The Telework Lesson We Keep Missing

 

I was glad to see that AFGE won its telework arbitration case against SSA. There are different philosophies on telework, and managing teams today is not what it used to be. I remember the world before the internet was everywhere. In the late 80s and early 90s, we played on unsafe playground equipment and thought nothing of it. I still have scars from the winter ice cutting my knees when the backlot flooded and turned into a makeshift rink. We did things together. We talked about the same cartoons, the same games, the same stories. It was a shared experience. Later, in college and in the workforce, working side by side with others was the norm. You learned by being around people. You built trust by showing up. That matters. It always will. As John Donne wrote, no man is an island. We are social creatures. We get better together. What some people miss is that connection does not disappear just because it moves online. It changes, but it does not vanish. Teams can still collaborate, solve problems, and build cohesion in a digital environment if they are led well. So why cut telework at SSA? First, it was about calling a bluff and managing external pressure. Congressman Robert Aderholt had been vocal about telework, arguing it was driving delays in service. Suspending telework addressed that concern directly. After the change, he reached out. I thanked him for raising the issue, and we had a brief, candid conversation about SSA operations and even Alabama football. That moment mattered. It showed responsiveness. Second, it was about training and cohesion. Sometimes you bring people together physically to reset expectations and rebuild habits. That does not mean remote work fails. It means leadership has to be intentional about when and how teams come together. Third, it was never meant to be permanent. The plan was always to reassess after 90 days and apply adjustments where needed. Telework is a tool, not a doctrine. You use it where it works, and you pull it back where it does not. Here is the part people overlook. High performance has never depended on location alone. Think about the Apollo 11 mission. The astronauts were not surrounded by every expert they needed. They relied on a distributed network of engineers, mathematicians, and scientists across the country. In a sense, that was telework. What made it succeed was clarity, discipline, and shared purpose. That is the real lesson. Telework versus in-person is the wrong fight. The real question is whether leadership knows how to build trust, set expectations, and measure performance in either environment. If you get that right, the rest follows. If you do not, it will fail no matter where people sit.