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Telecommuting Interest Soars
Paralegal Sherrie Bell works at a federally funded telecommuting center 15 miles from her home in Southern Maryland.
(By James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post)
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In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, though, a string of local and federal officials -- including Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) -- have urged citizens to turn to teleworking as a way of conserving gas. On Sept. 2, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management sent a memo to heads of federal agencies with the same message.
"Telework presents agencies with significant opportunities to reduce fuel consumption and traffic congestion," wrote Linda M. Springer, the agency's director. "This will make a significant contribution toward dealing with the fuel shortage problem we are now facing."
To encourage workers to give telecommuting a try, the U.S. General Services Administration, which funds 14 Washington Metropolitan Telework Centers from the Chesapeake Bay to the Blue Ridge Mountains, announced that federal employees could use the sites for free until the end of the year. The sites provide all the amenities of an office: phones, computers, fax and photocopy machines.
Soon phones at the centers were ringing continuously. Tammey Sparks-Ussery, executive director of Washington Metropolitan Telework Centers, said inquiries from potential teleworkers at some sites have increased since Hurricane Katrina, from about five inquiries a week to about 12 every day. Centers across the region have scheduled open houses Friday for potential teleworkers (see http:/
The telework centers aren't overflowing yet, Sparks-Ussery said, because it usually takes workers about 30 days to get approval from their agencies. "But in about a month, I think we might have a waiting line," she said.
Private companies also are taking a second look at telecommuting. AeroAstro, an Ashburn-based satellite and space systems business, announced yesterday that it is urging its employees to telework at least one day a week because of the gas shortage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
Richard Fleeter, the company's president, said the policy, which will reduce employees' transportation costs by 20 percent, is a valuable recruiting tool. In a statement, he said the move would "attract to our work force the most highly talented people regardless of their geographic proximity to our home in Ashburn."
As she continues to make the 90-minute commute from her home in Calvert County to her office near Union Station, Bell sometimes makes calculations about how much money -- $1,000, $2,000, more? -- she would save by telecommuting twice a week.
If she isn't allowed to telework twice a week, Bell said she probably will have to stop eating out and going to movies on weekends. But she's crossing her fingers that it won't come to that. "I just really hope my telework request is approved," she said.
Staff writer Elissa Silverman contributed to this report.
