IT leaders say government could shut down without better telecommuting plan.
Parts of the U.S. government could shut down during a much-feared outbreak of avian influenza unless the government develops better telecommuting plans, two IT leaders told lawmakers recently.
Paul Kurtz, executive director of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, and Scott Kriens, chairman and CEO of Juniper, told the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee that government agencies lack plans for long-term telecommuting.
Even as world health officials worry that the ever-spreading avian flu could mutate and begin being transferred from human to human, most federal agencies’ telecommuting plans assume employees will be out of work for two or three days, Kurtz said. Strains of deadly avian flu, often called bird flu, have been reported in flocks of domesticated and wild birds in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe since 2003. Despite fears that the viruses could spread among humans, there have been reports of only about 200 people contracting bird flu since 1997, and most of those people had direct contact with infected poultry, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although Congress in 2000 passed a law requiring agencies to offer telework options, agencies are required to return any cost savings achieved through teleworking back to the federal budget, Kurtz said.
“There’s really no incentive at the most senior level of agencies to invest in telework,” he said.
The committee hearing came on the heels of a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that said many U.S. agencies haven’t developed emergency teleworking plans.
While federal agencies have increased use of teleworking in the past two years, only nine of 23 agencies the GAO surveyed reported they had plans in place for essential workers to telecommute, GAO said.
“Business managers realize that telework is a way to get optimal performance from their workers, allowing employees to get work done from home or the road,” Kriens said in written testimony. “I find it ironic that many government managers reportedly equate telework with reduced employee work hours and lower productivity, believing in the outdated management philosophy that ‘if I can’t see you, I can’t manage you.’ “
