Reluctant Road Warriors

European-style gas prices and Bangkok-style traffic have lots of Americans looking for better ways to get to work. Like staying home. As in teleworking.

If you live in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, San Francisco-Oakland, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington, Chicago, Detroit, Riverside-San Bernardino or Orlando, you know about perpetual rush hours and horrible commutes.

Those cities, in the order presented, have the worst traffic in the U.S., according to a Forbes.com on a study by the Texas Transportation Institute.

Uncle Sam is one of the nation’s biggest employers, especially in many of the worst traffic-choked areas. And as one of the largest employers, the federal government is moving (some say plodding) ahead and creating telework opportunities (often one day per week) for more employees.

Some federal agencies (either because of their leadership or their missions, or both) are doing better than others. The Patent and Trademark Office, is considered one of the best in that respect. Another is the National Science Foundation.

Although NSF (also based in suburban Virginia) is a federal agency it sometimes marches to a different drummer. Teleworking is one of those examples. According to a brand new study by NSF’s telework program, just over half (51 percent) of the staff teleworks.

Other interesting bullets from the report:

• About 32 percent of the staff telework on a regular basis.
• About 52 percent of the teleworkers are provided with government-owned support equipment (laptop computers).
• The NSF study indicates that “on average” folks who telework on a regular basis avoid 62 hours of road time per year and save about $1,200 annually in gasoline, maintenance costs, tolls, etc.
• If you are into green, the NSF study says that by not spending an extra 62 hours per year commuting “NSF teleworkers collectively spare the environment over one million pounds of emissions and save more than $700,000 in commuting costs each year.”
• Finally, if your boss wants you in his/her line of sight at all times, the report says most managers say they can and do monitor the performance of workers.

Productivity apparently remains high even when Oprah and Dr. Phil are on TV. The debate, as they say, is over!!!

To check out the report, click here

TSP Trading Limits

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has contacted roughly 3,000 federal-postal workers who are considered “frequent traders.” These are people who move in and out of TSP funds several times a month (and in come cases a couple of times each week). The frequent traders have been told that in the near future they will be limited to two electronic trades per month. Anything beyond that will have to be done via snail mail.

Some traders think the government is inhibiting them from using their own money in an attempt to make money. Others believe it is the Nanny State at its worst. Meantime the board has published the proposed new trade limit rules. To check them out click here.

Nearly Useless Factoid

An environmental blogger has gone to the trouble to put together a list of The Seven Smelliest Creatures in the World. Number one on the stink parade is the zorilla, a striped polecat native to Africa. You can allegedly smell it from half a mile away. And to think… that guy in the next cubicle didn’t even make the list.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

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