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"Telework shouldn't be viewed as an employee reward."

Bernice Steinhardt, director of strategic issues for the Government Accountability Office, made that argument at a hearing convened last week to examine why more federal agencies haven't established telework policies, much less promoted the concept aggressively.

At first glance, it wouldn't appear particularly important to decide whether telework is an employee benefit, an efficiency improvement device, a means of cutting carbon emissions by eliminating commutes or a key element in continuity of operations planning. Telework can fulfill all of those roles.

There are countless stories of how it has improved the lives of federal employees and allowed them freedom they might not have had if they were tied to more formal work schedules.

One manager at the Department of Transportation let a terminally ill employee work outside the office so she could shape her schedule around cancer treatments. When the employee died, her family told the manager that teleworking had brightened the end of the employee's life and made her feel like she had an important connection to a community that she would have lost if she had not been able to work.

Frequently, employees' and agencies' interests intersect when it comes to telework. At the hearing last week, John Wilke, a trademark examining attorney, told members of Congress that being able to telework from Chicago let him keep his children in schools where they grew up and allowed him and his wife to stay deeply involved in their religious community. Telework was also an incentive for Wilke to bring 20 years of private sector trademark experience back to the Patent and Trademark Office, where he'd worked earlier in his career.

Still, telework sometimes is seen as a privilege restricted to a chosen few or a special dispensation used to lure a coveted employee. Some federal employees talk about telework as if it's a sign of an organization's weakness, rather than its strength.

The attitude that telework means an employee is getting away with something is a major stumbling block to the kind of cultural shift that would make its spread possible.

"The real issue here," Steinhardt said, "is creating management cultures that are focused on results, what our goals are, not where a person is and whether you can see them."

Managers need to be able to trust their employees, of course, and strong mechanisms and performance expectations need to be in place to make sure that employees who telework are doing their jobs. But that challenge lies in the realm of effective management, not in the domain of employee punishment or reward.

Until managers are confident enough in their abilities to set high standards and work with their employees to achieve them, telework won't reach its full potential. It will remain just a benefit in the form of a reward for employees who managers trust enough to let them out of sight.

But if telework is a mechanism for ensuring that dedicated federal workers can contribute their full potential to the government regardless of other circumstances, managers can demand new standards of excellence, and demonstrate that out of sight doesn't mean out of mind.

COMMENTS

• Some supervisors would be more supportive of telework except for the bureaucratic hurdles in setting an employee up to do so. The requirements to provide the computer, pay for the links, do a safety inspection of the home office and such are cost-prohibitive. Regional telework offices may help alleviate some of these concerns. Stephanie Hoehne Posted January 10, 2008 9:16 AM
• I had a supervisor who objected to the compressed schedule until it benefitted her, than she was all for it. Surprise! I work in the DC area and I telecommute one day every two weeks and it saves me approximately 3 hours of commute time for just that one day. Believe me being stuck on I-95 South in the summertime is no picnic. Ann Posted January 3, 2008 9:19 AM
• As a manager I was always against teleworking because I believed that my project managers needed to meet face to face with their product delivery teams and be available during working hours. However, I switched jobs (I didn't want to be a supervisor under NSPS) and now I myself telework. I work Thursdays and Fridays from my condo on the coast. It works out fine and I am more productive getting my job done when I don't have the "confusion" of the office surrounding me. Gadwall Posted November 29, 2007 8:42 AM