OPM Director Introduces Plan to Increase Telework among Federal Employees
Friday, May 1, 2009(National Federation of Federal Employees)
Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) Director John Berry introduced
this week his plan to jumpstart agency telework
programs, giving tens of thousands of federal
employees the opportunity to work from home.
Today, only five percent
of the 1.9 million workers employed by the
federal government telework. Berry hopes to
increase this number significantly in the
coming years by tailoring telework programs to
fit individual agency needs and
functions.
In a statement released
by OPM Wednesday, Director Berry laid out some
of the many benefits of increasing
telework:
"I was raised in the D.C.
metropolitan area, so I know a little something
about the traffic congestion that frustrates
commuters and saps them of energy even before
they get to the office,” Berry said. “Gone will
be the anxieties of commuting for these folks,
and they will ‘show up for work' refreshed and
ready to go. Taxpayers will benefit; and with
less commuting time, employees will have
additional quality hours to spend with their
families and friends, or to pursue outside
interests."
NFFE has long endorsed
telework in the federal workforce. As the
representative of thousands of General Services
Administration (GSA) employees, the leading
agency in telework utilization, our union has
seen firsthand the benefits to employee morale
and productivity. Furthermore, the savings
associated with eliminating the daily costs of
housing employees puts money back into
servicing of the American
people.
“Telework has been shown to improve employee morale and productivity, while at the same time reducing costs to agencies,” said NFFE National President Richard N. Brown. “This translates into stronger, more cost-efficient public service. Increased telework is a win-win for federal employees and most importantly, the American taxpayer.”
Click Here to see OPM Director John Berry's Statement on Telework