Big telework savings trumps butts in the seats

Despite years of official support and the promise of huge returns on investment, routine telework remains a goal in most agencies, relegated to pilot programs and special situations.

"A lot of the resistance in government is from managers who want to see their employees every day," said Rod Turk, chief information security officer of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, one of a handful of agencies that is making telework work. But the butts-in-the-seats paradigm has to change, said John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management. "We've got to start practicing what we're preaching." Berry, speaking recently at a Washington conference hosted by the Telework Exchange, said that like it or not, telework already is happening. In a recent OPM survey of government employees, 22 percent said they were teleworking without formal agreements, doing at least some of their jobs from home or elsewhere away from the office. Managers are beginning to respond to this new de facto standard, Berry said. "We see that telework is starting to take root. Our managers are starting to see that this is a major culture shift."