Snowpocalypse: Was Your Agency Prepared with a COOP/Telework Plan?
Power outages notwithstanding, having a few snow days shouldn't slow down employees from government agencies that have a clear Continuity of Operations (COOP)/Telework plan in place.
Employees should have remote access to most of the files they need through a secure network and an agency-issued laptop.
Is this true for you?
Are you able to be productive?
Or are you completely incapacitated and unable to get any work done now that you're stuck for 3 days (and counting!) at home?
Tags: continuity of operations, coop, snowpocalypse, telecommute, telework
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by David Dejewski on -
Minimal impact for me personally. I had to take more frequent breaks to shovel my home and a few elderly neighbors, but telework well established for me before & I found very little change to my routine w/ two exceptions: 1. VPN loads have increased w additional teleworkers - stressing the system and causing burps. 2. a shoulder injury sustained while shoveling tons of snow make it hard to work the computer as before.
My agency has been very proactive, but some staffs have been challenged to get themselves outfitted - with skeleton help desks, residual reluctance to adopt TW technologies, and limited exposure to this venue. Several "little things" in the configuration are stumbling blocks for those who are navigating telework for the first time.
Phone (audio) bridges have been a big help helping those who don't yet have the microphones / cameras for full computer-based teleconference. Little difficulties in having these virtual meetings. In fact, I participated in one yesterday while I was out in town getting new supplies in preparation for today's storm.
This set of storms has been good for increasing the preparedness level for COOP and identifying weaknesses that can now be addressed. I believe we've learned some lessons and are better off after these storms than we were going in.
-
Permalink Reply by Andrew Krzmarzick on -
Hi David - You are the original good samaritan. :-)
I've been a teleworker for 4 1/2 years and have a strong sense of appreciation for tools like Citrix that enable remote data access and Adobe Connect for virtual, face-to-face meeting capability.
I'd love to see a blog post from you once you get a list of the lessons learned that provide a road map to improve your COOP - ultimately, that's the silver lining in this storm....testing and iterating on those plans.
-
Permalink Reply by Terrence (Terry) Hill on
-
A snowstorm like this separates the boys from the men. Organizations like PTO and DISA are not phased by the weather. They can continue working. David seems to work for an organization like this. Other organizations stil do not participate in telework programs, so work completely stops for these organizations. In my case, the majority of our employees are emergency essential and are exempt from telework.
My heart goes out to the Secret Service, Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, TSA, and others who must report to work on days like today. Sometimes I think that the rest of us who are eligible to telework in these agencies don't telework out of emphathy for our colleagues. It doesn't matter if isolated individuals telework, because no one else is working. I'm not sure that we will even learn the lessons of this week.
-
Permalink Reply by Andrew Krzmarzick on
-
Good point, Terry. Many people do not have the luxury or job functions that lend themselves to telework.
I don't know the statistics, by my hunch is that at least 50% of government employees have work functions (maybe not the whole job, but aspects of it) that are appropriate for telework.
I wonder what the cost savings would be if employees were equipped to operate from anywhere in these kinds of emergency situations. It would certainly mitigate the millions of dollars being lost as this whole week becomes a wash, eh?
-
Permalink Reply by Christopher Parente on -
Great topic Andy -- great minds think alike! Our agency (PR that is, not gov) made the decision long ago to go to flexible work arrangement, outsourcing most of our IT and using thin clients in the office, laptops anywhere else. So we can access our personal desktops and applications from anywhere there's a broadband connection.
Also, I finally got a Movi account from TANDBERG, and I'm now kicking it with video conferencing from my home, as well as from the office.
So no problems here, as long as the utilities stay up!
David -- really cool you help out the neighbors with the shoveling!
-
Permalink Reply by Andrew Krzmarzick on
-
Great thoughts, Chris. The snowstorm also makes the case for a cloud computing environment. More akin to the thin client kind of operation you describe above, right? I know I am oversimplifying, but my assumption is that we just need an Internet connection and a secure access portal...and we're up and running. Probably need some telework training so people can trouble shoot themselves and also get some tips on remaining productive while at home....but all doable, I think...
-
Permalink Reply by Andrew Krzmarzick on
-
Other GovLoop'ers are thinking about this topic, too...see this "Continuity of Operations" blog post from Sowjanya O'Neill:
http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/continuity-of-operations
She states that COOP needs to extend beyond telework to cover many other facets...
-
Permalink Reply by Deborah J Miller on -
yes it is necessary to activate COOP in my agency. they've been lax lately. Gov't has been closed 4 days including telework employees aren't allowed to work. I think policy needs to be changed. what if next time get get another disaster like this one? Another lost productivity and billions in taxpayer to idle employees staying home on adminstrative leave. Telework and coop should be strongly encouraged to keep government running
Another advantage of telework is some lower paid employees cannot afford housing in metro Washington DC and still live 200 to 500 miles from DC area for lower housing cost and telework at their homes. They can come to office once a month or twice a month for meetings with managers.
-
Permalink Reply by Matthew Stephen Worner on -
Culture... managers have to support telework... period.
-
Permalink Reply by Emi Whittle on -
Isn't the weather just wild?! Luckily, as contractors, we are encouraged to telecommute because if we still charge work then our company can still bill and still get paid!
And even though we have offices in Texas and VA, we have all needed telework options for not just snow, but also for flooding and for hurricanes!
And, the government sector we work for has vpn capabilities with security in a variety of forms, so we can still get to most stuff we need, in addition to having back up stuff like portable drives for non-secure data transport.
Alas, still sorry for our first responders who we all rely on to work no matter the weather... but the rest of us should stay home when trouble arises so that we don't create m o r e work for them! :)
-
Permalink Reply by Andrew Krzmarzick on
-
This tweet below got me thinking:
Should GovLoop be part of agency COOP Plans?
-
Permalink Reply by Adam Arthur on -
It really should. I believe there are enough users on here to warrant direct announcements from agencies. You guys should throw a line out to a few.
Tools & Resources
© 2012 Created by GovLoop.
