Telecommute is defined as that portion of teleworking that applies to the daily commute to and from work (JALA International, n.d.). Telework has been defined as any form of substitution of information technologies (telecommunications and computers) for work-related travel (JALA International, n.d.). The terms telework and telecommute are at times used interchangeably, and there are definitions for both.
Similarly, Senate Bill S.1000, The Telework Enhancement Act, was introduced in 2007 and requires agencies to create a telework policy for their specific agency and provide training to their employees-including managers-on utilizing telework (Holmes, 2008). The bill was passed by the House in June 2008, but has yet to be voted on by the Senate. 4106), co-sponsored by Representatives Danny Davis (D-IL) and John Sarbanes (D-MD), is intended to encourage federal agencies and employees to telecommuting, especially in the area of Continuity-of-Operations, commonly known as COOP (Walker, 2008). For instance, the Telework Improvement Act of 2007 (H.R.
Starting as far back as the year 2000, Congress mandated that agencies should "establish a policy under which eligible employees of the agency may participate in telecommuting to the maximum extent possible" (Office of Personnel Management, n.d.). The United States Congress has been actively involved in promoting telecommuting throughout the government. In total, the USPTO has 40.7 percent of its workforce in telecommuting arrangements (Byrne, 2007). Similarly, the "Patent Hoteling" program has 1,000 patent examiners participating in the telecommuting program. The "Trademark Work-at-Home" program has 86 percent of the total number of trademark attorneys working from their homes the majority of the week, and going into the office one day a week where they share office space. It has established two very successful telecommuting programs. For instance, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is recognized as a pioneer in the area of telecommuting. Some agencies have fully embraced telecommuting with positive results. The federal government has also made some significant progress in implementing telecommuting.
Sun Microsystems allows half its employees to work anywhere they want, and by so doing, estimates that it saves $300 million a year on real estate costs (Conlin, 2006). The tangible benefits of telecommuting are enormous. Similarly, 40 percent of IBM's workforce has no official office (Conlin, 2006). Within AT&T, one-third of the company's managers are not bound to a particular worksite (Conlin, 2006). This can be seen in such organizations as AT&T, IBM, and Sun Microsystems. This is due in part to organizations, both in the private sector as well as the public sector, using telecommuting to accomplish organizational goals and to affect the organization's "bottom-line" results. Telecommuting has gained considerable attention in recent years.
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