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Changes in Exminers' Hoteling Rules

Hoteling is the program that allows examiners to do their work from home. It is a great benefit for examiners who take advantage of it. It helps out the Office as well, most obviously by freeing up a whole lot of office space on site. This winter, during DC's 'Snowmageddon' versions I and II, it proved a great benefit as hotelers worked throughout the snowstorms, while those working on-site were not able to make it in and lost many days worth of work.

One of the shortcomings of hoteling has been the fact that although examiners are working from home, their duty station have always still been at the PTO, which means that they are required to report to the Office twice a bi-week, thus keeping them 'tethered' to the Alexandria campus.

Earlier this month, POPA and management signed an agreement to allow hoteling examiners to change their duty stations to their home office. This benefit is limited, however, to examiners living within a 50 mile radius of the Office.

While examiners who elect to take advantage of this program are still required to report to Headquarters to fulfill other duties, and (depending where their home office is) they may end up foregoing locality pay, they will no longer be required to report to the Office twice each bi-week. That a big convenience for examiners.

The announcement of this agreement has been surprisingly low-key. The examining corps finally got an email last week, with only a general outline of the agreement and the promise of additional details to come. POPA has more details on their website.

Full post as published by Just a Patent Examiner on March 22, 2010 (boomark / email).