Telecommuting & Pandemic

[LarryAndro]

I work for the US federal government, Veterans Administration (VA), and telecommute from home. For the first time, the VA has prepared a mandatory online training course, which I just took. Until the last section, it was the usual yada yada... good info, but quite general, predictable information.

The last section advanced pandemic as one of the justifications for telecommuting. Quoting...

As an employee, you want to continue working during a health crisis, while protecting yourself and your family from illness. To do so, you should take steps now to be prepared to work from home. Telework will be a major component of planning for a pandemic health crisis. Although Telework Centers are a good option for normal teleworking, during a pandemic, these centers may be closed. With possible restrictions imposed in the workplace to limit the spread of the disease, teleworking from home may be your only option.

Interesting!

[SiBurning]

Definitely! If you're sick, stay home. If everyone's sick, everyone should stay home.

during a pandemic, these centers may be closed. With possible restrictions imposed in the workplace to limit the spread of the disease, teleworking from home may be your only option.

Leave it to the government to come up with a telecommuting solution that's closed when it's needed most, and then to tell you that using it will be your only option in such a case.

[DavyRay]

Telework Centers are satellite offices attached to the workplace network. There are 19 of them in the D.C. area. In a pandemic, the VA would rather workers telecommute from home instead of driving to the Telework Centers.

[SiBurning]

So let me get this straight. The government's idea of telecommuting is that you should drive to a satellite office in order to telecommute from that office instead of driving to the main office. Seems they're even more than I give them credit for.

[LarryAndro]

So let me get this straight. The government's idea of telecommuting is that you should drive to a satellite office in order to telecommute from that office instead of driving to the main office...

The training made it very clear that telecommuting would be from home as often as anywhere else. I cut a snippet to illustrate. But, I don't think they said drive to a satellite location instead of the main office.

[perry]

Yea, my company has been on a spree of issuing laptops (more than desktops) the past couple years. People that MAY work from home once a year are getting them, and one part of that business justification is in case of a pandemic. We're a drug company, so I guess it'd be important if our workers can keep on working and stay healthy. I guess the manufacturing and warehouse folk would just have to wear masks

[jlanger]

Frankly the idea of a pandemic freaks me out in my line of work, IMO most of my clients will die, from 1. lack of supports crashing, most of my client's food and living situations are tenuous at best. 2. hygiene practices amongst many of my clients due to symptoms and lack of cognitive skills is really bad.
Currently there really is no plan to deal with these types of situations in most of the governments/agencies I've worked with. Most have no idea what to do if the SHTF and no one shows up for work. I'm glad at least someone is starting to do some kind of planning.
Telecommuting will work, at least until the infrastructure gets so understaffed that it the internet/powergrid fails.

[KarthVader]

My concentration in public health school (community health and bioterrorism/all hazards preparedness) studies situations exactly like this. What would we do if we had another Spanish flu? Or another Bubonic? It's pretty clear that microbes are evolving much faster than the synthesis of drugs to combat them.

The telecommuting is also a way to isolate yourself from being exposed to any pathogens. I'm not surprised that the government is taking a very close look at the potential for pandemics.

[LarryAndro]

Until the very recent past, as a software developer for the VA, we were paid less than the private sector. (I am not sure now about the pay comparison.) The one way the VA could retain workers was by offering them telecommuting. For that reason, we retained many very good developers and other IT workers that would have quit. Telecommuting is very common in our federal agency, in the IT section especially.

Recently, a higher up manager type announced that he was going to try to bring us all back into the office and severely limit telecommuting. He announced the meeting time. The day before the meeting, it was announced that it was being delayed for further study or something like that. "You will be informed of the rescheduled meeting time."

That was over a year ago!

I am not aware of very many who don't telecommute occasional days. And, of course, many telecommute daily.

[surpera1]

global pandemic
not if
but a matter of when
most likely a strain of influenza from asia
asians commonly keep ducks and pigs together as food stocks underneath their bamboo houses on stilts
the flu virus mutates rapidly and is easily transferred amongst pig , duck , and human
modern air travel means it will traverse the globe rapidly
killing millions

[raisindot]

So let me get this straight. The government's idea of telecommuting is that you should drive to a satellite office in order to telecommute from that office instead of driving to the main office. Seems they're even more than I give them credit for.

They were just taking the idea from free entreprise corporate America. A former employer, a large corporation, had the exact same policy. They set up satellite telecommuting centers that people who were traveling could use if access to the main office would infeasible, or in locations where there wasn't enough room in the central office to accommodate everyone. These centers were also used extensively post 9/11 to give people access to corporate resources without having to tie up home resources if working at home wasn't feasible.

I don't see anything unreasonable about this policy.