Life in the pretelework days

By Ben Bain

| September 21, 2007

Im a dinosaur, said Rita Franklin, the Energy Departments deputy chief human capital officer, reflecting on what working life was like when she began her civil-service career in the late 1970s. At the beginning, the notion of telework was unimaginable.

Workforce Management

Im a dinosaur, said Rita Franklin, the Energy Departments deputy chief human capital officer, reflecting on what working life was like when she began her civil-service career in the late 1970s. At the beginning, the notion of telework was unimaginable.

Besides typewriters, federal employees had fixed lunch hours, start times and end times, and there was no leave-sharing and little flexibility for maternity leave. Franklin said she draws on those experiences as a manager when thinking about ways she can improve the lives of her employees.

I found with the technological advances over the years it has made telework so much easier for all of us to participate in, she said. You want to be able to work, you want to be able to earn a living and you want to be able to have a life, and often these types of programs will allow you to do that.

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&#147;I&#146;m a dinosaur,&#148; said Rita Franklin, the Energy Department&#146;s deputy chief human capital officer, reflecting on what working life was like when she began her civil-service career in the late 1970s. At the beginning, the notion of telework was unimaginable.

Im a dinosaur, said Rita Franklin, the Energy Departments deputy chief human capital officer, reflecting on what working life was like when she began her civil-service career in the late 1970s. At the beginning, the notion of telework was unimaginable.