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Seventy-nine percent of Federal
employees say they would telework,
if given the option. But just how
many actually know they already
have that option? Ninety percent of
eligible employees do not take
advantage of their opportunity to
telework. Why not?
Perhaps it’s because Federal
employees are confused about what
it means, or what it takes to be
"eligible" for telework benefits, or
fear approaching management about
the topic. Agencies are not always
clear in their telework messages to
employees, leaving them feeling
somewhat perplexed and powerless.
Partnering with Telework Exchange,
TANDBERG, a global leader in visual
communication, helped develop an
online tool to empower employees
as they explore their telework
options.
Dubbed the Online Eligibility Gizmo,
the tool is an online quiz that
prompts the user to select
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statements that best fit their job
profile. Topics include performance,
type of work, length of employment,
accessibility, and other issues that
might impact the feasibility of their
telework arrangement. After
selecting the statements that apply,
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The official teleworker is a model
employee when it comes to adhering
to security guidelines and keeping
data safe, but the "unofficial
teleworker," who works at home on
nights and weekends, often without
authorization, represents a major
security risk for Federal agencies,
according to a new study conducted
by Telework Exchange and
underwritten by Utimaco Software
AG, a data security firm.
The study, derived from a series of
online surveys in May 2007 with
258 Federal teleworkers and nonteleworkers,
found that 94 percent
of official teleworkers have received
training in data security, compared to
only 87 percent of non-teleworkers.
Home warriors, those people who
decide on their own to work extra
hours from home, "are really the
Achilles heel of information security
for Federal agencies," says Cindy
Auten, study author and General
Manager of Telework Exchange.
"They tend to engage in risky
behavior, often because they don’t
know the risks exist."
That behavior includes carrying hardcopy
files home, logging onto their
agency’s network remotely, working
in unauthorized locations, and
working on agency laptops that do
not have encryption or anti-virus
software.
Of those non-teleworkers surveyed,
58 percent unofficially work at home
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For many years, government agencies
relied on labor-intensive, manual
tracking of telework participation.
A new genre of automated systems
allows for same-day response in
accessing employee and/or historical
telework records. As the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) and
Congress continue to require detailed
reporting of telework implementation,
automated tracking of data provides
a quick, easy method for generating
comprehensive and accurate
responses.
The United States Department of
Agriculture’s (USDA) Telework
Management System (TMS) is an
excellent example of an effective
automated tracking system. The
TMS provides detailed information
about teleworkers, including grade
level, occupation, location, frequency,
and type of telework, whether it is ad
hoc or ongoing. In addition, the TMS
automatically informs the IT staff of
approved telework requests.
Susan Brown, the Telework
Coordinator for USDA’s Farm and
Foreign Agricultural Services, said of
the relatively new TMS system, "The
IT department is notified by e-mail
that the person has been approved
for telework. Then the IT staff knows
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what equipment that person needs,
since they know the type of telework
the requestor will perform. The next
version of the TMS will include the
exact type of equipment each user
requests."
The TMS has been in use since April
2006 and was developed in-house.
Since that time, three USDA
agencies have deployed it: Farm
Service Agency, Foreign Agricultural
Service, and Risk Management
Agency.
Currently, there are 225 teleworkers
in the system and 400 more will be
added when the field offices fully
implement the TMS. As an example
of the resource savings to be realized
by using the new system for tracking
and reporting, the USDA Kansas City
office had to manually count its data
for the 2006 OPM Telework report.
"For Kansas City, data collection
previously took two weeks, and then
another two weeks to incorporate it
into Washington’s data. Soon, once
Kansas is up and running with TMS,
we’ll just pull the report in less
than a day," said Brown.
The good news is that
the TMS is a system
that could be easily
employed by other
Federal agencies.
"The TMS is
definitely
transferable. It is a
Web-based system that
is easily customizable for
other agencies," said Brown.
"The ability to quickly obtain data is a
big relief and all the current
information is input by employees."
Another example of an impressive
telework tracking system is found at
the International Trade Commission
(ITC). The ITC was one of the first
Federal agencies to develop an
automated approach to requesting
telework.
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As Stephen McLaughlin, Director of
Administration and CIO explained, "At
first, you merely needed to request
each telework instance by e-mail to
the supervisor. For a year we
maintained this ‘easy’ approval
process, but it was hard to gather the
necessary data for reporting annually
to OPM. The current system allows
users to log in, enter their request,
charge their time to the correct labor
cost codes, add comments to provide
greater detail about the individual
telework arrangement, and notify the
timekeeper and others along with
their supervisor."
The information is maintained in a
central database that can be readily
accessed to produce the annual OPM
telework report. "When you execute
a telework agreement, you develop a
teleworker profile in the system with
all the relevant employee information.
No more is there a staff person with
800 pieces of paper trying to figure
out which grade level teleworked and
for how many hours," said
McLaughlin.
The ITC telework tracking system
provides efficiency and accuracy in
reporting that was unimaginable
in the days of manual tracking.
"It takes five minutes versus
several weeks to derive
data about teleworking.
This task used to be
time-consuming and
resulted in horribly
inaccurate
information.
I’m not sure how
much we were not
catching, but it was
probably a lot. Now it’s
easy for teleworkers and
management to understand our
actual telework numbers. Incidents
of ‘underground’ teleworking are
almost nil now," said McLaughlin.
As with the USDA system, the ITC
telework tracking system can be
tailored for use by other government
agencies. Furthermore, the ITC
system has every teleworker in the
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A subcommittee voiced strong
support for and interest in
government telework programs in a
first-of-its-kind telework hearing in the
U.S. Senate.
Legislation that would make Federal
employees eligible to telework, unless
shown otherwise by their agency
employer, was the topic of a hearing
on June 12, 2007. Senator Daniel
Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the
Subcommittee on Oversight of
Government Management, the
Federal Workforce, and the District of
Columbia, called a hearing to review
S. 1000, The Telework Enhancement
Act of 2007, and current initiatives to
promote telework across the Federal
government. The Telework
Enhancement Act of 2007 is
authored by Senators Ted Stevens
(R-AK) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA).
The witnesses who testified before
the subcommittee included
representatives from the Government
Accountability Office (GAO), General
Services Administration (GSA), Office
of Personnel Management (OPM), the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO), the Federal Managers
Association, Hewlett-Packard, and
Telework Exchange.
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The subcommittee strongly supported
existing and expanded government
telework efforts. "It is time for the
Federal government to take a serious
look at our current telework
program," said Senator Ted Stevens
(R-AK).
Senator Akaka said Congress "has
been vigorous in its efforts to
enhance telework."
The key legislation on telework (Public
Law 106-346 section (§) 359),
signed into law in 2000, states that
each executive agency must establish
a telework policy so that eligible
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employees can telework, yet maintain
performance standards. Based upon
this statute, all Federal agencies were
required to have telework policies in
place for 100 percent of the eligible
Federal workforce by 2005.
Nonetheless, the Federal government
has a way to go before telework will
be a mainstream operating
procedure, said Steve O’Keeffe of
Telework Exchange. According to
OPM’s latest telework report, more
than 90 percent of eligible Federal
employees are not teleworking. He
testified that each agency should
have a full-time Telework Coordinator,
as called for in S. 1000, and that
agencies must implement systems to
track usage and productivity.
Results in fact, were a key aspect of
GAO’s testimony. "Agencies need to
have meaningful measures of what
they are trying to achieve through
telework, and they need to be using
this information to achieve their
results," said GAO’s Bernice
Steinhardt.
GSA highlighted its accomplishments,
including Federal Management
Regulation (FMR) bulletins and how
the agency supports regional Federal
Telework Centers in the Washington
D.C. metropolitan area. GSA’s Stan
Kaczmarczyk, said "it is important to
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The Chief Human Capital Officers
(CHCO) Council wants the Federal
government to be an employer of
choice - one that skilled
professionals seriously consider in
their job searches. Thus, flexible
work arrangements, including
telework, are important topics on the
CHCO’s agenda.
Dr. Jeff Pon, the CHCO for the
Department of Energy (DoE), chairs
the Council’s Subcommittee on
Human Resources Workforce.
According to Pon, the
subcommittee’s goal is to monitor
the skills of today’s human resources
professionals, to map out the skill
sets necessary for tomorrow’s
workforce, and to guide qualified
professionals toward those future
competencies.
Pon admits the Federal government
needs to be more competitive with
the private sector to attract and
retain skilled employees. "In the
Council, we talk about the types of
programs and benefits each agency
offers to recruit human capital.
Flexible scheduling is something we
definitely have on our radar," he says.
Since the Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) began requiring
agencies to track telework
participation, Pon says the Council
has more actively promoted telework
among its members and also keeps a
finger on the pulse of telework
participation.
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Speaking to the DOE’s commitment
to telework, Pon discusses a new
system they developed to track
teleworker’s hours online. "We are
the first agency to establish a
process within a time and attendance
system that ‘checks in’ transparently
with teleworkers every 15 minutes as
they are teleworking," he says. "It is
not a big brother-type application, but
more of an agreement between
management and employees to
maintain a good working
relationship."
When asked if the Federal
government could do a better job
encouraging telework, Pon responds
with a quick yes. "Just in terms of
flexible work arrangements, think
about today’s high school and college
graduates entering the market with
Web design skills. These young
workers prefer, and often need, work
hours outside the traditional "nine to
five" norm. Telework is one way we
can meet the needs of a changing
workforce."
Forms, forms, and more forms. They
are an indelible fixture in any
government process and telework
programs are no exception. There
are applications to review, computers
to examine, alternative work offices
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to approve, and more forms required
to approve changes to the old ones.
Three Institutes at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) recently
took some of the punch out of all this
paper pushing. They have automated
the entire approval and renewal
process for employees participating in
telework programs. Called Telework
Online, this new Web-based
application routes the necessary
forms through the approval chain.
The system handles the main
functions of the agency’s telework
approval process: the initial
employee application, the alternative
work office evaluation, the change
request, and the annual renewal.
Within the three Institutes using the
system, more than 1,500 employees
now have access to apply online for
telework benefits. The amount of
time it takes to route an application
through the process has been
reduced from a month to less than
a day.
As another plus to the automation,
these three forward-thinking
organizations now can easily provide
required telework statistics to the
Office of Personnel Management
(OPM). OPM requires annual, and
sometimes quarterly, reports on the
number of telework applications filed
and declined, and the number of
people regularly teleworking. The
Telework Coordinators at these
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In its sixth annual telework report, the
Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) states that "comparison to
past years’ data is not meaningful."
However, one can still find evidence
that the Federal government telework
participation is growing in some areas
and needs improvement in others.
Feedback from past surveys lead
OPM to change how it conducted the
2005 survey. OPM introduced new
standardized definitions of eligibility
and more refined categories of
telework frequency. These new
definitions are the reason that
comparison to past data is irrelevant
in many survey areas.
As a result of these changes, the
number of teleworkers appears to
have significantly decreased from the
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last survey (from 140,694 in 2004
to 119,248 in 2005). However, the
2004 data included those who
teleworked even as little as once per
year; new standards in 2005 only
count those who telework at least
one day per month. One comparison
that can be made is this: 1,300
more Federal employees are
teleworking one or more days per
week than in 2004.
Although telework plays a critical role
in emergency planning - the Federal
Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) recommends the use of
telework during an emergency - the
survey shows agencies are slow to
adopt the practice. Of the 78
agencies that responded to the OPM
survey, only 27 include telework as
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an integral part of their Continuity of
Operations (COOP) plan. On the
upside, 48 of the remaining 51
agencies said that integration of
telework into their COOP was under
consideration.
Despite the benefits reported (see
graph), barriers to telework still
permeate the Federal government
work environment. The primary
barrier reported was "clear office
coverage," with 73 percent of
respondents identifying this obstacle
as the top challenge to telework
growth. Following closely behind
were organizational culture (54
percent), security issues (44
percent), and technology funding (40
percent). Only 10 agencies reported
they had experienced no barriers to
telework.
The OPM report contains more detail
about how agencies are expanding
telework across government - from
equipment cost models to tracking
teleworkers’ performance. To view
the full study, visit
www.teleworkexchange.com.
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on nights and weekends and 63
percent of those use their own PCs
to conduct agency work. Agency
rules vary on whether or not
employees are authorized to use
personal computers for official
business.
The findings come just a year after
the scandalous loss of a Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA) laptop
containing the medical records of
26.5 million veterans and servicemen
and servicewomen. During that time,
Auten says, the Federal government
has become more mobile, but not
necessarily more security-minded
when it comes to protecting data in
use by the mobile workforce.
Of the 41 percent of respondents
who use laptops for work, 45 percent
said they had made the switch from
a desktop to a laptop during the last
year. But 13 percent of those users
said their laptops had no encryption
protection installed, compared with
11 percent the year before.
Moreover, just 47 percent of
respondents said their agencies had
updated encryption and protection
technology, only 48 percent said their
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agencies had provided security
training, and 65 percent said
agencies had reinforced security
policies after the VA stolen laptop
incident.
With the significant rise in worker
mobility, Auten says, the unofficial
home worker is a dangerous security
blind spot for agencies. "When an
employee becomes an official
teleworker, they are given awareness
training, encryption and anti-virus
software on computers, and strict
guidelines on what users can do with
it and how to conduct work," she
says. "With this unofficial group of
home workers, in some cases, they
are just handed laptops and they
head off without a lot of back-end
support and information on what they
are allowed to do, what they should
not do, and what kind of security is
built into the computer they are
using."
"Agencies must take the necessary
security precautions to protect all
computers and provide adequate
training to employees on transporting
data outside of the office," said Craig
Bumpus, General Manager of
Utimaco.
As a result, the report concludes that
Federal systems remain vulnerable.
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"There is a training and security
policy shortfall," Auten states.
The report recommends that
agencies take several actions to
shore up their security posture.
Among them:
- Audit and assess unofficial
teleworkers who work at home on
nights and weekends
- Implement and update security
policies, training, and technology to
address an increasingly mobile
workforce
- Use telework training programs as
a model and implement mandatory
data security training for all
employees, regardless of their
telework status, on how to protect
data while working off-site
Finally, Federal agencies should
install data encryption and other
security protections on all laptops
(and desktops), regardless if the
intended user is a teleworker, nonteleworker,
or "unofficial" teleworker.
"There are a lot of threats to
information today and people make
mistakes," Auten says. "Why not
have that extra layer of protection,
just in case?"
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A longtime telework supporter, Davis
is particularly interested in how
telework can enhance preparedness
for government Continuity of
Operations (COOP) in instances of
terrorist attacks, pandemic flu,
natural disasters, and even inclement
weather. Davis demonstrated his
commitment by introducing legislation
in the previous Congress titled, "The
Continuity of Operations
Demonstration Project Act," which
focused on testing Federal agency
COOP planning and telework.
Davis also recognizes the value of
telework in reducing environmental
pollution, enhancing highway safety,
and realizing agency savings through
reduced facility rental and utility
costs.
Davis notes the potential for further
telework growth by citing the "many
employees who are absolute selfstarters,
can work effectively with
little supervision, and can work
effectively from home or other
alternate work locations, such as
telework centers."
Congressional interest and oversight
"can and is benefiting" telework,
Davis says. "The fact that Members
of Congress and/or Congressional
committees express and convey
interest will cause and has caused
some government agencies to review
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their telework objectives and to look
for ways to enhance or expand their
telework programs for eligible
employees."
In his role as Chairman, Mr. Davis
was a co-signer of a Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform
letter in May 2007, asking for
information on telework programs,
eligibility, and barriers from 25
Federal agencies. The committee
and his subcommittee now are
collecting and analyzing the
information. Such Congressional
"advocacy and promotion helps
generate awareness and is enticing
some groups to look at it [telework]
in a different light."
As far as the future for telework for
the Federal workforce, Davis believes
it is gaining momentum and will only
continue to do so "as more and more
managers recognize its utility,
usefulness, and financial rewards."
"Telework is indeed an idea whose
time has come," Davis says. "I am
confident that much more attention
will be given to it and more use will
be made of it."
For more information or to contact
Congressman Davis, visit
www.house.gov/davis.
Telework Exchange honored the
recipients of the second annual 2007
Telework Exchange "Tele-Vision"
Awards at an awards reception in
Washington, D.C. on June 7. An
independent panel of judges selected
four government organizations and
one individual for their excellence in
telework program implementation.
Below please find the 2007 award
recipients. For more information on
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these telework programs, and on the
Tele-Vision Awards, visit
www.teleworkexchange.com.
Defense Information Systems
Agency (DISA), Department of
Defense, DISA Telework SWAT
Team
To meet the challenges involved in
expanding its telework program, DISA
chartered a telework "SWAT" team -
led by a senior human resources
manager and senior IT manager - to
help get the program up and running
within 90 days. The SWAT team
recommended standard equipment
for teleworkers and network security
practices, and also developed and
provided training to DISA employees
and management. DISA also
implemented a new policy for
determining employee telework
eligibility, yielding more than 2,000
additional eligible employees. Since
this policy change, the number of
participants teleworking on a regular
and recurring basis increased eightfold
and continues to increase
towards agency goals.
Loudoun County, Commonwealth of Virginia, Telework Program
Loudoun County re-launched its
telework program with a goal of
reaching 10 percent participation
among non-public safety employees
in 2006, and 20 percent by the end
of 2007. Using a bottom-up and
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system and has successfully been in
use for more than two years.
The Defense Information Systems
Agency (DISA) developed an
automated tool that allows real-time
tracking of applications with
percentages of approvals,
disapprovals, and pending requests.
Management also can derive
information about the number of
employees in ad hoc or regular
telework arrangements, and other
relevant data that must be gathered
in compliance with OPM’s annual
telework reporting requirements.
Aaron Glover, Special Assistant to the
Director MPS (Manpower, Personnel,
and Security), praised the developers
of DISA’s automated tool, which was
designed and tested by members of
DISA’s internal Human Resources
Systems Branch. "Not only was the
project completed in less than 60
days, but the only cost to the
organization was the labor of its
developers," he said.
Glover offered insight on some of the
benefits of the new system.
"Employees now can submit
applications for teleworking and get
feedback almost instantly from their
managers. DISA senior leadership
now can view the status of the entire
enterprise regarding employees’
status on teleworking. This visibility is
key to providing leaders the
opportunity to recognize areas where
resistance could exist and to take
action to eliminate it."
Glover believes that the automated
telework application is the
cornerstone of DISA’s success in
expanding its telework program.
Please e-mail
info@teleworkexchange.com for
agency contact information regarding
the automated tracking systems
referenced in this article.
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top-down approach, the county
evaluated department and work group
goals and solicited feedback from
employees and managers. The
program changes helped the county
meet its participation goal for 2006,
and the 20 percent mark for this year
is within reach as entire work groups
prepare to become full-time
teleworkers. In 2006, the county’s
turnover rate among teleworkers was
10.4 percent lower than the overall
county turnover rate, and
unscheduled leave used by
teleworkers averaged five percent less
than the county-wide average.
United States Patent and
Trademark Office, Department
of Commerce, Patents Hoteling
Program
Started in January 2006, the Patents
Hoteling Program (PHP) now includes
910 participating examiners who work
from home four days a week and
share reserved office space one day a
week on the agency’s Alexandria,
Virginia campus. The program
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includes remote online access to
required USPTO patent business
systems, job performance tools,
patent information, and patent
application documentation.
Examiners working from home also
have access to collaborative
communication technologies that
enable collaboration among
colleagues and supervisors.
By 2011, USPTO plans to have
3,000 Patent Examiners working from
home at least four days per week.
Internal Revenue Service,
Department of the Treasury,
Agency-Wide Shared Services
Virtual Office Program
The IRS Virtual Office initiative
expects to dramatically expand
traditional telework within the agency,
making employees’ home offices their
primary workplace. The initiative
established three pilot configurations
for telework, tailored to the
specialized needs of specific job
functions in a virtual office
environment. Supporting
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technologies include SharePoint team
rooms, secure messaging, Virtual
Private Networks (VPN), multifunctional
printing devices, and
remote communications routing. As
a result, the agency was able to
maintain operations during the June
2006 flooding that closed much of
the headquarters building. The
Virtual Office will be an invaluable
recruiting advantage, and the agency
projects a real estate savings of
approximately $585,000 associated
with 150 pilot project participants.
Deborah Cohn, Deputy
Commissioner for Trademark
Operations, United States Patent
and Trademark Office, Department
of Commerce
Deborah Cohn pioneered the
development of the USPTO’s first
telework program in 1997, at a time
when telework was not the norm in
public or private sector organizations.
With her foresight, creativity, and
perseverance, Ms. Cohn convinced
agency executives to test the
concept, and forged coalitions with
managers, IT personnel, and the
employee union. Her efforts created
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the Trademark Work At Home (TWAH)
program, now considered to be the
gold standard for telework in the
Federal government. Thanks to Ms.
Cohn’s efforts, 85 percent of eligible
Trademark employees now work at
home at least one day per week.
More than 200 Trademark Examining
Attorneys work at home a majority of
the week and reserve space in
"hoteling" offices when they come
into the office. This award recognizes
Ms. Cohn’s contribution to the
telework community for her vision,
tenacity, and creativity that have
transformed her initial idea into an
accepted standard for businessbased
alternative work arrangements
that support the current and future
requirements of the public sector
workforce.
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selecting the statements that apply,
a quick click of the "submit" button
results in a no-nonsense report of
whether or not the user might be
eligible to telework - and why it
would be a good arrangement for
both employee and supervisor.
The Online Eligibility Gizmo and the
Telework Exchange value calculators
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are tools that Federal employees can
use to build credible and fact-based
business cases for telework.
During the brief Gizmo registration
process, users may choose to receive
their eligibility report via e-mail.
Another option allows prospective
teleworkers to use the value
calculators to uncover their annual
commuting costs and the estimated
tons of pollutants each employee’s
car adds to the environment during a
regular commute.
The Online Eligibility Gizmo is
designed to provide Federal
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ensure that the entire Federal
workforce be made aware of telework
laws, policies, benefits, and
practices."
OPM’s Daniel Green testified on the
agency’s efforts to promote telework
to Federal agencies, such as hosting
quarterly staff-level telework meetings
and visiting with Federal agencies to
provide assistance and guidance.
Senators Akaka, Stevens, and
George Voinovich (R-OH) vigorously
questioned the government
representatives about their work in
promoting telework and future plans
for expanding telework. All panelists
agreed that more needs to and can
be done.
In addition to making all Federal
employees eligible, S. 1000 requires
new employees undergo telework
training, creates a new Telework
Coordinator position in each agency,
and outlines specific reporting
processes to track telework
participation by agency.
Jon Dudas from the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO), where
more than 3,000 of approximately
8,500 employees are participating in
some form of telework, noted that
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employees with a concise and
compelling case for their specific
telework options, in one convenient
document. All employees are
encouraged to try the Gizmo, inform
themselves about the practical
telework considerations for their job
assignment, and present one
business case package to supervisors
about alternate workplace
arrangements for the immediate and
longer-term.
To take the Online Eligibility Gizmo
and see for yourself, visit
www.telework
exchange.com/gizmo.
By Joel Brunson, president of TANDBERG
Federal
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Institutes can pull these statistics in
a matter of minutes, and guarantee
their accuracy.
Gayle Mundell, Telework Coordinator
at NIDCD, says, "Since implementing
Telework Online, I spend 50 percent
less time reviewing and approving
applications. With automated
notices sent to supervisors and
teleworkers alike, the administrative
tasks involved with e-mail and post
mail have been streamlined."
"This is a very robust application that
can be readily customized to work for
other agencies based on their
specific forms, workflow, and
processes," says Colleen Sasser,
Business Development Manager at
LCG Systems, which designed the
system for NIH. According to Sasser,
the system can be implemented, and
up and running in just a few weeks.
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Continued From Above
USPTO "currently is exploring the
feasibility of creating a nationwide
workplace where an examiner can
work anywhere in the country...to
meet current and future workforce
requirements."
To read the complete hearing
testimony and to view the archived
hearing via Webcast, visit the Past
Event Details section at
www.teleworkexchange.com.
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As the Defense Information Systems
Agency (DISA) continues relocation
plans, the agency has opened a
telecommuting center at Fort George
G. Meade in Maryland. In all, nearly
6,000 Defense personnel will relocate
to Fort Meade from three sites in
Northern Virginia. The DISA Liaison
Facility/Telework Center has six
workstations with Internet access, plus
printing, faxing, and copying facilities
and meeting space. As demand
grows, so will the center - as many as
30 employees eventually will work
from there each week.
With more than 100,000 employees
nationwide, the Department of Justice
has created a Web site that offers
"one stop shopping" for employees
interested in work/life issues and
options. Employees can explore
flexible work arrangements, access
the necessary forms, complete online,
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and e-mail these forms to supervisors.
One can research the available
programs within the Department, and
even reach out to other linked
resources on key topics. For
managers, the site includes flash
videos and decision tools that serve
as hands-on guidance in making
work/life decisions. The information
on the site is available for anyone
interested, and could be easily
tailored to fit a specific agency’s
needs. To explore the site, visit
www.usdoj.gov/
jmd/ps/worklife.html
A guide to beating the heat - whether you work from home or at the office.
In the dog days of
summer, think about
how much better
you would feel if
you didn’t have
to make the
umpteen-mile
commute in
the morning.
If you don’t
telework,
maybe it’s time
to approach your
management or talk
to your agency Telework
Coordinator about telework
options that fit your work assignment.
If you already telework, think about
how you can help co-workers get on
board. Check out the Telework
Exchange Online Eligibility Gizmo at
www.teleworkexchange.com to
determine your telework eligibility.
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Give yourself something new to look at
while you work. Organize your space,
add a plant, or frame a photo (a
mountain retreat perhaps?) for your
desk.
Instead of eating leftovers for the 17th
day in a row at your desk, meet
friends for lunch at a nearby
restaurant. Catch up on everyone’s
day, and enjoy face-to-face
networking.
Get the blood flowing again by taking
a stroll during breaks - even if it’s just
around the halls or up and down the
stairs (cooler than the 90 degrees
outside).
Do some summer shopping - technostyle.
Check out the latest telework
technology, refresh outdated
equipment, spruce up your
home office, and improve
your collaboration tools.
Where is your getaway
spot? The beach?
The mountains? Your
own back yard? Take
five minutes to close your
eyes and envision yourself
there.
If you have tips on this topic you’d
like to share, log on to the Water
Cooler at www.teleworkexchange.com
and share your advice with your
teleworking colleagues.
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Phone 703.883.9000 | Fax 703.883.9007 | Cindy Auten 703.883.9000 x101
921 King Street | Alexandria, VA | 22314 | info@teleworkexchange.com
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