How Should We Balance Incentives For Telework?

Brittany Ballenstedt has what I think is a typically smart take on Rep. Gerry Connolly's, D-Va., call to make sure teleworkers aren't penalized for working through government closures. She writes:

Still, isn't the benefit of being able to telework throughout the year, including the savings generated from commuting costs, enough incentive for teleworking employees to continue working through the blizzard, even despite their co-workers having a day off? The same case could be made that incentives are needed for federal employees who must report to work in areas not affected by the snow. After all, isn't that the overall goal of telework -- to hold up government operations in the face of an emergency, while also boosting employee satisfaction, decreasing traffic congestion and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions?

I think telework is at an interesting tipping point in government. Few enough people do it that on a regular basis, it seems like a benefit, rather than simply another way of doing business, a standard operating procedure. When government shuts down, however, those teleworkers have to keep working. That's a benefit to the government, of course, but it no longer feels like a benefit to the teleworkers who are keeping government operations going while their coworkers are not working. What needs to happen is to get telework to a saturation point where it's no longer a question of benefits, or penalties, or incentives, but just another way to work.