Here is why agencies can't settle on a post-pandemic telework policy, and likely won't.
If you are waiting for comprehensive policy guidance from your agency powers-that-be on telework, my advice is: Don’t hold your breath. Keep doing what you are doing, whether traipsing in daily, a couple of times a week, or fully remote.
To quote the great philosopher Dr. Seuss: “Everyone is just waiting.”
Agency heads are thinking about it all the time. But the question of who should be able to telework and how much has too many variables.
At a panel discussion on IT modernization the other day, I asked a couple of federal managers at large agencies what signals they were getting from the appointees suite.
Cara Rose, a deputy association commissioner of Social Security, said Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi gathers data and listens closely. Social Security, under the Trump administration’s commissioner, Andrew Saul, had issued memos demanding people stop teleworking. Then came the forcing function of the pandemic.
Nathan Sanfilippo, who works in the Veterans Affairs Department’s Veterans Experience office, said the looser telework policies are settling in as people realize how much planning, policy and analytic work occurs remotely without apparent problems.
The desire for telework may prevail among younger workers, but it’s not their desire exclusively. Since my last column on this topic, one reader, who says she’s had 30 years of federal service and still doing strong, wrote: “I … only go into the office the minimum of twice a pay period. I can tell you I am much more productive working at home.” She cited the benefits of fewer distractions from kibbitzing co-workers, less time and money spent commuting, more sleep, and more time with family.
Hard to tear people away from that. Public opinion polls show that nearly two thirds of working people prefer the hybrid model, and a third would opt for fully remote. Only the leftover sliver favor full-time in the office. What’s your view? As always, feel free to email me a few words.
Ergo, definitive new policies won’t materialize any time soon.
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Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years.
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