Return to Article: Officials recognize telework demands more than lip service to thrive
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86853
Forget teleworking! Most managers are JUST not open to it. Is that because the GS15's sit at their desks and do nothing all day, and they are afraid their employees will be doing the same at home? And, they are not using it for retention and recruitment. It's a big joke so just STOP all the BS talking about it. At some DoD agencies, it's just NOT gonna happen. Seems the mentality is "it's OK to be at your desk and doing nothing productive, but it's not OK to be at a remote site and doing nothing". Besides, if teleworking was being embraced like so many leaders are suggesting, govt. employees would have to be held accountable, and supervisors would have to monitor accountability. HA HA!
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77775
Yeah - right. Good luck with this. I have worked for DoD for many years and there is only 1 agency (DLA) that actively embraced teleworking. Almost all of the military supervisors I haev had through the years are convinced that telework is just another way for civilian employees to get over. And just plain forget it if you work in the Pentagon! Unless the President mandates it, it will NOT happen.
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77716
Please, please, please, just stop talking about it and DO IT! I worked flexiplace for years and now can't because I have been denied remote access from home. And, to all who say flexiplace is not productive, you are entirely wrong. I was extremely productive, and a lot happier.
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77669
I am writing during luch while teleworking.I work for DLA and work in Quality. DLA's stated policy is that supervisors can grant up to 5 days telework per week (fat chance). Let's all cut to the chase. Teleworkers are more productive because they don't attend all the mickey mouse briefings and pre-briefings and pre-pre-briefings and meetings that are a waste. THE REAL PROBLEM with telework is: Over 50 percent of management is redundant. Is the Obama administration listening? Most of middle and upper management are NOT LEADERS! You could save millions upon billions if you allow maximum telework and remove this useless FAT in government. SES want kingdom's and fiefdoms and that's why telework will remain minimal. If now only one GS-14 reports to me they might not any GS-15's or SES's. Buy more workers endorse max telework and that will provide more funds for the troops in the field!
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77605
maybe telework is just for the great folks who work near DC. For those of us out on the various Military posts...telework is going no-where. NO-one wants to approve it, or support it.
Various agencies support it while others don't...some even stake out different points with exactly opposite views on the contraints as pro v. con on why it's ok or not.
Clearly a good thing....if anyone gets serious about supporting this. Like many things.... great words out of DC...little action / benefit for the operational folks on the ground, outside of VA/DC.
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77576
We will need to re-train supervisors and remove those who refuse to learn how to manage based on productivity and not on hours in the office (in sight). This is one of the biggest barriers to expanded telework. Managers must learn to gauge the volume of work that is appropriate and determine at the end of the week whether the work was completed.
The other issue is that managers will say they can't trust an employee to be working while at home/telework station. Then how can they trust the employee to be working while in the office? Most managers are either too lazy to document non-performers or their higher-ups are too scared of EEO complaints to support such documentation and subsequent action.
These failures to manage will haunt agencies if telework becomes mandatory.
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77546
Telework is abused more then you think. If they like you, no one says a word. The biggest abusers of telework are the people who never reply to email or phone calls. I see it all the time. When I hear someone say "I am twice as productive on telework" I know they are full of it. These are the same people who never complete anything in work.
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77543
This policy really works against us that are still on the CS pay scale. My boss wanted a set amount of work done everyday, available for conference calls and accuracy. I don't have those requirements when I'm in the office so its obvious that he's trying to break the union!!
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77539
GSA may be implementing telework program but what about GSA's Office of Inspector General? They don't encourage employees to participate in telework program. i think the IG's office is below the radar, someone need to hold them accoutable.
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77531
As a GSA employee the telework program is not working. You'll are not receiving the full and truthful story about who and who is not allowed to telework. GSA should not be considered as a role model for this program, this organization is very deceiving. If you're liked you may telework if not certain disciplinary actions are created against you. They are holding NFFE union employees to a new telework policy which has not be approved by the union. Under this new telework policy, it has a little bit of everything such as too much LWOP, disciplinary actions, conduct, etc. This is a fradulent agency - YES GSA!
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77530
As a GSA employee the telework program is not working. You'll are not receiving the full and truthful story about who and who is not allowed to telework. GSA should not be considered as a role model for this program, this organization is very deceiving. If you're liked you may telework if not certain disciplinary actions are created against you. They are holding NFFE union employees to a new telework policy which has not be approved by the union. Under this new telework policy, it has a little bit of everything such as too much LWOP, disciplinary actions, conduct, etc. This is a fradulent agency - YES GSA!
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77526
"'Performance Metrics' are often just a cover for 'let's make this so hard nobody will want to do it'." Amen, Jeff, amen. I feel that this is a key rationale behind KSA's--no one will apply for this position, because by the time they do the vacancy will be closed--and is a reason why agencies go ga-ga over Lean 6-Sigma blackbelts...it's trendy; everyone wants one; and they make jobs so difficult with data collection, it's easy to blame them for when a project timeline slides and slides and slides...yep, Performance Metrics are gooooooooood.
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77511
I count myself among the fortunate 43 percent at GSA who telework, and I honestly do real work for the government in contracting from my home. It is the best thing since sliced bread, and I get more done in 8 hrs from home than I do in 16 hrs from the office. I hope the stigma telework currently has at other agencies will soon change. Teleworking is among the best national security measures we can take: continuity of government in a crisis like a pandemic.
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77510
will never happen even though I could do all the work. Supervisors want control of people and workflow- It's all about the numbers
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77501
There is a lot more than the idea of a perk involved w/ telework. People can be at a worksite and accomplish less than 8 hours of work and they can very easily call-in sick for any number of reasons. Productivity is based in honestly and motivation for many jobs. The world has changed tremendously in a few years. An employee can be trained, develop travel arrangements, review payroll, send correspondence, drive projects, and do all sorts of solid work from ANYWHERE. But it should also be noted that many issues of transportation are not sustainable with the idea of a brick and mortar 40-hour week. Some jobs require a time and place for 40 hours. Most don't and we have bigger national-level problems involved. We can't not look at telework then switch channels and wring our hands over fuel/energy and urban sprawl. It all works together.
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77497
Marie and Jeff: The policy should state, if not already obvious, that T-W abuses will not be tolerated. My agency allows me to T-W one day per week. My spouse stays home, so child care not an issue. If the worker is baby-sitting, it violates the policy. If the worker does not have comm access, violates the policy. Is T-W available for all jobs? No. But you would be surprised how many it does fit. And more than just white collar in Wash DC. The Navy uses it in Norfolk and San Diego. Contractors use T-W everywhere! GSA and PPTO have used it to reduce office space demands. Deployed soldiers? Yes. I did that in the middle of Iraq. I T-W before I deployed in order to gain insight into the issues that would be facing me and I T-W from my "home" aka "can" while in theatre. With a sat phone and sat BB, I even T-W from the hood of my HMMWV -- CG and Staff did not know where I was, but liked I was responding. It takes a culture change. Stateside, I have a unit where the SMEs are geographically dispersed. Almost all of our actions are T-W. And we are talking about enlisted technicians. The private sector has already realized the potential in productivity return and reduced spaces. Leaders will have to change the culture and managers will have to manage the inevitable abusers. T-W should be here now and here to stay.
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77496
I am a 100% teleworker, and my agency has been proactive on telework. They paid for a separate phone line to be installed in my house, set me up with a lap top, docking station, printer/copier/scanner/fax and provided me with file cabinets and supplies. It has worked extremely well. I'm the most productive member of our staff since I work with virtually no interruptions. While this all sounds great, telework is very lonely work and not everyone could do this all of the time. When I this aspect gets to me, I fly to the office (literally since the office is on the opposite side of the country). In my previous Federal job, I teleworked every Wednesday so that I would get a break in commuting. That worked very well too.
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77495
"When will this change? When the old folks die, and not a minute before. No matter what laws, rules, or guidelines Congress issues." That won't even correct the problem, because our federal government (and private employers) continue to promote people who exhibit greedy-socipathic behavior into positions of power and decision-making authority. This type of "leader" doesn't like people, but loves being in charge of people; we must seek out and eliminate these types to the greatest extend possible.
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77493
If the USDA FS ASC B&F had allowed me, a disabled person, to telecommute, I would still be employed. I ask, no, I BEG Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas J. Vilsack to put as a top priority the investigation into the discriminatory practices in the Forest Service, especially at the ABQ Svc Ctr by its Director. This is also a civil rights issue that is headed to the courts.
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77491
I think the goal is to define a telework policy that provides for management oversight while allowing those individuals who qualify to work from home. Will there be those who abuse the program? Yes, but there are those are not productive in the office too. The benefits of telework for the employee are many but there are also benefits to the environment. Think of the reduction in emissions if 25% of the federal employees did not commute during the week. Managers have the capability to monitor production and work output through technology and if the worker is not producing they can be pulled off of a telework schedule. I think the focus has to be on how to make it work not on why it can't work.
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77485
"Performance Metrics" are often just a cover for "let's make this so hard nobody will want to do it". It's ok for people AT work to spend all day slumming-- but yet teleworkers are going to have to document the heck out of everything they do?? Thre should be NO distinction-- there isn't when you are TDY, etc. Kinda defeats the purpose...
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77482
My response is to Ron. I actually telework, and "IF" you own your home, have an office set up in your home, and itemize deductions you can write off, a % of your utilities, I can't tell you exactly how, but any tax expert could give you more details. There is a disadvantage,and that's only when you move(it's an equity issue). However, I'm not a person who moves all of the time, and my tax accountant informed me that it's still financially worth it :)
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77480
It will only be lip service unless OPM puts teeth in the program. When you have an agency that doesn't want written agreements and do not have individual performace assessments in place how can this program succeed. Seems like leadership is not held accountable, when you can give 25% across the board pay increases for temp firefighters when unemployment is in double digits and hire full time employees to handle the stimulus package how can a simple telework policy succeed?
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77478
When I met my husband 30 years ago, he was on a telework pilot program for the Army. Of course it wasn't called that then, and the rules to be eligible to apply were truly stiff. Five people were picked to try it and four were able to use it for about three or four years. Then suddenly it was stopped. Even though they could prove that the four people in the program were putting out more work than expected (more than at the office), management decreed that it wasn't working and called them all "home". He's still upset about it.
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77476
I have spent the majority of my gov't career in Human Resources with the Dept of the Navy. Telework - please! We just within the past year got to participate in an Alternate Work Schedule. They tried telework but didn't trust the employees and put so much pressure on them that those that did gave it up. Shame when your servicing HR doesn't support these programs. Not a good example to set. Berry needs to go after the HR Directors and bring them up to 2009 and beyond. Agree with all the other comments - federal managers need to get with the times!
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77472
At my agency teleworking is simply "out of the question", per the director. Hopefully this will be overcome with a new telework policy.
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77467
Why so much constant attention to a program that applies only to a limited handful of well-paid, white collar federal employees, mainly in the Washington DC area?
Can Air Traffic Controllers telework? Airport Screeners? Border Patrol Agents? Customs Inspectors? Food and Mine Safety Inspectors? Mail Carriers? Park Rangers? FEMA disaster relief personnel? Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen and those who directly support them? Doctors, nurses, and support personnel in the VA Hospitals? And so forth......
The real work of the federal government cannot be done from one's home. Each time the management talks about teleworking or working from home, they are forgetting about the men and women who do the real work of our government, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
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77463
Lip service?? They aren't that smart.
I know of a SES CIO who brags that her only internet is via dialup AOL. I've heard it said that my org doesn't do more telework because the biggest bosses "don't trust 'em to work the full 8-hours"!
When will this change? When the old folks die, and not a minute before. No matter what laws, rules, or guidelines Congress issues.
Well, maybe if they publicly PUNISH someone for failure to implement...but I doubt I'll see that day.
Too bad, so sad. Retiring soon myself.
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77459
I work in one of the Corps of Engineers Didtricts and we have a pretty liberal telework policy. One of the particular issues stressed in the policy is you should have child care available if you're working at home. Does this happen? NO! We have MANY employees with children, the main reason that they want to work at home. Does anyone monitor this sort of thing? NO. Do individual supervisors demand schedules of work performed from these people? NO. Telework is a joke. We should just close up the offices and let everyone "work" from home.
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77456
If telework is implemented and you can work from home, will they allow personnel to write off a portion of your utilities for tax purposes?
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