100,000 feds pledge Telework Week

Close to 100,000 federal employees will telework from home – or perhaps their favorite Wi-Fi hotspot – for at least a day during the newly rebranded Mobile Work Exchange’s Telework Week.

The third-annual global effort to encourage agencies, industry and individuals to pledge telework time has more than 106,000 participants, 90 percent of which are federal employees. This year's Telework Week runs from March 4 through March 8.

Last year’s event, also held during the first week of March, totaled 71,000 participants, evidence that telework and mobility efforts are growing within the federal ranks, said Mobile Work Exchange general manager Cindy Auten.

“I think it shows the momentum of telework, with everything going on this week,” Auten said.

Auten said participating federal employees average “between two and three” days of remote work during Telework Week, and said post-event studies conducted by Mobile Work Exchange have shown increased productivity in 70 percent of organizations that participated. Auten said another study is planned after this year’s Telework Week, with results to be publicized at Mobile Work Exchange’s Town Hall Meeting on April 30 in Washington, D.C.

Auten said most, if not all agencies participate to some degree in Telework Week, though some, like the Departments of Agriculture and Transportation, really excel in telework.

For good reason, too: The statistical savings, both in commuting costs and environmental damage, realized are significant, according to data pulled by Mobile Work Exchange. Commuting costs alone will be cut $7.5 million during Telework Week as feds ride the couch instead of their vehicles, with the majority of work done on laptops. Individual teleworkers will save an average of $75 in fuel and 3.5 hours in commuting time.