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Return to Article: Senate panel OKs bill to expand telework eligibility

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  Some agencies, like mine, while permitting telecommuting in union contracts, have individual regions where management officials refuse to abide by the terms of the contracts thereby requiring the employees to resort to the grievance procedure. Such legislation is long needed and will advance the needs of both the government and the employees. Happy employees make for productive employees. I personally find that on the days I work at home I am significantly more productive than on the days I am in the office. I schedule my hearings on certain days, and set aside others for paperwork. If I am in the office on paperwork days I am often interruped by phone calls, conversation in the hallway on the way to the restroom and other things that cause me to waste time. At home, I get my computer out and begin work without distraction. I'm sure others who work at home find it to be much the same. I do hope that this legislation passes and is signed into law.

  joyce.krutick.craig Posted November 16, 2007 2:45 PM
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  The bill will probably aid somewhat to the situation. However, as I read many of these comments. Its not enough. Agencies must be mandated and put in a position of justifying why they are not complying and allowing more employees to work, I teleworked for almost 2 1/2 years & saved literally hundreds of dollars. The current situation with Ag is terrible, there are double standards all over the place. I now have to justify literally everything that I'm doing when I telework on the episodic versus continuous. Absolutely everthing I do can be done from remote location.

  Ron Lester Posted November 16, 2007 2:27 PM
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  Linda Green is correct - managers will fight tooth and nail to regain/maintain the "thumbs on" approach to management. How else can they justify excessive GS 15 payband salaries if they have no one to observe? We've had Flexiplace for years, but management uses removal from flexiplace as a sword to hang over the employees' heads.

  Lauri G NTEU Posted November 15, 2007 6:12 PM
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  The legislation is a move in the right direction, but it may collide with the inertia of federal managers who can't make themselves allow employees to work offsite.

  Jay Dee Are Posted November 15, 2007 5:17 PM
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  1) I have MS, and telecommute the last two hours of each day so that I can get home while I still have some energy. I'm not sure why every mother doesn't do this so that she can be present (not babysit) when older children are out of school.

  2) Shifting times is rarely mentioned. If a parent needs to meet with a teacher in the middle of the day, telework ought to allow them to work 8 hours over, say, an 11- or 12-hour day. Work from 6:30 to 10:30, meet with teachers to 1:30, eat lunch and start work at 2:30 and end at 6:30, or something like that, since most agencies have flexible start and ending times.

  Government managers manage by hours, which is counterproductive on a number of different levels. Manage by output. Too bad we're paid by the hour and not on a salary, or by what we produce. Anyway, ways teleworking can spur productivity, like the above examples, need to be specified by OPM or whoever deals with the details. Let agencies know this is OK. Otherwise, telecommuting has less effect on the workforce than it could have. If OPM doesn't spell out all the ways it can be implemented, agencies will interpret teleworking as narrowly as possible.

  Cynthia La Covey Posted November 15, 2007 11:53 AM
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  Telework absolutely works. Two of our employees proved it to our then very resistant management in situations where both had long recuperation periods in which they could not physically come to work. They reported their completed work daily, laid out work plans for the week, and kept in close touch with supervisors. The work we do is some that can be done away from the office and much that needs concentration and quiet. Obviously not all jobs can be done this way. For the ones that can, set up ad hoc situations and go for it. When those employees returned, they hit the ground running.

  AF HR Spec Posted November 15, 2007 10:52 AM
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  The competing interests of telework and security requirements governing computers used for such work have yet to be resolved. Home computers used for telework have restrictions on the programs which can be loaded onto it, sites that can be visited, and types of usage. It seems that a person would really need to have a seperate computer on which to do government work.

  Enzo Melanzane Posted November 15, 2007 10:39 AM
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  Agencies will not respond to telework mandates until Congress or the Administration start reducing their rent funding in-advance for the reduction in office space that they should be achieving from telework.

  Employees must also stop thinking theri office is their little home-away-from -home and get use to the idea of coming in and taking the first available cubicle.

  One note of warning--if your job can be done from home, could it be done by contractor? Could that contractor be somewhere with much lower wage rates? Even if Fed, could it be done by someone in a lower locality-pay zone?

  Rick Posted November 15, 2007 10:07 AM
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  My experience (working in three agencies) has been that many want to telework but only one has been permitted to do so. Maybe this will force managment to loosen up a little.

  Art Posted November 15, 2007 9:48 AM
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  Hopefully the bill will be passed however continued resistance from management will delay telework for employees. Stalling tactics such as IT can not establish connectivity or information being cited as being to sensitive will be the next step. I drive from North Carolina to Virginia every Sunday and then commute from a hotel in northern Virginia to the District and then back to NC on Thursdays because management does not favor Telework. Not because it can not be done or the information is of a sensitive nature it is more because in my opinion telework exposes the overstaffing and the overbudgeting of an operation that could be trimmed significantly. We are wasting tax payer dollars because it may reduce high grades and salaries.

  Wayland Burton Posted November 15, 2007 9:45 AM
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  I am being considered for telework for two days a week. I will ask my supervisor to provide me a Government Lap Top Computer to be worked on at home with a Thumb device to work at the office. Do you feel this is to much to ask ?

  Darryl Rhen Posted November 15, 2007 9:26 AM
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  This bill will be wonderful addition. You may have to hog tie some of the these federal agencies to get more participation. I am a firm believer, one of the biggest stumbling block is that managers attitude toward telework is that an employee is getting away with something. We are in a management cultures that focus on where a person is and whether you can see them. Managers need to be able to trust their employees. Until we can change this scenerio, most of us will be commuting to work.

  Linda Green Posted November 15, 2007 8:58 AM
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  Very progressive. Unfortunately, government managers are very opposed to telecommuting. If enacted, they will, no doubt, try to throw up irrational barriers to the actual implementation of this legislation.

  Johnnie Nichols Posted November 15, 2007 8:21 AM