The recent blizzards hitting the Eastern parts of our country led to shutdowns of federal operations in and around DC, Baltimore, and other major government centers. Thousands of federal employees were told to stay at home. Hooray, snow day! But wait a minute. Most of these folks, I would bet, have a computer, Internet connection, and telephone in their house. The government should realize natural and other disasters will from time to time make commuting to the megalith office blocks of the bureaucracy impossible, but why can’t most government workers just telecommute?

There are two principal reasons for this obvious solution not being embraced and implemented. The first is culture. An office-based culture finds it hard to define work as anything that can happen outside the four walls of the building. Work is both a job and a place. But large corporations and nonprofits of all sizes have long embraced this cultural change, enabling people to work from home or the road. The government can do it too.

The second reason is technology. Many government departments have old computer systems and high security concerns, which makes logging in remotely difficult, if not impossible. It is time for those system to be upgraded, allowing our public servants to do their work, without necessarily commuting, and even during a blizzard.

Does your organization have a “snowmaggedon” plan that the Feds could learn from?  How would your organization continue to provide vital services in the face of a commuting disaster?

Tags: government, innovation, Nonprofit Sector, Public sector, technology, Trends

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Assorted Musings, Organizational Effectiveness, Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.