee’s availability and how communication and work flow would be affected.


Return to FAQ Home

Control Panel

Unexpected Error

There was an unexpected error when performing your action.

Your error has been logged and the appropriate people notified. You may close this message and try your command again, perhaps after refreshing the page. If you continue to experience issues, please notify the site administrator.

Working...