Telework- is your office flexible about this?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| DoN office - my group teleworks 2 days/week and we can switch for really any reason. We were requested not to telework on Mondays due to staff meetings, but our floor is a ghost town on Wednesdays and Fridays. Most of us also take CWS every other Friday. |
Anonymous
|
switching regular telework days is within the supervisor's discretion you have no right to do that (I'm a telework coordinator at a large ofc in a Fed agency).
Most supervisors I know will allow it but it's discretionary to switch a regular telework day. |
Anonymous
|
When I started 2x a week telework, I would only switch days to attend a meeting in person or something else work-related. Only after a few months, when I had let everyone know that I'm willing to give up a telework day if something needs my physical presence did I start switching the day for personal reasons once in a while.
But really, how often would you need to be home for a personal reason? Doctor's appointments? New furniture? Seems like it would be pretty rare. I was going to physical therapy for a while, and I temporarily switched my days to coincide with that, since it was close to my house and would have been a pain to get to otherwise. In my experience, if you're a solid performer, people seem to let you do what you want. It's in the offices where other mediocre performers have telework that it gets messed up for everyone else. Supervisors feel like they need to be consistent and so everyone suffers because some people take advantage of telework. |
Anonymous
|
19:14 here...
You hit on part of the problem... supervisors have to be equitable and consistent but they do NOT have to treat everyone the same way as long as the variables are permissible factors. If you are better at working independently than Janey and have different deadlines & projects, it's OK under OPM & agency telework rules to treat you differently within similar broad parameters. THis is the great failing IMO of telework: not of the concept but of chickenshit ineffective managers who don't have the backbone to say that you are more productive & independent than someone else, so within the parameters of the program there are permissible bases for treating people differently. Soapbox mode off ... |
Anonymous
It probably doesn't matter. It's not like you guys do much work most of the time. 
|
Anonymous
| I'm a GS-15 Fed manager and I embrace the concept of telework. Tomorrow, in fact, is my telework day. My philosophy to my team is that I'm happy to empower them with this option, and I expect them to perform as they normally would in-person. I trust them until any actions warrant otherwise. I supervise 5 GS-15's, and most of them seem apprehensive of this option. However, after they see me doing it (tomorrow's my first time), I'm hoping they'll embrace it better, and do the same for their staff. |
Anonymous
Troll. |
Anonymous
| Govt. contractor, and we can telecommute whenever we want. For me that's typically two out of four days. I'm off one day a week. Glorious. |
Anonymous
| I also work in a corporate environment. I telecommute 100% of the time and only come in once a week for four hours in the morning to attend meetings and briefings. |
Anonymous
| I work in IT and telework often. I took a pay cut because I liked the perk of this job so much. I'm able to call into meetings and work from anywhere there's internet access |
Anonymous
|
Fed and I use two different types of telework: regular and episodic. Regular is scheduled, every Friday and I have a telework agreement in place for it. Then I can use episodic if something come up where it makes sense to work from home for some reason: usually this is to schedule around dr visits, or some other event that's making it a partial work day.
No one in our group does more than 2-3 days a pay period unless its a short term medically related thing. Of the ten of us, I think 3 have regular telework days and everyone else just does episodic. |
Anonymous
|
Allowed to telework:
After business hours While I'm waiting for something at my home (e.g. sitting around 8-noon for the cable guy) Weather-related or my kid is sick Gov't contractor in IT, it's all informal and could be taken from me. |