Time for tele-work
Editor's Note: This is first of two Federal Focus columns on telecommuting. Part two, which will be published in two weeks, will address how telecommuting affects work relationships and how employees can promote telecommuting in their agencies.
Confirmation hearings are in the news. Last week the Senate conducted hearings for five Bush cabinet nominees on a single day, hoping to get a jump on the executive nomination process. But my thoughts have been on a confirmation hearing from January 1953. That's when Charles E. Wilson, General Motors Executive and nominee for Secretary of Defense in the Eisenhower administration, made this famous remark before the Senate: "For years, I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa."
So it seemed. The Eisenhower years were good to the automobile. The Interstate Highway System is Eisenhower's greatest peacetime legacy. He explained his zeal for the project in his 1963 memoir: "More than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America.... Its impact on the American economy--the jobs it would produce in manufacturing and construction, the rural areas it would open up--was beyond calculation." Shortly after leaving office, Eisenhower told Walter Cronkite, "If you build a road, you make it possible for more automobiles to be used, and more oil and gas is used, and more hot dog stands are built along the road."
Eisenhower's vision was realized. In 1953, the Bureau of Public Roads estimated that "by 1990, it is possible that the number of motor vehicles will be almost double the present total." The actual increase was 336 percent. In a 1999 study, the Fannie Mae Foundation reported that the interstate system and dominance of the automobile were the most powerful influences on American cities and suburbs of the past 50 years.
But now the worm has turned. Workers across the country are looking for ways to stay off the roads by telecommuting to their jobs.
Like the interstate system, telecommuting in the federal government has endured a bumpy start. But after years of executive orders, pilot programs and studies, it may finally be shifting out of neutral.
Last October, Congress passed a law (PL 106-346) requiring agencies to establish policies in which eligible workers "may participate in telecommuting to the maximum extent possible without diminishing employee performance." The law directed the Office of Personnel Management to ensure this requirement is applied to 25 percent of the federal workforce within six months (that is, April 2001), and to "an additional 25 percent of such workforce each year thereafter."
Of course, laws are sometimes ignored, and this one faces a rough road. Congress acknowledged the breadth of change seeded in the new law by instructing agencies to identify and remove "managerial, logistical, organizational or other barriers," and to provide various resources and support. But cultural change does not happen overnight. The Federal Aid-Highway Act of 1956, considered the progenitor of the interstate highway system, was preceded by at least five other laws that paved the way. Likewise, it would be optimistic to assume all eligible federal employees will be telecommuting within four years.
If you enjoy historical irony, pause to compare the Eisenhower-era arguments for the interstate system with today's arguments for telecommuting. One program puts people on the road, the other keeps them at home, but the arguments sound the same.
The interstate system was going to alleviate traffic congestion by routing traffic around city borders; ensure more efficient use of natural resources by reducing stop-and-go driving; save time for workers by letting them drive to work faster; expand employment opportunities by putting more distant jobs within reach; increase choice for workers by allowing them to live in one community and work in another; reduce traffic injuries through better-designed roads; and cut operating costs through more efficient driving and reduced tire wear.
The interstate system delivered these benefits commensurate to its time, and so will telecommuting. But we seem to be stuck behind some slow drivers. In 1994, President Clinton directed all agencies to establish telecommuting programs and encourage participation. In 1996, the President's Management Council (PMC) set goals of 60,000 federal telecommuters by 1998 and 160,000 by 2002; the PMC created a "National Telecommuting Initiative Action Plan" to make it happen.
In 1996, Clinton issued another order; he reminded agencies of his previous directive, endorsed the PMC goal, and emphasized the government's role in "transforming the culture of the American workplace." Vice President Al Gore issued a memo in 1997 urging agencies to "intensify our efforts to make telecommuting more readily available to our workers" and meet the PMC targets.
On the last day of fiscal 1998, OPM reported there were just under 25,000 federal telecommuters. Of eight "family friendly" initiatives, OPM considers telecommuting one of the two least used. But the fact is, we don't know the true level of telecommuting in the government. According to report last year by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government, several agencies failed to participate in the survey conducted by OPM in 1998.
The worm has turned, but it makes slow progress. Congress's most recent effort to jump-start the telecommuting movement promises many benefits, but given recent history, federal employees should not sit back and wait for telecommuting to happen. My next column will explore the implementation barriers and how federal employees can help make the new law a reality.
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