Posted on 06/03/2008 8:16:20 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Congress thinks the federal government would work better if more civil servants just stayed home.
The House, on a voice vote Tuesday, approved legislation requiring the head of each federal agency to set policies allowing qualified workers to telework, or work from home or a convenient location.
The bill specifies that eligible employees should be permitted to telework at least 20 percent of the hours worked in a two-week period, generally the equivalent of two work days.
"A happy workforce is a productive workforce," said Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., the bill's sponsor. He said giving more federal workers the opportunity to telework "can help boost productivity by cutting down on commuting time, reducing absenteeism and allowing for greater organizational flexibility." He said it would reduce traffic congestion and pollution and give relief from high gas prices.
The federal government already allows teleworking, or telecommuting, for eligible employees, but studies have cited such issues as management resistance, security concerns and technical problems as discouraging participation.
The Office of Personnel Management, in a report issued last December, estimated that about 110,000 employees teleworked at least one day a month during 2006, about 6 percent of the 1.8 million federal employees.
The office said the number was down from 119,000 the previous year, partly because agencies were working to ensure that computer systems were secure.
The bill requires each agency to have a telework managing officer, mandates training for both managers and teleworking employees and requires that teleworking be made a part of plans for continuing operations during emergencies.
The OPM, in its report, noted that one bright spot in 2006 was the Labor Department, where teleworking was up 58 percent as the agency integrated teleworking into its pandemic flu planning.
Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., said more teleworking would also help the government hire and keep talented young workers as its aging workforce retires. "The private sector is still far ahead of the government in terms of embracing teleworking as a recruiting tool," he said.
The legislation directs the General Services Administration, the agency that administers federal contracts, to assist and guide other agencies. Last year then-GSA Administrator Lurita Doan said she wanted her agency to lead the way by having 50 percent of eligible GSA staffers teleworking by 2010.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 600,000 federal and D.C. government workers, said the legislation was a good first step in that it requires agencies to show that workers are ineligible for teleworking rather than the current system where workers are presumed ineligible unless the agency determines otherwise.
But the union says the House bill, and a Senate counterpart sponsored by Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Mary Landrieu, D-La., lack enforcement mechanisms for agencies that don't meet teleworking requirements. It also says the bills do not address the rights of unions to communicate with or represent their members in telework situations.
feel the quake?
No, just saw it on KRON.. 3.9ers north fo vallejo
They could just stay home and not work. It would cost us less in the long term.
Perfect. Once we get the government geared up for telecommuting, we can outsource the work to the Philippines at $4.00 an hour.
...I know what you mean about working from home....I did it for 10 years when the company went thru cost savings and started shutting down some offices....I didn’t like the phone ringing at 6pm while I was eating supper so I didn’t pick up....then my boss calls me on my home line!!...the main good thing about it though, was on Monday morning....I would go to my desk at 8 am in my drawers and a tee shirt....meanwhile up and down the street I could hear the neighbors starting their cars and hitting that rush hour traffic.
ping
“They could just stay home and not work. It would cost us less in the long term.”
They would have to promise not to go out and clog the roads, but if they did that, the 10% of the workforce that does 80% of the work could be quite a bit more efficient.
It’s win-win
You are so right, that’s why I’ve never been a fan of telecommuting for myself.
If I can do my job from home and get the same results as from the workplace, what’s to keep management from from outsourcing the job to a call center abroad that would do the same job for less money?
Trick is to get them to cut the fat. Old bureaucratic trick, cut the muscle, keep the fat that way you get your budget back when people start screaming.
City of Minneapolis cut the Parks budget. Did they lay off the under administrator to the third secretary for happy thoughts?
NO, they closed all the warming houses at the skating rinks for the winter
Yeah, they got their budget back.
You got to babysit the toddlers who run our Govt 24-7-365
“I did it for 10 years when the company went thru cost savings and started shutting down some offices.”
I worked at home for seven years and it has it’s draw backs. You don’t get a sense of team spirit that you get when you see your friends every day. I tended to become a hermit sitting in front of a monitor for twelve hours a day in my pajamas. The wife tended to think I was available for all kinds of little chores all the time because I was sitting there “not doing anything”. I got to play with my dogs a lot though.
Hey they don’t do anything anyway, so why not save the gas for someone else to use. I think we ought to put the whole lot of government on telecommute.
>> I think we ought to put the whole lot of government on telecommute.
I’d rather put ‘em on unemployment!
“I worked at home for seven years and it has it’s draw backs. You don’t get a sense of team spirit that you get when you see your friends every day”
.....roger that!....the isolation wasn’t any fun and not only that, my home “office” was only 10 paces from the refrigerator so I ended up snacking a lot...plus I would get a load of clothes going in the washer and put supper in the oven for when my wife got home....all kinds of distractions when you’re home.
Makes sense to me. They can sleep and read the paper at home rather than driving to the office to do it (apologies to the few government workers who actually do real work)
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