POLICIES AND DISCLAIMER

City of Olympia

The Policies that follow are designed to provide guidance for individuals employed or volunteering with the City of Olympia. All employment with the City of Olympia is “at-will” for both parties.

This means that it is the right of the City or the employee to terminate the employment relationship at any time for any legal reason. Nothing contained in these Policies changes that relationship.

Only contract or statute (e.g., labor agreements, Civil Service Rules, RCW, WAC, memorandums of understanding, individual employment contracts) or the City Manager can change the “at-will” relationship. If the City Manager desires to make such a change it must be in writing.

In the City of Olympia, only Department Directors (and City Manager) have the authority to impact the employment status of an employee through hiring, evaluating, training, transferring, and imposing discipline up to but not including termination. Only the City Manager has the authority to terminate an employee’s employment. Managers and supervisors, although essential in the overall employment process, do not have the authority to fundamentally change the employment status of an employee.

These Policies relate to a variety of subjects involving the status, conduct, and benefits for City of Olympia employees. The Policies can be changed or deleted at any time, without notice. Every effort will be made to provide a once of year summary of any substantive/key changes to the Policies so that keep employees are kept up to date on the Policies.

Should any provisions of these Policies be rendered or declared invalid by a court action or by reason of any existing or subsequently enacted legislation, the remaining parts or portions of these Polices shall remain in full force and effect.

Please contact the Human Resources Director at 360.753.8309 for questions about these Policies or interpretation of their provisions. To review changes that have been made to the Policies, please visit the Summary of Major Changes page.

Effective with adoption of these changes, the title “Administrative Guidelines” will be changed to “Policies”. The Summary describes major changes to existing “Administrative Guidelines” (Policies) and identifies “new” Policies that in the past have been used City wide but have not been a part of the central “Administrative Guidelines” (Credit Card, Recognition, Travel, Misc. Expenses). The purpose behind numbering the new Policies is to make them more easily identifiable. We have also put similar topics (such as Leave) under the same Policy. Policies will be published using Code Publishing similar to the City’s Municipal Codes and the Comprehensive Plan.