More information comes this week that telework, if not an unalloyed phenomenon for agencies, still on the balance promotes productivity and performance--and, surprisingly, not just for teleworkers themselves.

Specifically, the Merit Systems Protection Board released the results of a survey of 9,973 federal employees in occupational series generally appropriate for telework--i.e., employees not performing work that obviously requires their physical presence, such as law enforcement, lab work or facility maintenance.

The survey captures the breadth of reactions among supervisors and nonteleworkers, and finds that even among the latter category, more employees are likely to say that teleworking has had a positive impact on their organization than not.

That telework results in greater job satisfaction among those who actually perform it is, by now, well-established; what's particularly surprising is that the Merit Board survey finds telework having a positive impact for more people than not even if they don't do it.

The vast majority of nonteleworkers, admittedly, have a neutral rather than a positive or negative reaction. But if the survey is correct, telework appears to have spillover effects that reach beyond individual teleworkers--something I hope somebody soon explores further in a follow-up study.

As a committed teleworker of well-known humbleness myself, I also just hope my co-workers appreciate what I'm doing for them. - Dave