Teleworking: Not On Your Watch!

If you drive through some of metro Washington’s more affluent neighborhoods, you are sure to see lots of green and white picket signs. They say: Not On Our Watch! The same signs, although much larger, can be found on the chain link fences that protect some very exclusive private schools.

Imagine my surprise when a friend, a very sophisticated lady who knows such things, says the signs are political in nature. The idea, she says, is that we should get out of Iraq so we can invade Darfur.

This illustrates how parochial I am. I thought the signs were about the government’s effort to promote teleworking.

If you are a very healthy teenager just starting out, who plans to make government a career, odds are good that at some point, maybe, you will be allowed to someday telework. Maybe one day a week.

But if you are mid-career, or you can see the light at the end of the working tunnel, you may want to get one of those Not On Our Watch signs.

Teleworking is said to be increasing by leaps and bounds. That is, more people than ever before are doing it. In some model systems, like the National Science Foundation and the Patent and Trademark Office, teleworkers outnumber office workers at times. The data looks good in other agencies. More people are doing it, or being approved to do it.

A new effort to expand teleworking is making its way through the House, which by the way is out of town this week and next. The so-called Telework Improvement Act (H.R. 4106) encourages agencies to let people telework the equivalent of two days per pay period. A similar bill, S. 1000, won committee approval last year in the Senate.

But many employees contend that the books are sometimes cooked. That is that agencies maybe permit some employees to telework once every couple of months, or even once a year, so they can tell Congress they have X number of employees who telework.

Others say that no matter how hard Congress pushes the program, teleworking will never take hold in some offices until suspicious bosses retire or expire. As one IRS employee put it, “our supervisor is a line-of-sight guy. He doesn’t trust us unless he can see us.”

So what’s the outlook for teleworking for the revenuer? There’s a sign for it. It says: Not On His Watch!

Guaranteed Income/ Guaranteed Costs

Federal, postal and military investors have a secret wealth-building weapon in their TSP: The investors make and keep more, because the TSP has the lowest fees in the business.

Syndicated columnist Scott Burns was our guest yesterday on the Your Turn radio show. He explains the importance of what he calls “guaranteed costs” that most of us ignore. To listen to the show, click here.

Nearly Useless Factoid

You may not know the name, but you’d never forget one very special feature of Radhakant Bajpai if you’d ever met him. He’s even in the Guinness Book of Records. It seems the hair coming out of his ears is over five inches long. Both sides put together measure in at nearly 9.8 inches. He tells The Sun he’s grateful for what others might consider an affliction. “God has been very kind to me,” Bajpai says.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

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