Separate but equal, Part Two

My recent column on the Office of Personnel Management’s new policy giving agency managers the power to require teleworkers to work when the office is closed prompted further discussion over the holidays.

By giving agencies more control over how they roll out telework, OPM acknowledges that what works for the Department of Defense won’t necessarily work for the Department of Agriculture. Dictating blanket policies isn’t always the way to go. You could even say the policy switch is a sign that the government is serious about using telework to change its employees’ attitude about work, to replace the old-school bureaucratic work styles with a private-sector-like culture that promotes productivity and accountability over hours clocked and heads counted.

“Having any policy is just the first step, although an important one,” telework consultant Gil Gordon says. “Teaching managers how to use it wisely is the key to avoiding at least the avoidable problems.”

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My recent column on the Office of Personnel Management’s new policy giving agency managers the power to require teleworkers to work when the office is closed prompted further discussion over the holidays.

By giving agencies more control over how they roll out telework, OPM acknowledges that what works for the Department of Defense won’t necessarily work for the Department of Agriculture. Dictating blanket policies isn’t always the way to go. You could even say the policy switch is a sign that the government is serious about using telework to change its employees’ attitude about work, to replace the old-school bureaucratic work styles with a private-sector-like culture that promotes productivity and accountability over hours clocked and heads counted.

“Having any policy is just the first step, although an important one,” telework consultant Gil Gordon says. “Teaching managers how to use it wisely is the key to avoiding at least the avoidable problems.”

Today, agencies’ telework programs still range widely. Some, like that of the Patent Office, are thriving. But others need OPM’s help wrestling with eligibility and writing policies that are detailed and concise, that promote rather than discourage the practice.

Several years ago the Patent Office and its workers’ union forged a policy clarifying emergency office closures, long before OPM got involved. In emergencies, anyone who can work at home is required to do so. It’s not considered a penalty, but a flexible work option, program manager Debbie Cohn says. The 110 examining attorneys who work from home full time (save two hours per week) manage huge caseloads that only grow larger on days they’re prevented from working.

“We’re very aware of things that affect people who work at home. We’re not interested in requiring people to work when they can’t or when they shouldn’t,” Cohn says. During Hurricane Isabel, her office didn’t require anyone to work because the storm affected the entire area. “We told people to log off from their computers the day before to prevent any damage to the system,” she says.

But a manager at the General Services Administration paints a different picture: “The biggest problem here is that teleworkers don’t know what’s expected of them. Non-teleworkers listen to media announcements or visit the OPM’s Web site. Have agencies informed teleworkers about the policy? I don’t think so. I telework full time, and no one has advised me about what to do.”

The GSA manager adds, “Now that agencies have the authority to decide the policy for themselves, are they just going to give teleworkers the day off during emergencies? If so, they’re missing out on one of the key benefits — continuity of service. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the government is so far behind targeted goals — that agencies, and indeed, OPM leadership, view telework as ‘work schedule’ rather than ‘work means.’ "

Read more about telework in Network World's Telework section.