STANDARDS OF CONDUCT

UT Southwestern--as does all successful organizations--has certain rules that employees must follow. As a condition of your employment, you are expected to become acquainted with the performance criteria for your job duties and the rules, policies, procedures, and standards of conduct established by your department, The University of Texas System Board of Regents, and UT Southwestern as summarized in this guide. Failure to comply with applicable rules, policies, procedures, and standards of conduct may subject you to disciplinary action that can include termination of your employment.

It is important to understand what is expected of you and what you can expect from UT Southwestern. Your success at UT Southwestern hinges on your having a clear understanding of these expectations. If you have any questions, you should discuss them with your supervisor.

Ethics

As an employee of UT Southwestern, you have a responsibility to the people of Texas in the performance of your duties and care for public resources. High personal and professional standards are essential in fulfilling this responsibility. You will be held accountable for your actions (or failure to act), and such accountability cannot be delegated to others. As a condition of your employment, you agree to abide by the Ethics Policy of The University of Texas System and UT Southwestern.

Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest must be avoided in all instances. Texas law, specifically Chapter 572 of the Texas Government Code, sets specific standards of conduct for all state employees, including prohibitions of conflicts of interest. In addition, both the Public Health Service and the National Science Foundation require universities that apply for grants to assure them that there is no reasonable expectation that the design, conduct, and reporting of research will be biased by any significant financial interest of an investigator.

It is a violation of Texas law and The University of Texas System policy to use any UT Southwestern resources for personal purposes or personal gain. Personal purpose includes, but is not limited to, the private use of resources for an individual or for another entity, nonprofit or profit. Personal gain includes use that financially benefits an individual employee or otherwise gives the employee an advantage over other employees. A brief guide to The University of Texas System Ethics Policy, and pertinent portions of UT Southwestern's Ethics Policy, including conflicts of interest, may be found in the Appendix.

As an employee of UT Southwestern, you may be restricted in certain types of outside employment or with certain employers. If you intend to engage in outside non professional employment, you are required to notify your supervisor of your intention through a written description of the nature and extent of your proposed outside employment. If you intend to engage in outside professional employment, you must follow the procedure contained in Human Resources Policy Memorandum No. 1.041.

Equal Opportunity

UT Southwestern complies with applicable laws in providing equal opportunity to all individuals in all areas of employment (recruitment, hiring, training, assignment, and promotion) and employee privileges without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status.

Employees, students, program participants, service recipients, and applicants for employment or admission as students are to be treated fairly and with respect, and not subjected to harassment or unlawful discrimination. Employees who engage in conduct in violation of this policy will be subject to disciplinary action.

If you believe that you have not been treated in compliance with this policy, you may submit a complaint to the director of the Office of Equal Opportunity pursuant to Human Resources Policy Memorandum No. 1.080.

Sexual Misconduct including Sexual Harassment

Sexual misconduct involves engaging in inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature. Sexual misconduct constitutes unlawful, unethical, and unprofessional behavior.

Sexual harassment is a form of sexual misconduct that has the intent or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. It can include verbal, nonverbal, or physical gestures or abuse. Sexual harassment can include unwanted physical touching, brushing, or rubbing, or physical assault. Many kinds of non-physical behavior that you might personally believe to be harmless can actually constitute sexual harassment. Examples include suggestive comments of a sexual nature, sexual innuendo, propositions, sexual jokes, obscene gestures, or whistling at a person.

Intimate relationships between supervisors and subordinates must be avoided. The appearance, perception, or presence of sexual harassment can evolve from such a relationship, as well as actual or perceived favoritism between the supervisor and subordinate.

If you believe that you have been subjected to sexual misconduct while in the course and scope of your employment, you should immediately report the incident, preferably to the director of the Office of Equal Opportunity. For more detailed information, refer to Human Resources Policy Memorandum No. 1.080.

Work Attendance

Good attendance is your responsibility, and it is essential to the continued achievement of UT Southwestern's goals and objectives. You are expected to report to work each day as scheduled, on time, and ready and able to carry out your assigned duties and responsibilities. This includes taking and returning from meal and rest breaks. You may not leave work early nor arrive late without appropriate approval.

• Nonexempt employees are required to record their reporting and ending time on a daily basis on the time record provided for that purpose and to certify to the accuracy of the time record by signing it at the end of the reporting period.
• Exempt employees are required to report their absences from work and use of leave on the leave report provided for that purpose and to certify to the accuracy of the report by signing it at the end of the reporting period.
• If you are unable to report to work, you must notify your immediate supervisor by your normal starting time each day you are absent and in conformance with your department's guidelines.
• Any unexcused absence or tardiness may subject you to disciplinary action.
• If you are absent from work for three consecutively scheduled workdays without notifying your supervisor or other appropriate person, your unreported absence will be considered to be job abandonment and your employment may be terminated.
• If you fail to return to work within three consecutively scheduled workdays after the end of an approved leave period without having obtained appropriate approval to extend the leave period, your failure to return will be considered to be job abandonment and your employment may be terminated.

Dress and Appearance

As an employee of UT Southwestern, you are expected to use good judgment in grooming, personal hygiene, and dress, and to behave in a professional and business-like manner. You should report for work neat and clean, dressed in a manner appropriate to a university/hospital environment, or to your assigned workplace. Your personal clothing and grooming standards must insure a safe, healthy environment for employees, patients, and guests.

Your department may provide you with guidelines on appropriate dress required by virtue of your position or work performed. Unless specifically authorized by departmental guidelines, the following attire should be considered inappropriate for the work environment:

• Torn or tattered clothing
• Shorts
• T-shirts
• Tank tops, halter tops, or other revealing clothing
• Leggings, jumpsuits, sweatshirts, or sweatsuits
• House slippers
• Hats and caps
• Elements of attire that interfere with the performance of your duties, create safety hazards, or distractions in the workplace

Supervisors are responsible for applying this policy consistently and for taking disciplinary action when appropriate. If you report for work inappropriately dressed, you may be required to leave the workplace and return, within a reasonable period of time, appropriately attired. If you are dismissed from the workplace due to your attire, the time away from work will be charged against your accrued vacation leave. If you do not have sufficient accrued vacation leave to cover the absence, your pay will be docked for the absence.

Office Etiquette

UT Southwestern wants its employees, patients, visitors, and other outside contacts to view our facilities as clean, healthy, businesslike work settings. You are expected to maintain your work location in a manner consistent with these principles.

Your department may establish appropriate guidelines regarding food, beverages, radios (including earphones), personal items, chewing gum, and other issues that affect the appearance, safety, or functionality of the workplace. Profanities, obscene language, threats of physical violence, and any other offensive jokes or gestures are prohibited.

Telephone Service Objectives

Every telephone call represents an opportunity for you to contribute to an environment of customer service excellence and to help another person. Telephone contact is just as important as face-to-face contact. Each contact should be treated with respect and given your fullest attention.

To enhance your telephone skills and help UT Southwestern achieve the highest quality service possible, we suggest that you follow these guidelines:

• Answer your telephone as soon as possible (within 4 rings).
• Identify yourself and your department.
• Express a friendly attitude.
• Listen to what the caller has to say and reassure the caller you are listening.
• If answering someone else's telephone, tell the caller the name of the person for whom you are answering as well as your own.
• If someone is unable to take a call, simply state that the person isn't available and take a message or ask the caller if he or she would like to leave a voice mail message.
• When taking messages, be sure you verify the caller's name (ask for spelling if not sure), telephone number, and other important details before ending the call.
• Be sure that your voice mail greeting is brief and professional.
• Voice mail should only be used to screen calls and eliminate interruptions under limited circumstances as authorized.
• Make every effort to respond to calls on the day received and no later than the end of the next business day.
• Avoid putting a caller on hold. If it is necessary to do so, tell the caller how long it will take and ask if he or she would prefer that you call them back.
• Never place a call on hold by answering the call, asking the caller if the caller can hold, then placing the call on hold before a response is given.

Personal Telephone Calls

For UT Southwestern to carry out its responsibilities, it is important that telephones be available for business purposes. Use of telephones for personal conversations must be kept to a minimum, and personal long distance and toll calls may not be charged to UT Southwestern. Public telephones are located throughout the campus buildings for your use in making long distance and toll calls.

Personal Mail

Your personal mail should be directed to your home, and your outgoing personal U.S. mail is not to be deposited for internal mail pick-up.

E-mail and Internet Usage

Use of the e-mail system and Internet access is limited to business purposes, and inappropriate use, including the communication of offensive, discriminatory, or derogatory messages is prohibited. Employees should avoid engaging in inappropriate use of the e-mail system or Internet access.

Identification Cards, Access Keys, and Passes

The Office of Human Resources will issue you a UT Southwestern identification card that should be carried with you at all times while on duty. If your job duties require you to regularly be in the facilities of an affiliated entity, you may be issued an identification or access card to be used while in that entity's facilities. Where required for the performance of your duties, you may be issued access keys to
UT Southwestern facilities. Upon paying the required parking fees, you may be provided with a pass that allows you to enter or exit your assigned parking facility. These cards, keys, and passes remain the property of UT Southwestern or the entity issuing them, and they must be accounted for at the time your employment with UT Southwestern ends.

UT Southwestern Identification Card

In addition to its use for usual identification purposes, your identification card enables you to purchase a parking permit, cash checks at the Cashier's Office, checkout books from the library, and borrow equipment from Audiovisual Services for use in your department.

Identification Card Issued by an Affiliated Entity

If you are issued an identification or access card by an affiliated entity, you will be provided with the rules and regulations governing the use of the card by the entity issuing the card. You should abide by these rules and regulations as if they were provided to you by UT Southwestern.

Access Keys and Passes

If you are issued access keys or passes, you are responsible for their use or misuse. They should not be shared with unauthorized persons, and any suspected misuse or loss should be reported immediately to your supervisor or in the case of a parking pass, to Parking Services.

Confidentiality

In carrying out your job duties, you may have access to confidential information and proprietary property that must not be shared with unauthorized persons. Confidential information includes, but is not limited to:

• All information designated as confidential, restricted access, or internal use only.
• All patient information, including patient name, addresses, telephone number, condition, diagnosis, treatment, financial information, and any other information contained in a patient file.
• Employee salaries, benefits, performance, disciplinary, and similar privacy-protected information.
• Confidential or personal information that you might acquire pertaining to a co-worker that would ordinarily be considered as not for public disclosure.
• Research project plans, procedures, methodologies, results, or any other information designated as confidential by the research scientist.

This provision does not prohibit you from making a valid complaint to appropriate law enforcement officials pursuant to applicable whistle-blower statutes.

Automated Information and Information Resources Access and Use

Automated information and information resources under management by
UT Southwestern are strategic and vital assets and require a degree of protection commensurate with their value. Measures must be taken to protect these assets against accidental or unauthorized disclosure, modification, or destruction, as well as to assure the security, reliability, integrity, and availability of information.

User IDs and Passwords

Access and use of computing resources is restricted to appropriately identified, validated, and authorized users. All means of access to automated information resources, such as user IDs and passwords are confidential and proprietary to
UT Southwestern. Information resources include, but are not limited to, network systems, mainframe applications, voice mail, and long-distance codes. You are accountable for the unauthorized or negligent disclosure or use of your passwords and access codes. Providing assigned passwords or access codes to unauthorized persons (including co-workers) is a violation of state criminal law and may subject you to prosecution or other disciplinary action. You are responsible for changing your password regularly. If you have reason to believe that your password or access codes have been misused, report it immediately to your supervisor and change your password.

Appointment of Relatives (Nepotism)

Employment by UT Southwestern of relatives of a member of The University of Texas System Board of Regents in any capacity is generally prohibited. If you were related to a Regent at the time of your appointment and this information was not disclosed before your appointment, you must disclose this information immediately to the Office of Human Resources. UT Southwestern employees may not approve, recommend, or otherwise act with regard to the appointment, reappointment, promotion, or salary of any person related to them within the second degree of affinity or the third degree of consanguinity.

Media Contacts

If a reporter or other news media contacts you, you should refrain from answering questions or responding to requests for information about UT Southwestern, its faculty, or staff. Refer all such media contacts to the Office of News and Publications at 214-648-3404.

Campus Parking

You may not park your personal vehicle on UT Southwestern property without having paid the appropriate parking fee and obtained a parking permit. Free parking is not available for employees. Additional parking information may be found in the Appendix.

Policy Violations

Violation of certain laws, The University of Texas System Board of Regents' Rules and Regulations, or UT Southwestern policies and procedures may result in disciplinary action, including termination of employment.