http://thehill.com/homenews/house/108291-dems-push-teleworking-cite-februarys-monster-snowfall
This article by Russell Berman is in the 'The Hill' online and was posted today. It goes along with a seminar I had to attend for Senator Voinovich's office last week about Teleworking legislation being worked on in Congress. Having not known much about the bill before attending the seminar, I have been interested in learning more about it now. I was surprised to find out that mainly Democrats are pushing for this legislation, because Senator Voinovich (a Republican) is also in support of teleworking and was a co-sponsor for S.707, which passed in the Senate unanimously.
Being a younger person that will soon be looking for a job in the federal workplace, I don't see why teleworking is such a controversial issue. If I was able to work from home or during hours which are convenient to me, I would be more attracted to certain jobs that I might not usually take into account. I would also keep schedule flexibility and the ability to work from home in mind when I decide to start a family. According to supporters of the bill, teleworking allows the federal government to stay millions of dollars and would dramatically increase productivity. However, some opposition states that it would actually end up costing taxpayers around $30 million dollars.
A main component of a teleworking bill would be to train managers who would be worried about loss of productivity from their employees. However, if they were trained correctly, teleworking would save money, increase productivity and allow their employees to balance their life with work.
Since I don't know much about teleworking besides what I learned in the seminar and some articles concerning the bill, I would be interested in other opinions for and against the legislation.
- Haley
I agree that the idea of teleworking is very interesting. By having people work from home, we could reduce fuel emissions since they would not have to drive to work. This would help our government become more green friendly. In addition, working from home would provide many parents with relief from not having to pay for child care on a daily basis. Even working at home only one day a week could mean a reasonable amount of extra money. This combination may make government jobs more appealing to our younger, wireless generation, like Haley said. I, too, am interested in continuing to follow this legislation. - Kelly F.
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ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see where this legislation goes. I can see many benefits from a program such as this, but I can also sympathize with those who can foresee productivity being lost. I know from personal experience that I perform much better in a controlled setting without the distractions of the television or my personal telephone. Who knows what would happen if there was a young child at home to be distracted by. Jumping to legislation that would allow federal employees on a large scale to test this type of work seems like risk to me. It just seems like a small pilot program should be tested out first.
ReplyDeleteA. Braden