Survey: Employees with dependent care duties are better off teleworking
Freedom to work from home improves the job performance and morale of employees with such responsibilities, study finds.
Many federal employees responsible for taking care of children, aging parents or other dependents, feel that teleworking gives them much needed flexibility and improves their job performance, according to a recent General Services Administration survey.
The survey found that allowing home-based work arrangements to assist with dependent care situations has helped agencies attract and retain talented employees. But policies and managers' perceptions of the work arrangement create "an atmosphere of suspicion and sensitivity," limiting its use, the eight-page preliminary report on the survey results said.
The report recommended a governmentwide effort to clarify the role that telework can play in balancing work and dependent care and promote the establishment of policies specifically addressing employees' use of telework in dependent care situations.
More than 90 percent of the 863 dependent-responsible federal employees included in the survey said telework helps them handle emergencies and transportation duties associated with dependent care. Another 60 percent said telework enhanced their job performance, improved morale and reduced stress.
But the GSA study also found that agency managers have expressed concern that employees with dependent care responsibilities will be distracted if they are working from home. Policies forbidding such employees from teleworking have been implemented at various agencies, the study said.
"An enduring policy mantra has been in place: Telework is not a substitute for dependent care," the study said. The fear is that employees will use official work hours caring for dependents, it stated.
But these concerns are "based on speculation," the report said, and benefits such as a reduction of sick and family leave, and improved job performance, are prevalent when an employee works from home and maintains care responsibilities.
The results of the survey, which covered 27 agencies, were released earlier this month in the preliminary report. A final report is expected this spring.
Nearly 75 percent of the respondents were female, ranging from 31 to 59 years old. More than 80 percent of the surveyed employees' dependents were children.