In announcing last week that the General Services Administration has decided to withdraw its support for most, if not all, of the 14 Washington D.C. telecenters, GSA Administrator Martha Johnson showed the way of the future.

Instead of referring to “teleworkers,” Johnson said employees are shifting behavior to be a different type of “mobile worker.”

The newer term of art takes the telephone out of the equation just in time to make way for smaller, portable tools of the federal trade.

Whatever the workforce is called, GSA is pleased with results of its pilot program underway in Kansas City.

All 300 employees of the office telework at least one day a week, and 45 employees telework five days a week.

People in the pilot program have told GSA Regional Commissioner of Federal Acquisition Service Michael Brinks that they are sleeping more, exercising more, seeing their families more and feeling less stressed.

“All of that translates into a happy employee, and when you have a happy employee I believe you have a productive employee,” Brinks said.

And as for telework centers, not to worry. They won’t completely disappear anytime soon. They’re just changing with the times as well.

In fact, DISA is now less than a month away from opening a new “classified telework center,” believed to be the first of its kind.

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