Federal agencies have until the end of June 7 (close of business today) to notify you about whether you qualify for telework. This is one of the deadlines that Congress mandated when it passed the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 in December.
So I am calling on all feds to answer – do you know if you can telework? Have you been told by your boss if you are able to work from home instead of at your assigned workstation?
According to a report released June 7 by the Telework Exchange, 84 percent of telework managing offices say they have already established the eligibility of employees underneath them.
Feel free to comment on this post, or to send me an email at amedici@federaltimes.com.
12 Comments
Yes, I have been teleworking since late April. My agency just notified everyone yesterday. They just finished the agency telework policy last week after teleworking had begun.
At the VA they have told us uf we are elgible however they have not told us when or how we can start teleworking …. nor have they told us what stipulations will be attached …. For our Raters (RVSR) that already telework, they are expected to do double the work they would complete if they were in office …. I am not sure how fair that is. I am a VSR as of now there are no VSR’s currently teleworking and I am not sure if we will ever be allowed to even with this sheet of paper that says we are elgible.
Telework has been established here BUT it is not highly publicized, nor encouraged, and the general consensus of employees is condescending towards those that do work just one day per pay period and have one day CWS. It took me a couple of years to learn that there was teleworking at this installation because my particular office did not share the info. I do not work CWS and it took months for me to get approved for two telework days per pay period. Not very encouraging, especially when a large percentage of my duties are accomplished on the computer via email and computer application in addition to voice mail. Rarely have face-to-face contact.
Yes, I was informed by my manager that I was “eligible” to telework, also told at the same time to “not expect to be able to, since it was his perogative to allow it.”
My Manager and the supervisors in my direct office are Teleworking and have been for a good length of time.
I personally submitted an application to Telework back in February – 2011. I was informed at that time by my supervisor that she could only take my application and that no further action would be taken. Her reason specified…there was not a union agreement in place with Management concerning my position and the other positions in our office. To my knowledge – NTEU 243 would like to be in agreement concerning the positions in my direct office.
We are an Office/Division of 4 Branches. Our work varies in our direct office. We have one group in this direct office that was eligible to Hotel. Their work is strictly production.
Two other Branches in our direct office are conducting 80% of their task as production.
The other Branch is a non-production area and is consider under Management, in which my position falls under.
I have contacted our Agency Coordinator back in February-2011 and I was informed – it takes strategic planning. I have several e-mail conversations that I sent to the Director & to our Agency’s Telework Coordinator concerning my interest in Teleworking.
The office waited until the mandated deadline to inform me that my position was not eligible and my eligibility may change pending a potential agreement with NTEU 243.
No my employer the Joint Staff does not support telework.
Therefore we have not been informed either you can or you can not as an employee.
One interesting issue is that the Managers can Telework.
It is an unfair policy because telework could also be used during inclement weather and other emergency situations.
When you have managers that hold themselves to diferent standards and hold others to diferent standards you have what we call incompetence to recognize the contributions that employees can do for the agency.
Employees could go to their medical and dental appointments and take half day of sick leave and telework for the other half day. That will be a win-win situation.
VR
PATHFINDER22554
No one told us whether we were qualified to telework but that’s typical of upper management. They are allowed to do it but don’t allow us. As Robert stated they are held to different standards.
They mentioned telework, but explained we weren’t eligible, because the line of work. Which is HR, so we have to be present for the clients to reach.
We were told but as many others have written already, the preception is that our management has minimized the opportunity (1 day a week on non-RDO days). It has a very negative feeling around it, not at all the motivational tool it’s presented as.
Our agency has been fined for years for not writing a telework policy. They finally wrote one, but they did not post it where all the other policies are posted because they do not what anyone to know what the policy is.
I was informed that I was definitely eligible to telework, but that there was no money available to provide the necessary technology (i.e. the extra $65/month for a laptop instead of a desktop computer). (For security reasons we are not allowed to use our home computers for government work.) My supervisor suggested acquiring a single laptop that could be shared between the twelve of us in my group for teleworking purposes. I guess that’s a start.?
Well, we were told we were eligible in September 2011. No policies have been seen yet from our Civilian Personnel office. The general feeling is that Civilian Personnel will find a way to restrict usage of the program without basis, not publish clear and simplified instructions how to apply and be approved for telework, and offer conflicting guidance like requiring a letter with no details, then deny letters based on missing information that was not required and offer no specific examples. I work from home every night without pay, it’s unreasonable to expect me to work that many hours at my desk at work. I need the telework policy, but am not holding my breath that the evil warlords in Civ Personnel will allow it. Oh, and I really do like the Civ Personnel who answer the phones – they do everything they can to help – often flying under management radar – it’s their front line supervisors who seem to throw wrenches in the works.