Management Resistance To Telework

     From Government Executive:

Faced with the choice of going into the office or taking personal vacation days, many federal workers are opting to stay home. The Office of Management and Budget has issued guidance instructing agencies to implement “maximum telework flexibilities” in any area with an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, but managers are still requiring many employees across the country to come into the office. ...

Following an agency-wide push last year to curtail telework, SSA [Social Security Administration] has resisted taking the same steps many of its counterparts across government have taken during the coronavirus pandemic. One employee who works at the Harold Washington Social Security Administration Center in Chicago says staff are capable and willing to telework, but it has not been given that option. Instead, he has taken leave all week. 

“My supervisors will not approve me to telework, even though my position is one that can be done remotely,” the employee said. Some of his colleagues performing the same functions are now working remotely because they have children out of school or someone else to care for, but the staffer's pleas that he was worried about his wife and kids were not enough to persuade agency managers to allow him to telework, he said. ...

The White House, meanwhile, has provided inconsistent messaging. President Trump on Thursday confused the entire concept when asked if he wanted to push more telework for government employees. 

“We are, and we’re using the medical term of telemedicine, and it’s been incredibly busy and really where people don’t have to, I mean some people can’t do it anyway,” Trump said. “They can’t get up, they can’t see a doctor, but we’re using this and it’s been telehealth, different names, and I will tell you that it’s been really successful.” ...