FAIRFAX TIMES:
Tuesday December 21, 2010

Teleworking gets a boost
New law pushed by Wolf, Connolly should pay dividends for many Fairfax commuters

Fairfax County's 400,000-plus commuters finally got something to smile about last week when President Barack Obama signed the Telework Enhancement Act into law.

The new law, driven by Virginia Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Dist. 10) and Gerry Connolly (D-Dist. 11), will require federal agencies to develop comprehensive telework plans and should allow tens of thousands of federal workers in the Washington, D.C., area to work from home one, two or even five days a week.

Wolf has been pushing for more teleworking options for a decade, but it wasn't until last year that those efforts gained traction. Some of the urgency can be traced to a 2008 government report that found more than 90 percent of 1.1 million federal employees teleworked less than once a month.

When implemented across the board, the move should take a couple thousand cars off I-66, the Beltway and Dulles Toll Road every day and knock precious minutes off many commutes.

Most employees are allowed to telework at least one day a week during the year. Employees who take part in the program can work from home or a nearby telework center. A small percentage of employees who handle secure materials won't be offered the option of logging on at home.

Going forward, telework will now be part of every agency's contingency plan for emergency weather situations. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the costs of lost productivity from federal workers during last winter's two major snowstorms -- estimated by the government to be $71 million a day -- would more than pay for the five-year, $30 million price tag of implementing the program.

In addition to saving dollars, the new law should boost productivity and give the federal government a better chance of competing with the private sector when it comes to hiring and retaining top talent. Reducing the amount of federal office space is another benefit.

Given all that, operating a successful telework program isn't without its challenges. As always, some managers will remain resistant because they don't trust that employees out of visual range are actually working. That hurdle can likely be scaled by educating managers and employees about the program's benefits and creating benchmarks that would prove that teleworking employees are hard at work.

For anyone who spends 10 or 12 hours staring at license plates and brake lights on the George Washington Parkway or I-66, a telework program seems like a no-brainer. The benefits of expanding federal participation should pay dividends for private-sector employees as well as those taking part. After all, the fewer federal workers on our roads, the easier commutes should become for the rest of us.

Perhaps similar gains can be made by the private sector in the next two years.

http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/cms/story.php?id=2734