Federal Eye: Survey gives new numbers on teleworking

A new governmentwide survey finds general satisfaction among rank and
file federal workers and for the first time gives the government hard
numbers on the number of feds who telework.

The 2010 Federal Viewpoint Survey, administered by the Office of Personnel Management (the government’s HR office), compiled answers from more than 263,000
Executive branch workers, the largest survey of federal workers ever
completed.

The survey, conducted every other year since 2002, asked federal workers about telework for the first time. Ten percent of respondents
said they telework at least once a week and 12 percent said they do so
for less than one full work day. Another 36 percent said they can’t
telework because they must be physically present to do their job (a
group likely including law enforcement officers, lab technicians and
national park rangers); 7 percent said they don’t telework because
technical issues prevent them from doing so; 23 percent said they don’t
telework because they’re not allowed to do so; and 12 percent of workers
say they choose not to telework.