The Obama administration is encouraging federal workers to hold regular meetings during the workday to "talk about more than just work," which could include topics like what their favorite books are, or what tattoo they might get.

The Office of Personnel Management dispensed that advice on Monday as a way to boost "employee engagement" among a federal workforce that doesn't work in one central location.

"When your employees don't work in the same building as you do, creating an engaged workforce can seem even more challenging," wrote Rebecca Ayers, manager of OPM's Performance Management Solutions, in a blog post. "As more and more of our colleagues telework or work remotely, it's even more important that we find ways to make them fully included partners in the work we do every day."

To get there, OPM said federal workers should hold "regular meetings" in which people should talk about whatever they want.

"For example, on my team, we have the question of the week and each week a different team member picks it," Ayers wrote. "We've had questions ranging from where would you take your next road trip, to book club book recommendations to if you had to get a tattoo what would it be.

"This helps the team to get to know each other better, even though they are not sitting in the same office," she added. "Anything we can do increase that personal connection helps make our remote workforce feel even more a part of the team and even more effective."

Ayers also encouraged federal workers to use all sorts of communications tools to stay in touch with each other.

To further stress the point, OPM will host a telephone call Tuesday on the topic of "engaging a remote workforce." All federal workers are invited to get on the call, which will take place Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. during work hours.