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Sustainability provides yet another reason to increase telework opportunities

In releasing new greenhouse gas reduction targets for federal agencies this week, the White House noted that some new ideas—including reducing emissions from employee travel and commuting, and expanding bicycle commuting—are being incorporated into each agency’s annual sustainability plan.

It seems that these sustainability goals go hand in glove with telework—whether from home or from telework centers.

Sustainability is emerging as yet another key reason—in addition to continuity of operations, national security and work-life balance—to make teleworking opportunities available whenever and wherever possible.

Posted by Phil Piemonte on Jul 21, 2010 at 12:38 PM


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Reader Comments

Fri, Jul 23, 2010 NIH

Like everything else tele-work has its pros and cons. And it's really up to individual to decide if this is something that will work with their lifestyle. But the cons have nothing to do with the mentoring or watching over the employees. Our group at NIH gets trained yearly and we are required to keep our training up to date (which is monitored). The pros of teleworking most definitely out weight the cons not only for the environment but for the employees. It keeps good and dedicated employees that work 110% more to keep their good status with the employer. I currently tele-work and it's been a true blessing. It has increased my quality of life; mentally and physically. As far as “watching over” believe me I get more done at home than when I was in the office. When you have constant interruptions, coffee breaks and long lunch: do the math to see who gets more accomplished in one day. We aren’t children to be micro managed and when you appreciate these opportunities you give more than expected to keep your tele-work status. So it's shameful that you don't see the pros. It's apparent that you haven't tried it.

Thu, Jul 22, 2010

As an HR professional I have had many a conversation with a manager about telework. Most of the time they are so afraid the employee will "goof off" that they are not willing to let them telecommute. The bottom line is those that "work" when they are in the office will be likely to work at home; those that goof off at the office will be likely to do so at home. The supervisor needs to better manage their people and not paint all of their folks with a broad brush.

Thu, Jul 22, 2010 NC

Teleworking now for over four years. It has made it possible for me to still continue working fulltime and being able to save on travel and clothing expenses. I am now almost totally out of debt and am easily accessible for whatever work or projects I need to do. Thanks for the opportunity to balance my life and work. It has been a godsend!

Thu, Jul 22, 2010

I do agree with urban sprawl being a huge factor in this conversation. However, it is time in many instances to rethink telecommuting. Especially with today's technology that is available. The old fogies would more than likely get dressed 2-3 time per week and work in their offices, and be available to staff - maybe even more so, because they would have less work piled on their desks. In many jobs there is not a need to be at the desk 5 days a week. There are some days where it is beneficial for writing, data entry, etc. to work from home and have less interruptions, and in turn save on fuel, and have less traffic cluttering up the freeways, rather than just show up to to do something that could be done at home probably more efficiently that at the desk. Most telecommuters actually get dressed in their work clothes when working in home offices, and skype in for face-to-face conversations during some or all of their work day. As far as "no one watching", I know few, if any, people that work less than they are scheduled for. Many in this day and age are work-aholics, and already "telecommute" at night by bringing work home, in order to do the mindless data entry away from all the stress of office deadlines. FWIW. I am an old fogy. I do not telecommute, but I do believe it is time to rethink office management & practices. At this stage, I can only dream of a day without interruption.

Thu, Jul 22, 2010

My duty station is in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the city is growing by leaps and bounds. Telework would not only reduce the carbon imprint that thousands of commuters now create daily but would also improve family life. I've worked for the same agency for 25 years and I've never seen any mentoring except for the designated few. Training has just become something of the past as we are required to go on-line to do trainning. That can be done from home and giving advice to the young people coming into government is a waste as they are only interested in this job as a stepping stone and not in government. They tend to have a very different work ethic that the previous government workers had. Coming in twenty some years ago there were government workers that did not mentor as they want to keep what they knew, which equaled power in their minds.

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