Network World's Toni Kistner shines a light on OPM's latest policy concerning government closings (snow days, etc.) and its affect on teleworkers in Separate but equal? (Telework Beat, Dec 15, 2003). While I can see the points made by those interviewed in the article, I didn't find the intent of the policy itself offensive. Could it be the wording that's got folks riled up? OPM's response to location-based issues that affect operations should be applied in a location-based way, and the current wording doesn't do this.

For example, let's say you were a teleworker who worked from your home in Reston, VA. This is outside the beltway, the affective limit of OPM's policy. The introduction states: 'These procedures apply to employees in all executive agencies located inside the "Washington Capital Beltway"'. Let's reword the policy to change the focus from where the agencies are located to where the employees are located: 'These procedures apply to employees whose primary work location is located inside the "Washington Capital Beltway"'. You don't need the section specific to  teleworkers at all.

Using this reworded policy, if they close the federal government office buildings inside the beltway, the NIMA office in Reston, VA stays open. So do you. 

And why does the policy stop at the beltway? Another simple revision to the policy, let's change '...inside the "Washington Capital Beltway"' to '...inside the affected area (as announced by OPM)'. Now if there's a typical D.C. area snow storm, and they additionally close federal government offices in Fairfax County, the NIMA office in Reston gets a day off. So do you. This single policy can also handle localized emergencies, for example those that could close a few blocks in D.C..

Taking a different perspective, what if the policy stated that ALL employees in the affected areas are expected to telework on days they close federal office buildings. If for any reason they couldn't telework, they would have to write up an exception report explaining why they couldn't. Sometimes the job itself makes it impossible, or the worker may have young children home from school or daycare. All employees would be treated the same under this policy, and it would put some positive pressure on managers to take steps to make telework work, at least for a few days each winter, and break down the barriers for increased telework.

And to those who would mourn the loss of free "snow days", do the math: the more you telework, the more hours you can gain back by avoiding the commute. With a 30-minutes each way commute, you'd gain back that 8-hour snow day after only 8 days of telework. If you teleworked just one day a week, 50 weeks out of the year, then you'd gain back 50 hours each year, or the equivalent of 6.25 snow days.

8:57:40 AM    
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