Global Environment Facility Evaluation Office 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433 USA Tel: (202) 473-0508 - Fax: (202) 522-3240 / (202) 522-3245
Short Term Consultants FAQ March 1, 2011 The GEF Evaluation Office welcomes Short Term Consultants (STCs) and looks forward to working with them on the tasks that have been identified in their terms of reference. We appreciate your efforts and input and in return want to create an atmosphere in which you feel a valued member of your team. We operate in the environment that the World Bank Group provides to us and we abide by its rules and regulations. Your contract is a World Bank contract and many of the specific rules for STCs have been regulated by the Bank. This note guides you through several issues that you may be confronted with when working for us. Question: will the office provide me with a working space? Answer: As stipulated in your term of Reference (TOR), Short Term Consultants are expected to work from home, in accordance with World Bank policy AMS 5.3 – Space Management. The GEF Evaluation Office has not been assigned any space to accommodate STCs and thus is in general not able to host STCs in its office. However, we are allowed to use our existing office space to host a limited number of STCs temporarily. This means that there may be some exceptions to the rule to work from home, if needed. All these exceptions are on an invitational basis: i.e. we invite STCs to work in the office if this is necessary for their work. Question: when will I be invited to work in the office? Answer: In general, the decision to invite you to work in the office is based on two circumstances. First of all, there needs to be a business case for you to be present in the office, for example to work on files that are only available through direct access to our databases, or to work directly with the team. The Team Leaders decide whether there is a business case or not. Secondly, we need to manage the available space and ensure that we are not “overbooked” at any moment in time. For this purpose the Team Leaders will check whether there is space available at the moment that the STC is supposed to work in the office. In all cases you will communicate with the Team Leaders on both the need to work in the office and the precise days on which this will take place. Only in very rare cases will we accept a need to be in the office on a more structural basis, as this will take away office space from other teams. Question: what infrastructural support will I get when working in the office? The office has two possibilities to accommodate STCs. The preferred possibility is that STCs bring their own laptop and we provide a desk and temporary access to the wireless service in the Bank. Printing can be done through putting files on memory sticks and printing from a
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network connected computer. We advocate this as the best solution since it will allow STCs to maintain synchronization between what they do in the office and at home. Furthermore, it allows us to assign desks of colleagues who are on mission. The advantage is that these desks are usually in prime locations – in return we ask you to treat these offices with respect. If an STC needs office equipment due to the nature of the work, three work stations are currently available for the use of STCs – this number may change over time. These are equipped with a desk, chair and computer and for printing the computers are connected to network printers. Telephone service is available but is not assigned to a specific STC. STCs should not provide these telephone numbers as contact information, since they may work from a different desk later on. Question: who will assign my working space? Answer: Usually your working space will be known before your arrival as Team Leaders have planned ahead and space has been assigned beforehand. If not, please contact Ellie George and she will direct you to your working space. Question: are e-services available to me? Answer: Almost all e-services cost money and are charged back to the office. If you need to order an e-service please consult your Team Leader and get clearance. If you do not obtain this, the e-service will be cancelled. Question: are the World Bank training facilities available to me? Answer: This depends on whether the training is needed for the work that you do. Your Team Leader will need to establish a business case for the training. Furthermore, the Bank does not offer language training to STCs. Lastly; sometimes the Bank will turn down STCs for training if a course is oversubscribed or if the course is targeted to a specific audience. Question: can I decide on my working hours myself? Answer: There is some flexibility in working hours but in principle the work you do in the office should be carried out in regular working hours and the office will not provide you with access to the office in evenings and during the weekend. Your working hours should be agreed upon with your Team Leader. The advantage of working at home is that you are completely free to decide when to work, even if this would be in the middle of the night. However, the office encourages all staff to work regular hours and ensure a healthy and conducive environment with sufficient time to relax and pursue private interests. We hope these questions and answers provide information to improve your work experience in the office and if you need further information, please approach your Team Leader or Ellie George and Evelyn Chihuguyu.
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