USDA’s “Telework Program” has been shining the spotlight on three recent developments, and Marge Adams wants you to know about it.

Adams, manager of USDA’s work & life program in the Office of Human Resources Management, explained that, as background, the Department’s Telework Program is the initiative in which a USDA employee performs his/her job at an “alternate work site,” whether at a telework center, a satellite office, or at his/her own residence. This is instead of commuting to one’s normal USDA duty station. An employee generally “teleworks” or “telecommutes” during a pre-designated number of days of the week, with supervisory permission.

“The document on my computer confirms my observations about the anti-oxidant properties in this orange tomato,” notes Penny Perkins-Veazie, a plant physiologist with ARS’s South Central Agricultural Research Lab in Lane, Okla. She is sitting at her computer, located at her home in Durant, Okla. That’s because she is one of over 2,000 USDA employees participating in USDA’s Telework Program. She “teleworks,” working at her ARS job from her residence instead of from her office at the lab, one day per week. There are some recent developments in USDA’s Telework Program. --Photo by Ray Veazie

USDA employees have been participating in the Department’s Telework Program since 1990.

Jim Stevens, director of OHRM’s Safety, Health and Employee Welfare Division, said the program has since expanded to include use of telework centers and satellite offices, both of which are bonafide, fully equipped offices generally located some distance away from the main office but closer to the employee’s residence. The employee commutes to that site instead of to the main office--and it generally always makes for an easier and shorter commute to “the job.”

Recently, three new or enhanced features are now seen as part of this “flexiplace” concept.

First, last year the Office of Personnel Management required all federal departments to designate a senior executive to be the telework representative--or “executive champion for telework”--within each department, responsible for the implementation of a telework policy for that department. In September 2002 Clyde Thompson, associate assistant secretary for administration, was designated as the “executive champion for telework” for USDA.

“But then we decided that, at USDA, it would enhance the program if we had an ‘executive champion for telework’ for each mission area or staff office, in addition to one person for the entire Department,” Adams said. So by December 2002, 15 additional senior executives had been designated as the “executive champions for telework” within their respective areas.

Second, USDA’s Telework Program is being spotlighted as a way that employees with either temporary or permanent disabilities can work as productive employees at USDA. Bill Haig, USDA’s disability employment program manager in OHRM, noted this is not really a new development.

However, a renewed emphasis on this particular aspect of teleworking included the fact that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently prepared a document containing a list of frequently asked questions on how to use teleworking as a “reasonable accommodation” for workers with temporary or permanent disabilities. Adams, in turn, disseminated that document in March 2003 to USDA’s agency-level telework coordinators and resource managers, plus to USDA employee organizations, noting that this is “Great for marketing Telework and Reasonable Accommodations.”

“I rely on two computer screens here at home, just like at my desk at the lab, because it’s more efficient to watch for computer viruses on one screen and do ARS web work on the other,” affirms Roy Gammon, a computer assistant with the Agricultural Research Service’s South Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Lane, Okla. He is at his ‘telework site’--his residence in Atoka, Okla.--where twice a week he works on his ARS assignments as he participates in USDA’s Telework Program. Recent developments in the Department’s Telework Program are spotlighted in this story. --Photo by Deanna Gammon

In addition, in August 2002 USDA entered into an interagency agreement with the Department of Defense’s Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP) so that “assistive technology” may be provided--at no cost to USDA agencies--for use by USDA employees with disabilities. “Assistive technology,” explained Bruce McFarlane, director of USDA’s Washington, DC-based TARGET Center, “includes products, devices, and equipment that are used to maintain, increase, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.”

He said that, to date, his office has processed 114 CAP requests in FY 2003. “This is saving USDA over $126,000 in ‘reasonable accommodation’ costs,” he said. “Some of those requests are being used to accommodate a USDA employee working out of his/her residence or at a telework site.”

Third, in January 2002 USDA’s Telework Program implemented a pilot project whereby a civil service employee of the Foreign Agricultural Service, who is a spouse of an FAS foreign service officer who has been transferred overseas, is eligible to telework in his/her FAS position from that overseas location.

According to Susan Brown, the telework program coordinator for the Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services mission area, at present one person is participating in this program from her mission area. “Darlene Maginnis, an agricultural marketing specialist with FAS who used to be based at FAS headquarters in Washington, DC, is continuing in that position full-time, even though she now resides with her Foreign Service Officer spouse in Ottawa, Canada,” Brown said.

OHRM work & life program specialist Constance Smith noted that USDA’s most recent official guidance on teleworking is contained in Departmental Regulation 4080-811-02, dated September 1, 2002. “But participation in a telework arrangement is not an employee entitlement,” Adams advised. “In addition, many USDA jobs are not suitable for offsite work. Plus, it’s always subject to a supervisor’s approval.”

Adams said over 40,000 USDA employees are eligible to telework. “Of that number, USDA management has authorized over 23,000 to do so--and over 2,000 are, in fact, currently teleworking.” 935--or nearly half of that number--telework at USDA field sites around the country, while the rest telework within the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Eighteen employees with disabilities and 87 employees on temporary medical disability have received “reasonable accommodations” through telework.

“I have a button that reads ‘Work Is What, Not Where, You Do It’,” Adams noted. “I think that message is right on target.” •