Technology

When mobile workers telework

If a mobile worker is teleworking, does that mean they\'re in the office?

Federal News Network Staff

March 28, 2011 4:00 am

< a min read

When is telework not telework? When it’s done by a mobile worker, apparently.

During a recent pilot program, OPM was able to close offices and convert the work over to telework.

That change pointed out a wrinkle the new telework law, reports Brittany Ballenstedt on NextGov.com.

Justin Johnson, deputy chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management, told Ballenstedt the law “defines telework as employees working at a site where they traditionally do not work, he said.”

But the new duty station has become the employee’s home. “That exacerbates the problem for us because they’re not counted in the telework statistics,” he said. “They’re mobile workers.”

Sharon Wall, performance management officer at the General Services Administration, reports Ballenstedt, “said GSA is working to overcome that shortfall by creating a dashboard on its intranet that captures the number of people who are connected through a VPN at any given time.”