An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home : Media : News : News Article View
NEWS | Sept. 22, 2020

DOD Personnel Prove Productive, Resilient During Pandemic

By xxxDAVID VERGUN DOD NEWS

WASHINGTON -- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of Defense Department personnel have been teleworking and successfully continuing the mission, the DOD's chief management officer said.

Lisa W. Hershman spoke Wednesday with Troy Schneider, the editor-in-chief of "Federal Computer Week" magazine.

Hershman used the example of the Pentagon to illustrate the department as a whole. She said that when she arrived in April 2018, people in the building said telework for the majority of workers couldn't be done. This was a big change from the company that she ran where the entire company worked remotely on Fridays, she said.

"Believe it or not, Fridays were our most productive days," Hershman added.

"And when I came on board and I said, 'What's your teleworking policy?' They looked at me kind of funny and said, 'We don't do that here,'" she said.

The reason for not teleworking, Hershman said she was told, was because of the large amount of classified work performed in the building.

That was an understandable and reasonable response but then things dramatically changed with the pandemic, she said.

In the early days of the pandemic, the daily average of employees physically working at the Pentagon went from over 24,000 people to 5,300, about a 17 percent occupancy rate, she said. "It felt like a ghost town."

Hershman credited the department's information technologists with securing the necessary equipment and connectivity which enabled the workers to continue the mission.

Transitioning to remote work also has a cultural component, she said. In the department, as in the private sector, there are visionary leaders who want to improve their businesses and are focused on driving change for the better. Then there are others who are maybe a bit more reluctant to do things like working remotely.

Hershman provided some examples of how working remotely has been a driving force of change for the better.

When the department was looking at how it manages medical care, before the pandemic, there was a telemedicine infrastructure in place but it wasn't accessed very regularly. That changed and now it is being utilized more often, she said.

The department looked at a variety of metrics on productivity and found that many personnel were more productive working remotely, she said. "So we called them and said, 'Look, your numbers are phenomenal. What's different?' They said, 'I'm not constantly interrupted by phone calls and people knocking on the door and coming in, and so that's been very helpful.'" She added that for others, elimination of the long commute resulted in time saved and a decrease in fatigue.

Hershman mentioned that while unclassified work could for the most part be done outside the building, classified work still needed to be done inside.

"We've got to make sure that telework is accessible to all," she said. "There are some positions in the federal government that require 100% access to classified systems. So for those [who] do not have as much of that demand for continuous access to special systems or special equipment, supervisors need to consider that when implementing some of their routine remote working opportunities."

The department is now looking at position descriptions, performance metrics, IT system requirements and other factors such as level of security clearances needed for different types of work, in order to make teleworking a more available option, she said.
CONNECT WITH USINDOPACOM
Facebook

Like Us
X
363,188
Follow Us

ENGAGE & CONNECT MORE WITH PACOM

                                                 

IN THE USINDOPACOM NEWS
The Pentagon Transfers Authority to the Navy to Ensure the Safe Closure of Red Hill
Graphic intended for use as a placeholder for Statements and Press Releases without accompanying imagery.
March 28, 2024 - The Department of Defense announced today that the Joint Task Force-Red Hill has completed its defueling mission at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawai’i and shifted command and control of the facility to the...

U.S. Marines, Sailors arrive in Darwin for 13th iteration of MRF-D
U.S. Marine Corps Col. Brian Mulvihill, right, the commanding officer of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin 24.3, shakes hands with Royal Australian Navy Capt. Mitchell Livingstone, the commanding officer of Headquarters Northern Command at Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin, NT, Australia, March 24, 2024. MRF-D 24.3 is part of an annual six-month rotational deployment to enhance interoperability with the Australian Defence Force and Allies and partners and provide a forward-postured crisis response force in the Indo-Pacific. Mulvihill is a native of New York. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Cristian L. Bestul)
March 28, 2024 - A new group of Marines and Sailors arrived in the Northern Territory to begin the 13th annual iteration of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin...

Readout of Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III's Call with Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr.
Graphic intended for use as a placeholder for Statements and Press Releases without accompanying imagery.
March 27, 2024 - Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder provided the following readout...

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Lindsey Ford Concludes Visit to Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines
Graphic intended for use as a placeholder for Statements and Press Releases without accompanying imagery.
March 27, 2024 - Department of Defense spokesperson Lt. Col. Martin Meiners provided the following readout...

DIU Partners With AUKUS Pillar II for International Prize Challenge
Graphic intended for use as a placeholder for Statements and Press Releases without accompanying imagery.
March 26, 2024 - The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is launching the first trilateral prize challenge through AUKUS Pillar II— a defense and security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (U.S.)— to...