How is your federal agency implementing telework?

[Anonymous]

Same as some others here - infrequent and can't be recurring. Basically, mid-day, one-off medical appointments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ad-hoc situational TW

Can use telework in a non-recurring manner:

Weather or public transportation disruptions

Before or after a dr's appt for yourself or a family member

To call in for an important mtg while on vacation

While taking care of a sick kid or when you are feeling under-the-weather but can still do a few hours of work

When you need to stay home to deal with a home repair

In short, it should be non-recurring in nature. You can't TW every Tuesday because you need to take your kid to his weekly therapy appt. It needs to be one-off usage.

Managers can also now approve 90 calendar day medical telework (self) or that related to family member caregiving. Employee can only utilize one of these 90-day reprieves in a 12 month period.

Anything longer requires a Reasonable Accommodation, which have been revoked or are very difficult to get.

This seems to be discriminatory as it’s penalizing any type of medical issues that require routine, regular care.

In my agency you would have to submit a reasonable accommodation request to TW around a routine appointment. That is not “situational.” Approval of reasonable accommodation requests seems to be pretty good, but require you to disclose the reason for the recurring appointment and provide supporting documentation. Understandably some people don’t want to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ad-hoc situational TW

Can use telework in a non-recurring manner:

Weather or public transportation disruptions

Before or after a dr's appt for yourself or a family member

To call in for an important mtg while on vacation

While taking care of a sick kid or when you are feeling under-the-weather but can still do a few hours of work

When you need to stay home to deal with a home repair

In short, it should be non-recurring in nature. You can't TW every Tuesday because you need to take your kid to his weekly therapy appt. It needs to be one-off usage.

Managers can also now approve 90 calendar day medical telework (self) or that related to family member caregiving. Employee can only utilize one of these 90-day reprieves in a 12 month period.

Anything longer requires a Reasonable Accommodation, which have been revoked or are very difficult to get.

This seems to be discriminatory as it’s penalizing any type of medical issues that require routine, regular care.

In my agency you would have to submit a reasonable accommodation request to TW around a routine appointment. That is not “situational.” Approval of reasonable accommodation requests seems to be pretty good, but require you to disclose the reason for the recurring appointment and provide supporting documentation. Understandably some people don’t want to do that.

You cant submit an RA for a family member's condition which is the example the PP gave. RAs are only for the employee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Officially 26 days per year. Unofficially partial and full telework is more widespread and will remain that way unless/until they audit badge swipes.

They are already auditing our badge swipes. We’ve been warned.

Which agency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Officially 26 days per year. Unofficially partial and full telework is more widespread and will remain that way unless/until they audit badge swipes.

They are already auditing our badge swipes. We’ve been warned.

Which agency?

I’m not that PO, but EPA was last year. The rumor is we are about to get another round of audit data for 2026. They were looking at whether people were reporting being in the office on days they didn’t badge in. They were not looking at whether swipe times matched time cards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Officially 26 days per year. Unofficially partial and full telework is more widespread and will remain that way unless/until they audit badge swipes.

They are already auditing our badge swipes. We’ve been warned.

Which agency?

I’m not that PO, but EPA was last year. The rumor is we are about to get another round of audit data for 2026. They were looking at whether people were reporting being in the office on days they didn’t badge in. They were not looking at whether swipe times matched time cards.

Also not the PP, but they are auditing badge swipes at DOT. Individuals that don’t meet a certain threshold for time in office are flagged, and supervisors have to confirm their absence was permissible (eg, work travel, vacation, parental leave). This has been going on for months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Officially 26 days per year. Unofficially partial and full telework is more widespread and will remain that way unless/until they audit badge swipes.

They are already auditing our badge swipes. We’ve been warned.

PP. We also got a similar warning but nothing has come of it so far. I suspect they might come after egregious violators but there are multiple legitimate reasons why someone might not be in the office on a given day so demanding strict compliance would be nearly impossible.

[Anonymous]

Very small office in a large agency where supervisors have a lot of freedom..."situational telework" easily approved for a documented medical reason. Very fortunate.

[Anonymous]

I know someone that works for the Navy and her group goes in for part of the day then TW the rest of the day. Apparently they only track badging in and not when people leave. Sounds like her boss doesnt care where the work gets done.

I know another person at Navy that goes in one day per pay period. Their boss works at a different facility and also doesnt care where the work gets done. I realize the Navy is huge though and there are probably a ton of different arrangements out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very small office in a large agency where supervisors have a lot of freedom..."situational telework" easily approved for a documented medical reason. Very fortunate.

Roughly the same for me. The latitude given to supervisors means that there's a small subset of folks with supervisors who are scared of granting telework, so the process is being applied unevenly throughout the office, which leads to resentment. Of course, it's my preference that the telework-stingy supervisors should lighten up rather than having the telework-lenient supervisors crack down ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know someone that works for the Navy and her group goes in for part of the day then TW the rest of the day. Apparently they only track badging in and not when people leave. Sounds like her boss doesnt care where the work gets done.

I know another person at Navy that goes in one day per pay period. Their boss works at a different facility and also doesnt care where the work gets done. I realize the Navy is huge though and there are probably a ton of different arrangements out there.

Is there really a point to doing that if you still have to endure the commute? I guess being able to leave before rush hour and finish at home would be a help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know someone that works for the Navy and her group goes in for part of the day then TW the rest of the day. Apparently they only track badging in and not when people leave. Sounds like her boss doesnt care where the work gets done.

I know another person at Navy that goes in one day per pay period. Their boss works at a different facility and also doesnt care where the work gets done. I realize the Navy is huge though and there are probably a ton of different arrangements out there.

Is there really a point to doing that if you still have to endure the commute? I guess being able to leave before rush hour and finish at home would be a help.

I think it makes a world of difference. Can also get younger kids off the bus and let them play outside while you finish up or potentially log an hour or two after they go to bed if you need to get them to activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Officially 26 days per year. Unofficially partial and full telework is more widespread and will remain that way unless/until they audit badge swipes.

They are already auditing our badge swipes. We’ve been warned.

Which agency?

They are building a dashboard at our agency so senior management can see when badge swipes do not match time sheets. That said, they have apparently been building it for over a year. I think a big complicating issue is that we have regional offices all over the country with different systems. I have employees in multiple locations around the country and I cannot physically monitor them.

Apparently OIGs across government are flagging this as potential avenue for investigating timecard fraud this year and into next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Officially 26 days per year. Unofficially partial and full telework is more widespread and will remain that way unless/until they audit badge swipes.

They are already auditing our badge swipes. We’ve been warned.

Which agency?

They are building a dashboard at our agency so senior management can see when badge swipes do not match time sheets. That said, they have apparently been building it for over a year. I think a big complicating issue is that we have regional offices all over the country with different systems. I have employees in multiple locations around the country and I cannot physically monitor them.

Apparently OIGs across government are flagging this as potential avenue for investigating timecard fraud this year and into next year.

What a waste of time and energy. Instead, they should be focused on productivity and accomplishments. What you described is pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Officially 26 days per year. Unofficially partial and full telework is more widespread and will remain that way unless/until they audit badge swipes.

They are already auditing our badge swipes. We’ve been warned.

Which agency?

They are building a dashboard at our agency so senior management can see when badge swipes do not match time sheets. That said, they have apparently been building it for over a year. I think a big complicating issue is that we have regional offices all over the country with different systems. I have employees in multiple locations around the country and I cannot physically monitor them.

Apparently OIGs across government are flagging this as potential avenue for investigating timecard fraud this year and into next year.

I heard that they wanted to do this at State Dept domestic but wasn’t sure where it landed.