Working At Home
My colleague Steve Barr has column in today's paper that federal workers -- and hopefully a lot of other people -- will find interesting.
First and foremost, it's interesting because Barr reports that General Services Administrator Lurita Doan threw her support unequivocally behind teleworking. That's a different way of saying that people can work at home or, as Doan put it, from "telework centers" near their homes.
Doan said she'd like to see the number of eligible employees who telecommute rise from about 10 percent now to 50 percent by 2010. Coming from the head of an agency as large as the GSA, that's an important endorsement. "What we're looking for is maximum flexibility, and that is what we believe is the key to success," Doan said at a forum sponsored by a group called Telework Exchange.
But there's more that's interesting. Telework Exchange, the group that organized yesterday's event and works hard to promote telecommuting by federal workers, is run by a public relations firm with deep ties to the technology community that would provide the gear and software to make a telecommuting renaissance possible. Behind the firm is public relations executive is Stephen O'Keeffe.
Technology and telecommunications companies are among the Telework Exchange's "affiliates." Companies interested in becoming Telework Exchange partners are told by the organization's Web site to call a number that takes them to O'Keeffe & Company, a public relations and marketing company.
O'Keeffe has been involved in a number of unusual marketing and promotional initiatives involving the federal market. He was at the lead of an effort two years ago called CISO Exchange. That was going to be a forum organized by O'Keeffe and run in part by a senior staffer of Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), then chairman of the Government Reform Committee.
After it was disclosed that a small number of companies would be paying up to $75,000 for access to Davis, his staffer and other government officials, Davis backed away. A spokesman said at the time, "Neither Davis nor the Committee will have any role in the exchange." Davis did not know about the fees. O'Keeffe pulled the plug.
Davis has been a proponent of Telework Exchange. One assumes that's because he represents a district in Northern Virginia with a lot of civil service voters -- and which has a huge number of technology companies that do business with the govenrment. Last year, he urged the Office of Personnel Management to "work out some guidelines to" ease the way for agencies to make it happen. In fact, Davis was quoted in the April 2005 press release announcing the creation of the Telework Exchange.
"The Telework Exchange harnesses the power of industry to get this initiative into gear. We applud Intel, Citrix, Juniper Neworks..."
More on this before long.
By Robert O'Harrow |
September 13, 2007; 5:34 AM ET
GSA
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Posted by: bruce hahn | September 14, 2007 11:35 AM
Hello! Quality content! Regards,
Posted by: Doe | November 5, 2007 4:10 PM
Hello, nice site :)
Posted by: Brin | December 4, 2007 2:28 PM
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We find General Services Administrator Lurita Doan's support of teleworking welcome. It should not be a surprise that GSA, which has a mandate to bring efficiency to government services, should emerge as a strong proponent of teleworking. It will save the government money, reduce traffic, automotive pollution and wear and tear on our transportation infrastructure. In the traffic-gridlocked metro DC area its no surprise that most of the area's legislators, including Tom Davis, support teleworking programs for federal workers.
Its also no surprise that companies that would benefit from infrastructure buildout to support teleworking would also support such policies through PR/grassroots efforts. The nice thing about this issue is that it appears to be a case where public interests and private sector objectives do coincide.
The only substance to this story seems to be an allegation that a prior organization, managed by the same PR exec that is now running the Telework Exchange, was previously offering access to Mr. Davis in return for support of that organization. That allegation is curious, for as a former Northern Virginia tech executive, I found Mr. Davis to be one of the most accessible legislators in Congress. You could hardly go to a conference, seminar, or meeting on tech issues in the metro DC tech community where he wasn't present, and getting face time with him has never been a challenge.
It may be that the PR executive was overstating one benefit of his organization to potential corporate supporters, and I suspect that most were supporting the organization because of it's policy objectives rather than for access to one of the most accessible area legislators.
Encouraging teleworking is good public policy. What's now needed are incentives to encourage the private sector to match the government's teleworking initiatives, rather than innuendos that only serve to undermine this worthy policy effort.
Bruce Hahn
President
American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance
Serving the interests of the nation's 75 million homeowners and future homeowners since 1984.
The American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance is a nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization dedicated to assisting the nation's 75 million homeowners understand significant policy issues affecting homeowners and homeownership, and empowering homeowners to make their voices heard by state and federal officials.