Just because many federal agency offices on the East Coast are closed as the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast brace for Hurricane Sandy, a government shutdown does not mean the federal employees who work in those offices are getting time off. Thanks to the advancements of the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act, more and more federal employees are continuing agency operations from their homes or other remote locations.
A major storm in July was a tribute to telework’s progress, despite the fact that many D.C.-area residents were without power. At that time, Josh Sawislak, senior fellow for Telework Exchange, noted that power outages should not prevent federal employees from being able to telework.
“We tend to think about telework as working from home, but really it’s much broader. It’s really what we call remote work,” he said. “The equipment you have, the training you have and the systems you set up, whether you’re sitting at your house, someone else’s house, a hotel room or another agency’s office . . . all you have to have is connectivity. It doesn’t matter where you are.”
As Frankenstorm hits, Wired Workplace would like to know what your working situation is. Are you teleworking from home or a remote location? What is your plan for working if your home loses power? And how has telework changed your work responsibilities during this storm, if at all?
Brittany Ballenstedt
Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.
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