Shifting gears in telework push

By now, everyone knows the benefits of teleworking: it saves gas, makes many federal workers more productive, and provides for continuity of operations in case of emergency or bad weather. But a Washington-based advocacy group is continuing to push for more agencies to allow staff to telework.

In the past, the Telework Exchange has emphasized all of the intangible benefits of teleworking to federal agencies, stressing the support from the cabinet-level secretaries and rank-and-file feds. But time and again, the biggest hurdle to more feds teleworking has been the intransigence and outright opposition of many mid-level federal managers.

So yesterday, the Telework Exchange unveiled a new program, co-sponsored by Adobe, called "Telework in a Box", which turns the focus on the federal manager.

The first panel was entitled "The Government Manager and Telework: Learning from Early Adopters", and no panel with that title would be complete without a presentation from Danette Campbell, Senior Advisor for Teleworking with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, the poster child for everything that works about teleworking.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office started its telework initiative over 10 years ago with 18 trademark examining attorneys. Today, more than 4,000 employees agency-wide are working from home at least one day a week. And over 17 hundred of these work from home at least four days a week.

Campbell adds that USPTO's program is considered a model for teleworking in the federal government, and has garnered many awards.

Another "best practices" example of teleworking is the Treasury Department's Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration office, which oversees the Internal Revenue Service. Joe Hungate is the principal deputy inspector general in TIGTA.

We started with a pilot (telework program), and it was so successful we ended it early. And they said 'can we still telework, please?' And so we allowed them to do that and we rolled it out nationwide.

He adds that his is a relatively small (900 people), but widely dispersed, workforce (over 70 locations).

Hungate says contrary to opinion, telework allows better coordination among his auditors and lawyers.

Campbell says that at first, one of her former supervisors, an official with USPTO, was skeptical of teleworking. But eventually she relented as Campbell, through experience and training, eventually convinced her boss that she was far more productive and accessible as a teleworker than as a "stay in the office" staffer. Calling that former boss "a believer (in teleworking)", Campbell says "once you have a believer, you have one for life."

Steve O'Keefe, executive director of the Telework Exchange, says that in an effort to reach feds outside of the D.C. area, they will take the "Telework in a Box" program to places like Atlanta this May, Denver in August, and finally, San Francisco in October.

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On the Web:
Telework Exchange - teleworkexchange.com

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