Vol. 36, Number 9—September 2004

Teleworking Brings Office Home

Obstacles, large and small, can play havoc with the workday. Bad weather, recovery from surgery or illness, an uninhabitable work space—all can make reporting to work difficult or impracticable. And who hasn't thought, while trying to focus on a project, that they might accomplish more away from the office?

Federal Judiciary employees are finding a productive alternative to the daily office commute in teleworking, sometimes called telecommuting or flexiplace telecommuting. According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), teleworking is "the ability to do your work at a location other than your official duty station." Employees opt to work either from their homes or at telework centers or other approved locations that provide general office workstations. Of the Judiciary's nearly 34,000 employees, 26 percent are eligible, and 17 percent of this group has chosen to telework. Sixty-three percent of the Judiciary's teleworkers do so on an occasional, non-routine basis, while those who telework on a regular, routine or recurring basis at least one day per pay period accounted for 37 percent of all teleworkers.

"The Judiciary is committed to the establishment and implementation of effective telework programs in the courts," said Administrative Office Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham. Since 1999, the Judiciary has had in place a Judicial Conference-approved national telework policy with guidelines for the courts who wished to implement local teleworking programs. In July 2004, under a policy approved by the Judicial Conference, telecommuting opportunities were extended to 100 percent of the Judiciary's eligible workforce. Judge Dennis Jacobs (2^nd Cir.) chaired the Conference Committee on Judicial Resources, which developed the Judiciary's telework policy.

"Information technology, which is raising efficiency by leveraging individual effort, may also liberate the individual from the daily commute and the office cubicle—and may save rent expended to locate people in office where their presence is not essential to their work," said Jacobs. "I am pleased that the Executive Committee has adopted the recommendation of the Committee on Judicial Resources to encourage these trends through telecommuting."

In March 2004, Mecham called attention to the Judiciary's telework efforts in his testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies, chaired by Representative Frank R. Wolf (R-VA). Wolf has championed telecommuting by federal employees. "Simply put," Wolf has said, "there is nothing magic in strapping ourselves into a metal box every day only to drive to an office where we sit behind a desk working on a computer. . . . The federal government should be the model for telework. Study after study proves that telework is family friendly, good for the environment, increases workforce morale, improves productivity, and reduces traffic congestion."

At the House hearing, Mecham noted that a telework coordinator had been hired to spear-head the effort to increase the use of telework in the Judiciary. The AO also was set to promote the use of telework through the development and dissemination of telework toolkits and a nationwide Federal Judiciary Television Network broadcast.

"The AO is determining how telework can be used," said Mecham, "to not only add quality of life benefits to Judiciary employees and improve employee productivity, but to assist the Judiciary in reducing space costs."

The expanded use of laptop computers and the move toward a paperless workplace have been factors in broadening court telework programs. They've helped Judiciary employees such as attorneys and data quality control, management and budget analysts work anywhere there is a computer and modem or Internet access. Electronic case filing also has opened up teleworking possibilities. And some positions seem designed for teleworking. In calendar year 2003, 72 percent of the people teleworking in the federal Judiciary worked in probation and pretrial services offices. Telework suits the nature of supervision, in which officers often work off-hours, and where officers may find fewer interruptions writing reports from home.

Teleworking can relieve space and equipment pressures in overcrowded courts, helping the Judiciary to reduce its annual rent costs. The staff attorneys hired by Chief Deputy Clerk/Senior Staff Attorney Molly Dwyer in the 9^th Circuit might find themselves six to a room if teleworking weren't a welcome option. Currently, Dwyer has 16 attorneys who telework full-time, and she estimates that 75 percent of the remaining 50 or more attorneys telework at least one day a week, as do all eight of the paralegals and a sizeable number of employees in the automation and clerk's offices.

The ability to telework will be important if normal operations are disrupted by natural or man-made disasters. Teleworking employees can continue to be productive even if their work spaces are uninhabitable.

Courts with teleworking employees have seen improved employee productivity and performance, with reduced leave usage. According to OPM, research shows that "telework improves the quality of work/life and job performance, i.e., reduces office overcrowding and provides a distraction-free environment for reading, thinking, and writing." OPM cites findings that telework reduced turnover by an average of 20 percent, increased productivity by up to 22 percent, and cut absenteeism by 60 percent.

Not all jobs or employees are suited for teleworking. Beckie Bates, telework coordinator for the federal Judiciary, suggests that selection be based in part on the length of time an employee has been in the position, how self-directed, dependable, flexible and results-oriented he or she may be, how well the employee understands and follows policies and procedures, and how closely he or she must work with others.

"Telework is not a substitute for dependent care," said Bates, "and if employees work from home, they must be able to work without interruptions from family or friends. They're still on official duty."