New centers promote telecommuting among federal employees

Federal employees weary of braving the commute between locales in Montgomery County, Md. and Washington may soon be able to use two new telework centers slated for Washington's Maryland suburbs. The General Services Administration is now accepting proposals for two federal telework centers, one near Wheaton, Md., and another in the Germantown, Md., area. GSA operates nearly 20 telework centers in the Washington area, which has some of the worst traffic congestion in the country.

Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., had pushed for the creation of the centers, adding language to the fiscal 2002 Treasury-Postal Appropriations Act requiring GSA to study the feasibility of adding telework centers in Montgomery County. The report, released in May, concluded the area needed the facilities.

"Traffic congestion is a major problem for the entire Washington region," said Morella in a statement announcing the centers. "With so many federal employees traveling to jobs, both within Montgomery County and elsewhere in the region, the use of telecenters will provide a real opportunity to make a significant impact on traffic."

Telework centers allow federal employees to do their jobs closer to home by providing work stations with computers, phones and other needed technology. The cost of using a telework center full-time ranges from $240 to $980 per month. Agencies pay those fees out of their own budgets.

Morella and Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Steny Hoyer, D-Md., have championed teleworking to reduce the Washington's area's traffic, make the federal government more efficient and improve federal employees' quality of life.

Though telecommuting has long been recognized as a way to boost employee morale and productivity and reduce absenteeism, the idea has been slow to catch on in the federal government. Wolf added language to the fiscal 2001 Transportation Appropriations Act requiring the Office of Personnel Management to ensure that 25 percent of the federal workforce participate in telecommuting programs at least some of the time by April 2001. As of November, just 4.2 percent of federal workers telecommuted.

"The federal telework program is still evolving," Morella said. "It is not yet a mainstream work arrangement, and there are challenges ahead. Telework is a legitimate option to help alleviate some of our region's transportation problems. I look forward to the day when the entire federal workforce will telecommute to the maximum extent possible."