No founder, organizing body, or first observance could be documented for the American day on the last Thursday in June. The United Kingdom has a separate day of the same name, which Work Wise UK has run inside its Work Wise Week and placed in May: the organization's own website announced Friday May 5, 2006 as that day, and later named Friday 20 May 2022. Those British records document a different observance in a different country and month, and are not evidence for the American date.
CHAPTER 01
Washington got there first
Telework in the United States has a paper trail, and it runs through federal law rather than through any calendar. In 1996 Congress permitted the General Services Administration to set up telecommuting centers, according to the Office of Personnel Management's own legislative history. Four years later it went further, requiring every executive agency to establish a telecommuting policy for eligible employees.
The Telework Enhancement Act, signed on December 9, 2010, made that duty explicit. Its text requires the head of each executive agency to establish and implement a policy under which employees are authorized to telework. The statute predates the pandemic by a decade.
