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Note: The following text is a quote: American Forces Press Service Defense Department Seeks to Expand Telework Program By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2009 – An updated Defense Department policy expected to be released next month will encourage more managers to adopt telework arrangements for their employees. Almost 17,000 department employees teleworked during the 2008 calendar year, Michael Sena from the Pentagon’s civilian personnel policy told American Forces Press Service. Teleworking, sometimes referred to as telecommuting, means employees work some portion of their work week from home or in another approved alternate location. Sena said...

WASHINGTON - Congress thinks the federal government would work better if more civil servants just stayed home. The House, on a voice vote Tuesday, approved legislation requiring the head of each federal agency to set policies allowing qualified workers to telework, or work from home or a convenient location. The bill specifies that eligible employees should be permitted to telework at least 20 percent of the hours worked in a two-week period, generally the equivalent of two work days. "A happy workforce is a productive workforce," said Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., the bill's sponsor. He said giving more federal workers...

Many businesses have discovered that there is no real need to keep people in one physical location, in order to effectively and efficiently coordinate their work effort. Telecommuting, the pratice of working fromremote locations, be it a client’s premises or even from home, offers many advantages. It is long past time for Congress to consider the possibility of applying the lessons learned in the private sector. The benefits mught be numerous and substantial. Many conservative are ticked off at the Republican majority in Congress. Some have noted that while a few from the class of 1994 actually meant what they...

Rising fuel costs are being blamed for everything from soaring utility costs to lower retail sales and higher airline tickets. And now, experts say high gas prices could reshape U.S. cities. "Most analysts believe that crude oil prices in the $50s and $60s will be with us for some time," says Stuart Gabriel, director of the Lusk Center, a think tank at the University of Southern California devoted to studying real estate forces and trends. There's even talk of crude hitting $100 per barrel -- or 10 times what it sold for in the summer of 2005. Once the realization...

Ron Rogers gets behind the wheel of his Acura Integra before dawn in Brentwood, Calif. His iPod, loaded with stand-up comedy and audio books, is hooked up to the car stereo. Rogers needs plenty of audio material for his commute: He drives more than 90 miles -- roughly two hours each way -- from the San Francisco Bay Area to his job as a public relations specialist at a communications technology firm in suburban Sacramento. Rogers is one of the 3.4 million workers that the Census Bureau has dubbed "extreme commuters." At least 2 percent of Americans wake up to...

At Georgia Power headquarters on Ralph McGill Boulevard in downtown Atlanta, a group of employees received the keys to their new van, bringing the number of vanpool vans to 66, with eight more groups still on the waiting list. Vanpooling is completely free to Georgia Power employees. Vans meet at a predetermined location at a specific time. Nine to 15 employees ride to and from work together. But Georgia Power provides incentives to all employees willing to try alternative transportation. Carpoolers get free parking and gas vouchers. Transit users ride for free. And once at work without a car, Georgia...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With gas prices near all-time highs, telecommuting is becoming a win-win for companies and their staff -- leaving workers paying less for gas and offering hidden benefits for employers. Telecommuting has moved beyond a scheme to ease the struggles of stressed-out workers to a system that saves money for company and employee alike, companies and experts say. Companies can keep workers they might otherwise lose, while workers can count the benefit in terms of cold, hard cash, they say. Opting to let employees work from home as fuel prices have risen, Florida's Kissimmee Utility Authority managed...

Some telecommuters work in the nude SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 5 (UPI) -- Some 10 percent of worldwide telecommuters wear nothing at all while working at home, finds a survey by the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based SonicWALL. About 39 percent of respondents of both sexes said they wear sweats while working from home, but 12 percent of males and 7 percent of females wear nothing at all, according to a survey of 941 remote and mobile workers worldwide conducted by Insight Express and SonicWALL, a provider of integrated network security and productivity solutions. Forty-four percent of women surveyed said they showered on work-at-home...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to disturb New York's system of taxing the income of telecommuters who live elsewhere but are employed by companies in the Empire state. Justices passed up a chance to hear the appeal of a Tennessee computer programmer who claimed that New York's tax law is unconstitutional. Thomas Huckaby had been ordered to pay New York income tax for his full salary, not just the time he spent at the New York offices of the union for which he worked. He lived 900 miles away in Nashville.

Heidi Hess has spent $578 to build her desktop computer, $50 a month for high-speed Internet service, about $20 for a headset and $30 for a business phone line with unlimited long-distance. That investment is half what it would have been several years ago when technology costs were higher, Ms. Hess said from her home office in Plano, where she performs contract call center duties. - SNIP - The growth of broadband Internet service in the home has helped drive the number of contract telecommuters to 16.5 million in 2004 from 9.2 million in 2001, the Dieringer Research Group Inc....