USPTO Attorney Testifies Before Congress on Telecommuting from His Home Office

USPTO attorney John Wilke dramatically made the point that Federal employees can and should telecommute.

Proponents say it is a good way to battle long commutes, and serves as a way to get and keep good workers. But just how successful has the effort to expand teleworking really been? A House committee found out from a fed who is living the “telework” life.

Meet John Wilke. He’s a trademark attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). Instead of doing his job on this morning, he’s testifying before the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia.

But he’s nowhere near the U.S. Capitol, or even in Washington, D.C.. Instead, he is testifying via telephone and a webcam hooked up to his government-issued laptop, his image displayed on a plasma screen in the hearing room.

“I’m participating in a USPTO pilot program,” he explains in his opening statement, “which allows employees to work from geographically remote locations. In my case, I work for the PTO from my home in Long Grove, Illinois, just north of Chicago. I’m testifying from my home office today, and this is my lovely basement here.” He solicits laughter from the lawmakers and spectators as he gestures to his basement behind him.

Wilke used to work for the PTO in the early 1980s, then went to the private sector for about 20 years. When he came back to the PTO, he first worked for about a year at the office here in D.C.

“And when I became eligible for the telework program,” he said, “I requested permission to work from my home here in Chicago. Fortunately, the office was able to accommodate that request.” He’s been working from his Illinois home since January of this year.

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