More Federal Workers are Telecommuting

An anonymous reader writes "Boosting the ranks of federal employees who telework is a slow, sometimes painful process, despite numerous incentives and legislative edicts lobbed at U.S. agencies over the years. Take the situation at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which last month was ordered by a federal arbitration panel to allow its legal instrument examiners to telework on a pilot basis. ATF was against letting these specialists telework because it says the material they need to remove from agency offices in order to telework posed a security risk. The Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) became involved at the request of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which successfully argued its case for allowing the examiners to telework on a pilot basis."

Discourage those staying behind?

[primadd (1215814)]

As this sbc article [smallbusin...puting.com] details, those left behind find it "less personally fulfilling to do their work".
So how exactly is this a good thing, unless you plan on having no office at all - which is not quite feasible.

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Re:

[netruner (588721)]

I once worked in a department that allowed telecommuting - my boss made everyone in our workgroup sign up for it - not so we could work from home as opposed to from the office, but so we could work from the office and work from home. My team lead was working a full day at the office and dealing with the builds at night from home. Whatever they were paying him, it wasn't enough to put up with that nonsense. So the abuse can go both ways.

BTW - the boss was a total Lumbergh - yes, he would place demands o

Re:

[Wansu (846)]

My team lead was working a full day at the office and dealing with the builds at night from home. Whatever they were paying him, it wasn't enough to put up with that nonsense. So the abuse can go both ways.

That's the way my last boss treated telecommuting, as a supplement rather than as a substitute. And here's the kicker, I was working on nightly builds. Mine was the only group in a large company compelled to work scheduled, rotating shifts of uncompensated overtime. Either you were up until 2 or

Re:

[theonetruekeebler (60888)]

Call him. Every single time something goes wrong, anywhere, for any member of the team, they call him. If something looks unusual, call him. If something looks perfectly normal, call him and let him know things are "back on track." He wants his shop running 24 hours a day? He's on call 24 hours a day. He doesn't answer the phone? Leave voice mail and stop working until he calls back. You ain't sleepin'? He ain't sleepin'. Either he gets the message or at least you get to torment him until the mom

Re:

[microTodd (240390)]

The pointy headed boss called me one time when I was in the middle of taking a massive dump.

Why, oh why, in the world did you ANSWER THE PHONE?

A Good Compromise

[Teckla (630646)]

A good compromise might be to allow workers to telecommute 20% of the time (1 day per week). Give everyone that freedom, and nobody can complain. Plus, you'd still have plenty of "face time" with your co-workers.

Um...

[Angst Badger (8636)]

The Federal Service Impasses Panel?

Am I the only one here who thinks the existence of that agency is the real story?

Re:Um...

[moosesocks (264553)]

They've [flra.gov] been around since the 1970s, and appear to be a "disinterested 3rd party" that mediates disputes between federal agencies and the unions which have reached an impasse.

They're part of the FLRA, which is the larger body that is an umbrella organization for dealing with labor issues within the federal government.

It's not particularly surprising that such a body exists. I'd be more surprised if it didn't.

I telecommute almost every week

[LinDVD (986467)]

As an employee of the USCG, I am allowed to telecommute one day a week, every week on any regular 5-day work week. Any Ensign (O-series) and higher, 3rd class Petty Officer (E-series) and higher and all GS-7's and higher can do telecommuting, pending supervisory (permission is granted from supervisory GS-12's or GS-13's) and network security approval. Non-rates and the majority of contractors don't get assigned a security token, and therefore don't get the privilege. Now I can't speak for other Federal agencies of course...

Re:I telecommute almost every week

[squidfood (149212)]

Now I can't speak for other Federal agencies of course...

It varies not just by Agency, but by division, line office, supervisor all the way down. Where I work in NOAA is even more flexible for many, especially scientific personnel (2 or even 3 days/week is not uncommon), with plenty of resources to make it work. Been doing this for a couple years, though recent across-the-board laptop security issues (changes driven from the top after some of the well-publicized losses in other agencies) has made it harder.

Re:

[wronskyMan (676763)]

I hope by O's/Petty Officers you don't let the pilots and rescue swimmers telecommute - I like them to be there when they are picking me out of the ocean :)

Misread that title

[schklerg (1130369)]

Of course feral workers telecommute, they make a mess in the corner!

Over at CTU Los Angeles...

[MacarooMac (1222684)]

[Erin Driscoll] "Jack, start prepping a team for an assault on the east wing. Edgar- where's Chloe? Find her and tell her to open a new socket in the server room as a new priority."
[Edgar Stiles] "Chloe's.. erm.. working from home today, Miss Driscoll..."

This is definitely an improvement

[intrico (100334)]

They are helping the environment by being unproductive at home, rather than going into the office to be unproductive.

Re:

[Nimey (114278)]

You must work for the DMV.

Not surprising

[cashman73 (855518)]

I don't see a problem with federal workers telecommuting,... especially considering that the big boss [wikipedia.org] technically "telecommutes". Of course, if my employer would give me a house [whitehouse.gov], I'd probably work from home, too,... Then again, on the negative side, he's arguably one of the least productive federal workers, so he's probably screwing up the whole telecommuting thing for everyone else!

Re:

[The One and Only (691315)]

I know you're trying to make a funny, but it's more accurate to say that the President lives in a house with an attached office building than to say he works from home. As for Crawford, the government spends millions not only making it usable as a "Western White House", but also making sure the President isn't assassinated whenever he goes there.

Then again, Jefferson did more work in Monticello than he did in the White House. He was perhaps the original telecommuter, not to mention the inventor of the swiv

Telecommuting should be the norm...

[sticks_us (150624)]

...not the exception, at least for certain positions and personality types.

Telecommuters drive less, so there's less pollution and traffic. With the right people, telecommuting can enhance productivity and job satisfaction.

I feel strongly about this, having been a FT telecommuting programmer for the past 5+ years. I love working with hours of uninterrupted concentration. Whenever I do have to go into the office, I'm surrounded by distractions, especially from coworkers who bullshit incessantly.

YMMV of co

Re:

[jesterzog (189797)]

Whenever I do have to go into the office, I'm surrounded by distractions

I appreciate that you've already stated there are people who do better in an office setting, but I still find it interesting that so many of comments I've read on Slashdot are strongly in favour of telecommuting.

I quite enjoy going to work. It's a 40 minute walk (which is an excuse to go for a reasonable walk a couple of times a day), and being at work puts me in the frame of mind for doing work-related things. Having people around

I already...

[Urger (817972)]

I already do Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms at home, often all at once. They could just hire me and boost their numbers accordingly.

Commuting

[Roger W Moore (538166)]

Government workers are already very good at commuting: no matter what the order their numbers always multiply. So telecommuting shouldn't be that hard for them.

Security please!

[G4from128k (686170)]

I can only hope (because I doubt that I can expect) that these telecommuting workers use encrypted datafiles, well-secured "work-only" home-office PCs, multi-factor authentication, non-wireless internet connections, etc. I'm sure any number of people would love to gain access to government data or databases.

I really hope...

[TheSkyIsPurple (901118)]

I really hope this means they have more personal details about us on laptops! That would be fun

ATF should be abolished

[schwit1 (797399)]

Alcohol and tobacco should be regulated by the FDA, and firearms and explosives by the FBI.

Every federal agency should have to periodically justify its existence and some should be abolished. An agency can be outdated or it's functions better done by another agency or the states. Unfortunately the federal government has become a jobs program.

"Telecommute" is the problem, not the solution

[Von Helmet (727753)]

"Telecommute" is a stupid word - the literal meaning of the word is completely at odds with the meaning of the word as it is used. Telecommute means to travel a long distance. Tele means far, commute means to travel, particularly to work. Hence telecommute means to travel a long distance to work. The roots are similar to television (literally far seeing) and telephone (lterally far hearing).

However, telecommuting - as the word is used - is the problem, not the solution. The problem is having to commute a long way to work. The solution is using technology to allow you to work from home, which is not what telecommute means at all. Obviously whoever coined the word thought "tele" sounded suitably technological, so decided to use that. A far better word for the solution would be "e-commuting" or something similar, even if it does involve the much overused "e-" prefix. At least that would make sense.

Stupid English language...