The happiest federal employees aren't necessarily teleworkers, but those who can telework but chose not to, says the Partnership for Public Service.

In a brief analysis dated March 7, the PPS examines data from the Office of Personnel's Management annual survey of the best places to work in the federal government. It finds that although regular or infrequent teleworkers have higher job satisfaction than employees who can't telework, the people with the highest overall job satisfaction score came from those employees who chose not to telework.

The analysis doesn't address the variable of the job category itself, however--whether the lower rate of job satisfaction among employees who can't telework might be due to the nature of their work.

The analysis did find only a relatively small difference among teleworkers and non-teleworkers in their confidence that their work related to agency goals and priorities, however.

"This suggests that concerns by some managers that teleworks can become disconnected from their agency mission may be overblown," the analysis states.

The paper also says that teleworkers rated their satisfaction with recognition for a good job done a full 15 points higher than non-teleworkers. That suggests that telework "may be a powerful and low-cost performance reward," the analysis adds.

For more:
- download the analysis (.pdf)

Related Articles:
OMB plummets in agency satisfaction rankings 
Study offers 10 tips for agency telework policies 
Report urges greater focus on fed retention