Three-quarters of Travis County employees to work from home for good

[TexasTowelie]

The Travis County Commissioners Court is moving ahead with an unprecedented initiative to dramatically increase the number of county teleworkers, with the lofty goal of having 75 percent of county employees permanently working from home. In June, the county hired Deloitte Consulting to help smooth the process.

Travis County Human Resources Director Shannon Weidauer delivered the update to commissioners.

“As you may recall, we kicked off this effort with the ambition of the court to enable 75 percent of eligible employees to telework on a permanent basis,” Weidauer said. “The early stages are already indicating that, yes, our productivity has not decreased and in some areas is in fact increasing. So we’re going to need to take more of a deeper dive as our journey in this adaptive workplace continues.”

The county says it has already saved $1.3 million on utilities, its largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, emissions from employee commutes – the county’s second largest carbon output source – have been cut by 30 percent.

Read more: https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2021/09/three-quarters-of-county-employees-to-work-from-home-for-good/

[SWBTATTReg]

1. A good idea, as long as folks don't abuse it, and actually work. One of the pitfalls of working at

home was some did not, in fact, work as they should have. My company did such a thing but we were an IT shop, so it was a natural move for us to do so, so many of us in IT worked odd hours overnight to implement new code, etc. and during the day, supported online applications etc.

Another pitfall was the working too much, ironic as it sounds...one must turn off things when a shift is over with, it can consume too much time vs. being physically at an office vs. being at home...

[TexasTowelie]

2. I avoided that situation about 15 years ago.

My employer kept encouraging me to get Internet service at home so that I would be available to work around the clock. I was already working between 50 and 60 hours a week so the last thing I wanted was to be "on call" 24/7.

I was blunt with my employer and asked them if they were willing to pay the bill for my Internet service since I didn't have it at the time and I was also under a tight budget. They refused to pay the bill so I refused to volunteer what remaining free time I had to the company.

[Javaman]

5. smart move. :) mt

[Javaman]

4. completely agree with the turning off of things when shift is done.

when the pandemic first started, I noticed a massive uptick in people whom I work with, working more. and given the nature of my job, that meant, I had to work that much more and was putting in massive OT, which was a good/bad thing. good because I was making huge bucks, very bad because it was directly effecting my health.

finally, I couldn't take it anymore and would just shut it down at 5 and have a life again. they would just have to wait till the next day.

[Javaman]

3. this will be very interesting regarding county buildings and their use.

much of that space will probably be sourced out.

would could be more revenue for the county or a massive savings if they close the buildings not needed