Federal Showdown... Two recent Dispatches -- Work: Something You Do. Not Someplace You Go. (July 13) and Will Women Drive Office Demand? (July 1) -- highlighted efforts to re-think the corporate workspace. But, as Vic Voinovich at WorkSpace Dimensions in Cleveland, OH, reminded me, the federal government lags behind the private sector in addressing the issues of telecommuting and alternative officing.

So much so that "Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), who chairs an Appropriations subcommittee, has signaled that agencies under his jurisdiction, such as the Commerce, Justice and State departments, will face budget cuts in fiscal 2005 if they do not bolster their telecommuting programs." (Washington Post, July 9, 2004)

According to the Post article, "Four years ago, Congress...approved legislation that directed agencies to provide telecommuting opportunities to 100 percent of their eligible employees. But the percentage of eligible employees who are telecommuters has been stuck at about 14 percent for the last two years."

In our post 9/11environment, telecommuting might make governmental services less susceptible to disruption in the case of a disaster. But the traditional benefits cited are less traffic congestion, reduced pollution and increased quality of life for families able to spend more time together.

Wow, sounds easy. But it's not. Just read the Telecommuting Policy for the U.S. House of Representatives with its range of issues -- legal, security, technology, supervision, insurance. And you realize that the workplace and cultural changes required by telecommuting will take years to solve.

--Peter Pike