Mobile Work Exchange

Of course, passing the FY 2011 budgets should take priority over the telework bill, but I'm hopeful that the bill will be passed by the lame-duck Congress. Otherwise, it may never see the light of day as it is drowned out by all the other priority issues. I have a couple issues with language, including the provisions in the Senate bill relating to taxes and pornography, but overall this is a good, bipartisan bill which will result in real cost savings and efficiencies.

Thanks Terry. I agree that the approps bills are the highest priority, but since HR 1722 was passed (in very similar form) by this House during the summer with support from both sides, I hope they will consider it a clean up measure and not reopen the discussion. What I was trying to say above is that it addresses issues for both parties and has bipartisan support.

I am interested to see how agency telework policies go because, at least in my agency, even the best telework available has zero impact on the need for office space or any other cost associated with attendance-based work. Simply put: yes, they have a telework policy, but the basic assumption is that it is a perk not a strategic tool, so 1-2 days per month is all most people get. I, quite frankly, refuse to entertain telework opportunities for myself unless the bulk of the time is out of the office.

Good point Philip. I plan to address the issues surrounding real estate ROI in a future column, but there was an interesting discussion of this issue at the last Telework Town Hall. Michael Bloom from GSA talked about it and you can hear the podcast at http://www.teleworkexchange.com/townhallmeeting/audio/2010fall/2-1.mp3 if you missed the session in September.

Would that it were so that government, federal or state, be nimble enough to tie telework and real estate together. I work for the State of California in an office in which, but for a half-dozen of us on the third floor, is vacant much of the time. Some from budget cuts and organizational realignments, but also a unit that allows staff to telework almost all week. Maybe if the feds can crack the code of how to shrink space to accompany increasing telework, states can follow.

It seems easy on paper, but when you start taking people's desks away, it gets harder. Space is not really fungible because we still have to find a spot for you and your five other coworkers if we give up that office. And then we have to sell the building or break the lease and what happens if we all the sudden need 20 more spaces next year and we already got rid of the building? What we need is a comprehensive strategy that breaks down walls between agencies and looks at space at the macro level. Like the cultural problem we have with getting managers to accept telework as a productive tool, we have to change culture in agencies to share space across the whole government enterprise. I will be very interested to watch the work GSA's SUGR team is doing in this area.