Managers remain hesitant about telework
Survey finds that supervisors who work away from the office themselves are more likely to embrace the practice.
Despite years of coaxing and education, federal managers continue to have reservations about telework, a recent study revealed.
A fear of losing control over employees is the top inhibitor to promoting work from off-site locations, according to the unscientific survey of 214 federal managers. Concerns about productivity and security are also high on the list.
Funding is not as much of a worry, the survey results indicated. But only 35 percent of respondents said they believed their agencies support telework.
The Telework Exchange, an Alexandria, Va., private-public partnership, and the Federal Managers Association, a 200,000-member organization representing the interests of federal supervisors, conducted the study. It was underwritten by Tandberg, a provider of video communications services.
The survey found that managers' attitudes toward telework were more favorable if they supervised employees using the arrangement, and even more positive if they were teleworkers themselves.
A lack of face-to-face contact with workers was rated as the top communications challenge for managers in offices using the alternate arrangement. More than 60 percent of respondents said they have misinterpreted their workers by e-mail, and 43 percent have misinterpreted employees over the phone, the study revealed.
"The study highlights the disconnect between the perception of telework and the practicality of telework," said Darryl Perkinson, national president of the Federal Managers Association. "While funding seems to be the least impediment, managers must find a balance between performance output and employee supervision before agencies can fully realize the benefits of telework."
A report produced nearly seven years ago found that most federal managers were "totally disinterested" in the concept of telework. In 2001, the Office of Personnel Management started reaching out to managers in an effort to change their minds, and the Government Accountability Office found that private sector managers were as reluctant to embrace teleworking practices as their private sector counterparts.
In an attempt to overcome cultural barriers, the Patent and Trademark Office has awarded a contract to a private sector professional services firm to train managers on how to handle the thousands of examiners expected to work from their homes.
The Defense Information Systems Agency, which recently expanded its telework program to help retain employees as it relocates from Northern Virginia to a military base south of Baltimore, has always allowed managers and supervisors to telework, according to an agency spokeswoman.
But other agencies have policies that restrict or forbid their managers from working remotely, including the Housing and Urban Development Department. HUD maintains that managers are needed in the office to perform their supervisory duties.