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178 9 WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY FOR FEDERAL CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES Kathleen Christensen, Matthew Weinshenker, and Blake Sisk When considering the relationship between the federal government and workplace flexibility, the typical approach is to focus on the government in its policymaking role, rather than on its role as employer. This is an oversight that needs to be rectified . Focusing only on its capacity to pass laws or issue regulations ignores another critical way in which the federal government influences the adoption and implementation of workplace flexibility in the United States, and that is through its role as employer. The federal government is the nation’s single largest employer (Congressional Budget Office [CBO] 2007). While the total civilian workforce in the United States totals 139 million workers, approximately 2.7 million of these workers are employed by the federal government as civilian employees, representing approximately 2 percent of the total U.S. workforce (CBO 2007, 1; Executive Office of the President 2008, table B-46; these numbers do not include the nearly one million Postal Service employees or the nearly 1.5 million military personnel). These federal civilian employees cover a wide range of responsibilities, working in more than eight hundred occupations in more than one hundred federal agencies. This chapter reviews the availability and utilization of different workplace flexibility policies for employees of federal agencies, because they are by far the largest share of the federal civilian workforce. (Policies and laws governing certain employees of the executive branch, Congress, and the judiciary, as well as military and postal personnel, will not be addressed here.) Over the last thirty-five years, the federal government, (and, to a lesser extent, state and local governments) has played an important role in approving, piloting, and implementing different forms of flexibility in its many agencies. The federal WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY FOR FEDERAL CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES 179 government was an early adopter of flexibility for its full-time employees, through its adoption of flextime, compressed workweeks, leave banks (which allow employees to donate paid leave to co-workers in need), and telecommuting. It also led the way in early initiatives for reduced hours or leaves. For example, in the early 1970s the federal government authorized the first federal pilot project on flextime, contemporaneously with efforts in the private sector (Olmsted and Smith 1994; Pierce et al. 1989). Furthermore, through well-designed and implemented pilot programs, the federal government has effectively institutionalized flexibility, by creating, in many federal agencies, workplace cultures in which flexibility is an accepted way of working. Yet, despite these advances, progress on flexibility within the federal government has been uneven. While leading the way with flextime, compressed workweeks, and telecommuting, the federal government has lagged behind the private sector in offering career-continuous part-time work, as well as other forms of flexibility (including phased retirement), specifically targeted to their aging workforce. Furthermore , it has not been able to ensure consistency in availability or implementation of flexibility across the different federal agencies or departments. Despite this unevenness, new hires of the federal government expressly value the flexibility offered them. New civilian federal hires rate flexibility as a critical factor in their decisions to pursue careers in this sector. According to a recent report to the president and Congress, new hires of all ages revealed a strong desire for job security and traditional benefits such as health insurance and retirement benefits (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 2008). But they also showed a nearly equal desire for more control over the hours and timing of work through time off (via sick days, vacations) and through flexible schedules and telecommuting. The desire for flexibility ranked substantially higher as a consideration in their decision making than did federal provision of childcare subsidies or facilities. Clearly, the provision of flexibility is much less costly than is the provision of dependent care subsidies or on-site childcare centers (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 2008). Federal Government as Early Adopter The characteristics of federal jobs, and of the individuals who fill them, have created unusually fertile conditions for the implementation of flexibility. The federal workforce is a highly skilled one. More than half of all federal civilian workers work in professional, managerial, and financial occupations compared to only 29 percent in the private sector (Partnership for Public Service [PPS] 2008, 3; see also CBO 2007). There is considerably less inequity between low-paid and high-paid positions in federal employment than in the private sector (Gornick and Jacobs 1998). Federal employees are also...

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