Most Federal Workers Can Work From Home, But Don't -- Telework -- InformationWeek

If all federal employees eligible for full-time telework did work from home, the employees could save a total of $13.9 billion on commuting costs and stop 21.5 billion pounds of pollutants from entering the environment each year, according to a recent study.

However, many employees are unaware of their federal agencies' telework policies, and even fewer know if they are eligible to work from home, a study by Telework Exchange found. The public-private partnership that aims to expand telework in the federal government released "Telework Eligibility Profile: Feds Fit The Bill" on Tuesday.

[From Most Federal Workers Can Work From Home, But Don't -- Telework -- InformationWeek]

If everyone in North Virginia that works for the federal government and qualifies for telecommuting decided to take it, the local morning commute would immediately drop from hellish to boring. Of course, it would also hit the Metro rail and feeder bus system really hard. I really like how the bus routes here are laid out to feed into metro rail stations, I would hate to see those go away.

Of course, I telecommute too, so if my trip route to the office gets worse it is not a daily occurrence. Still, it would be nice to wake up one day and decide to go to the office without that turning into a nearly 4 hour long round trip.

The savings are not bullshit. Employees save on gas, car maintenance and wear and tear. The company doesn't need to rent as much floor space, and energy costs drop. The technology costs are minimal: broadband is cheap and full service VoIP can be had for $35/month or less. A lot of workers are already being issued laptops, so that is not an issue.

The only real problems, the ones that can't be fixed automatically, are human. Not everyone is compatible with telecommuting, and not all managers understand how to deal with a remote workforce. Everything else fans out from these two issues.