Todd Zinser, Inspector General, Commerce Department

Among advocates of telework within the federal government, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is often seen as the gold standard. But over a period of about four years, one group of PTO employees — mostly teleworkers — literally got paid for doing nothing. And it wasn’t a secret. Managers within the Patent Trial and Appeal Board even devised a special pay code for time when employees were on the clock but weren’t working: “Other Time.” Those findings are part of a new report from the Commerce Department Inspector General’s office. Todd Zinzer is the Commerce IG; on In Depth with guest host Jared Serbu, he explained how widespread this problem was.

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