When the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) urged D.C. federal agencies to let employees work from home during the Pope’s visit from September 22–24, the idea threw many govies into ecstasy. While government will officially be open for business, the OPM is encouraging “workplace flexibility options” like telework or a day off so they don’t add to the expected holy mayhem. Many agenciesRead… Read more »
The IBM Center’s Weekly Round Up highlights articles and insights that we found interesting for the week ending July 31 Hope for the DATA Act. Hudson Hollister, the head of the Data Transparency Coalition, was interviewed by Federal News Radio on his take of the status of the implementation of the DATA Act, which requiresRead… Read more »
I’ve worked in a variety of environments including full-time office, periodic telework, and now, full-time virtual. I get asked a lot of questions about virtual work. Here are my responses to the top three: 1-Wait…you work from home? (Or, what kind of work did you say you do again?) I’ve transitioned from working in anRead… Read more »
At my job in the 1900s (you guess the decade), my supervisor told us that she wouldn’t approve our working from home anymore. That was too bad, because I always accomplished much more from my den than I did in the office. I didn’t have the distractions, and amazingly, I had the discipline to toRead… Read more »
Public sector agencies need to be more flexible in embracing and implementing smart work flexibility programs (work flex) for all eligible employees in 2015. Put simply, work flex saves time and money while increasing employee engagement, performance and productivity, as well as morale and overall job satisfaction, among other things (see list below). Work flexRead… Read more »
‘Home. The Final Frontier In Employment’. Okay. I could not resist a nerdy reference (Star Trek’s ‘The Final Frontier’). – Now that I got it out of my system… Most of us fight traffic, daily. Whether by car, on a congested highway. Or, by crowded bus. Antiquated train… Even by bicycling. We might have aRead… Read more »
This week, the Washington Metropolitan area[1] experienced its first snow of 2015. From the moment the snow was forecast until it actually arrived, the Washington, D.C. media was abuzz. The “First Snow of the Year” was reported before the convening of the new Congress and before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. An early morningRead… Read more »
On Monday morning I woke up to the horrible news that the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital nurse diagnosed with the Ebola virus over the weekend was a 2010 graduate of Texas Christian University. As a Fort Worth resident, proud TCU alum, and daughter of a recently retired nurse, the news hit home. I also hadRead… Read more »
As a teleworker for over twenty-five years, I know the pros and cons of working out of your home. All of the advantages of telecommuting are really dependent on the ability to do it wisely. Confession: When I first started I worked out of my basement. To set the focus, I would walk out theRead… Read more »
Government increasingly advocates for enhanced telework opportunities within the federal space. However, according to a 2013 report on telework in the federal government, many employees face management resistance when attempting to work remotely. This isn’t really surprising. Teleworking has gotten a bad rap for decreasing productivity, disrupting work routines, and creating security issues. The recent PatentRead… Read more »