Ready For Telework?

Federal employees may want to telework, but only a small number have access to the resources and support necessary to do so, according to a new survey.

A June 15 survey from Fedscoop, a government news aggregation site, revealed that the federal government lags behind the private sector in terms of telework opportunities. The survey was underwritten by Intel Corp. and Cisco Systems.

Of the 110 federal and 67 private sector IT executives surveyed, only 23 percent of those in government reported teleworking regularly or exclusively, compared to 64 percent in the private sector.

Few federal workers said they had been given the green light to telework. Even though 95 percent of federal employees surveyed held favorable views of the practice, 27 percent said they had not been permitted to work remotely, compared to just three percent of private sector employees. Almost a quarter of employees surveyed had never talked to their managers about telework.

The survey also found that for 22 percent of federal employees, their organizations did not supply them with sufficient technology to telework, while only 6 percent of those in the private sector had the same complaint.

The findings follow the Senate's passage last month of the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act, which would require all agencies to establish telework policies in consultation with the Office of Personnel Management.