Telework (also called telecommuting) allows you to work from home or an alternative office one or more days per week. The Washington, D.C., area has 15 telework centers which provide a professional work environment complete with multiple work stations, up-to-date equipment and office support.
Telework Essentials
You also need to have your supervisor’s approval to telework, complete the required forms, and have a sufficient performance appraisal rating. Your supervisor will also consider other factors such as:
- Your conduct
- Your skills at organization and time management
- If you can work without supervision
- If your need to have face-to-face contact with other employees to get your job done.
Telework is not for all employees
The work you perform must be suited for telework and some work simply can’t be done off-site. For example, telework may not be right for you if your job:
- Requires you to have daily access to classified information
- Involves the construction, installation, or maintenance, and/or repair of Commerce facilities,
- Involves the physical protection of Commerce facilities or employees
There are different types of telework
Intermittent or Episodic telework is performed on an occasional, onetime, or irregular basis.
- For example, if you need to complete a special time sensitive project that requires intensive research, you may be able to telework on a day to have the peace and quite away from the worksite to get the project done.
Regularly Scheduled telework is when you regularly work, at least one day per bi-weekly pay period, at an alternative worksite.
Telework Equipment
If you are authorized to telework, you must have the equipment necessary to get the job done. If you work at an authorized Telecenter, the center usually providers all the supplies you’ll need.
Security of Data
If you are authorized to telework, your supervisor is responsible for ensuring that you agree to follow all existing security policies and procedures, including information technology (IT) security. As a teleworker, you must agree to follow the responsibilities described in Section 2.1.13 of the Department’s IT Security Policy and Minimum Implementation Standards, which remain in effect while on telework status. You supervisor is also responsible for ensuring that as a teleworker, you agree to follow the security practices outlined in your operating unit's teleworking IT security policies.
Telework Training
Training Sessions on the basics of the Department’s Telework Program help to ensure that you and your supervisor have an understanding of its requirements. Employees and supervisors are also required to complete IT Security and Awareness Training on an annual basis.
Additional training may be determined and required by your organization and the servicing human resources office.
Hours of Duty and Alternative Work Schedules
Normally, if you telework you will work the same schedule that you work in the regular office, including compressed or flexible schedules under an approved Alternative Work Schedule (AWS) plan. Of course, your work schedule may be changed with supervisor approval and in accordance with established procedures.
Completely unstructured arrangements where you work at the alternative worksite at will are not allowed. For more information on Hours of Duty and AWS, see OHRM’s Leave Policies.
Recording Telework Hours and Control of Time and Attendance
Proper recording, monitoring, and certification of your work time is critical to the success of the telework program. Either you or your timekeeper is responsible for recording all of your telework time, including intermittent or episodic, in the time and attendance system, webTA, to reflect when you telework and where you telework (at your home-based office or an alternative worksite).
Your supervisor also has to ensure that you are working the hours you are scheduled. Some techniques your supervisor may use include:
- Occasional telephone calls or e-mails during the times you are scheduled to be on duty
- Occasional visits by your supervisor to your alternative worksite
- determining the reasonableness of your work output for the time spent.
Overtime Work
In accordance with Departmental pay policy, all overtime must be approved in advance to prevent any unintended liability for premium pay. If you are teleworking, you must have prior supervisory approval to work beyond your normal hours of duty and earn overtime. Failure to obtain supervisory approval for this can result in the termination of your telework arrangement. See the Department’s Premium Pay Manual for more information.
Leave
The procedures for requesting leave are the same when you are teleworking. You are responsible for obtaining leave approval in advance and keeping your timekeeper informed of leave usage, if the timekeeper is recoding your biweekly pay and leave information.
Workplace Environment
If you are participating in telework, you are expected to perform your duties and responsibilities at the telework location at a proficiency level equal to or greater than when you perform onsite. You are also expected to work for the entire time period scheduled. Consequently, it is critical that the alternative worksite be free from distractions and you must be free from obligations which would impair your ability to provide the same time and level of attention to the work product as when onsite. For these reasons, you may not telework and provide dependent or elder care at the time you are teleworking.
Workers' Compensation
When you are teleworking you are covered under covered by the Federal Tort Claims Act or the Federal Employees Compensation Act and qualify for continuation of pay for workers' compensation for injuries or illnesses sustained while performing their official duties. This is one reason that it is vital that a specific authorized work location must be identified in advance and adhered to by the employee. (See discussion on "Facilities and Equipment Issues.")
The supervisor's signature on the request for compensation attests only to what the supervisor can reasonably know, whether the event occurred at the conventional work site or at an alternative worksite during official duty. Under normal circumstances, supervisors are often not present when an employee sustains an injury. Employees, in all situations, bear responsibility for informing their immediate supervisor of an injury at the earliest time possible. They must also provide details to the Department of Labor when filing a claim.
Telework arrangements for employees who currently are receiving continuation of pay or workers' compensation can help put them back to work and take them off the workers' compensation rolls. Also, supervisors may be able to find work that such employees are able to perform at home, or restructure existing work so that some of it may be completed at home.
Telework During Emergencies
Dismissals/Closures - If your bureau or office announces an early dismissal due to inclement weather and you are working at a GSA Telecenter, you follow the dismissal procedures of the Telecenter. If you are working at home you need to determine if you are capable of continuing work for the rest of your scheduled workday.
On a "snow closing day", you will be excused without charge to your personal leave and without loss of pay, if the regular office is excused.
If the Department announces an early dismissal of employees for non-emergency conditions such as on the day prior to a Federal holiday, you will also be excused.
Emergency at the Regular Office - When emergencies (e.g., fires, chemical spills, disruptions of power and/or water, and/or interruptions of public transportation) impact the regular worksite and cause the early dismissal of employees, if you are working at an alternative worksite you are not dismissed from duty. The only exception is if cannot continue to successfully work at the alternative worksite without contact with the regular office. In this case, your supervisor must approve your early dismissal.
Emergency at the Alternative Worksite - When an emergency affects only the alternative workplace for a major portion of the workday, you will be expected to report to the regular office or request personal leave. If you know in advance of a situation that would preclude working at the alternative workplace (e.g., a scheduled power outage, etc.), then you must either come to the regular office or request leave.
