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."

Re:Not surprising

[The One and Only]

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 swivel chair and the man primarily responsible for eliminating the stigma of tomatoes in America.

Re:Um...

[moosesocks]

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.

Re:This is definitely an improvement

[Anonymous Coward]

Contrary to popular belief (including the person who commented above), some Federal employees/contractors are very productive when telecommuting from home. I telecommuted twice in my service as a contractor to two different Federal agencies -- at the first agency, I worked from home one day a week and was able to work uninterrupted for 12 hours straight (eliminating a 4 hour round trip commute) which enabled me to get a lot of extra work completed. At the second agency, I telecommuted full-time for 6 months and was able to complete a large number of projects ahead of schedule with no interruptions. I saved the environment by not spewing noxious fumes into the air for 3 hours a day and I contributed to our national security by significantly reducing my foreign oil intake. Prior to telecommuting at either agency, I worked in the office for an extended period and proved myself to management. When I started working at home, I had to develop an extensive productivity tracking system to prove that I was getting things done, but I never had any issues accounting for all of my time. The American public is safer because of the work that I did while I was telecommuting and I feel proud knowing that my work keeps millions of my fellow citizens as well as visitors to our great country safe each day.