Civil Service - Post Lockdown - Blended Working?

There are genuine costs in returning to the office. I have a 40min commute (no public transport available). I've been saving about €50 a week in fuel by working from home but that has long since been eaten up by increasing costs elsewhere thanks to the huge inflation we've seen.

Where am I going to get the extra €50 a week to pay for fuel? I can't take it from rent or bills. I'm going to be a lot poorer than I was pre Covid and so is everyone who has to commute.

That's not even getting into the mental health benefits of working from home or the drastically improved work/life balance.

We're starting to see that some employers/departments care and some just don't care.

Fórsa as useless as ever.

As I think I posted already, the longer it takes to introduce a hybrid policy, the more watered down that policy will be. The dinosaurs already have their feet wedged in the door (the door that Covid was keeping closed) with the "max 2 days remote" stuff. They will resent allowing any WFH and if people are working 2 days at home, 3 in the office, they will be on a mission looking for evidence of "underperformance" related to WFH. They may have to get creative but will manage it given enough effort.

The unions should be eviscerated over this but they won't be - people will continue to pay their sub "just in case" and will grumble about being told to get back to the office but that's all most will do.

Some top performers and those with other options will leave. The pool of people willing to take up positions in PS organisations will possibly shrink to those who live near to the office and mediocre performers. Hopefully people are copping on that the PS isn't the land of milk and honey and that the pension for new entrants is far from being a "gilt edged gold plated Rolls Royce" pension as per the gutter press.

We've seen what happened in the HSE with hundreds of unfilled positions, especially in rural locations (e.g. Kerry mental health services consultant position) The problem here is, as usual, the people in power and making decisions are not those affected by this.

DSP arranged a party to welcome staff back to office at end of month telling sections to meet up together. Were told it is cancelled today.

26 responses covering 15 different organisations so far, including 9 departments. I'll post the results tomorrow evening, see if we get more in the meantime.

In fairness there is alot of people that miss the social aspect of going to work. I know of colleagues who used to go on their tea break together and actually used to holiday as a group together also.

That'll be expensive, your NCB will have expired as they're only valid for 2 years from the last policy date!

74 responses in total.

46 from these Departments: DAFM, DECC, Defence, Education, DFA, Health, Housing, Justice, DSP, DTCAGSM, Finance, DETE, DFA, DFHERIS, DPER, DSP.

The rest came from agencies/offices/other: AGS (I'm presuming civilian), CSO, CSSO, NSSO, OPW, OSI, Prisons, Revenue, and the WRC. Two from local authorities but it wasn't specified which ones.

Where multiple replies came from the same department/office, generally they had the more or less the same responses, with a few discrepancies (outlined below).

Filled-in answers included:

• Been in the office for 3 days and WFH for 2 since the March 2020 & that's the plan indefinitely regardless of whatever the official policy may end up being
• No clarity - there's a vague notion that this is to be decided by local arrangement but that managers can generally offer their staff flexibility until there's a formal WFH policy agreed by DPER. Staff can return to full time working in the office should they wish. Long-term no staff can work remotely 100% of the time but blended working will be available for the majority of roles. Some staff are being told to come in to the office full time, some are to come in one day a week, some in two days a week and some haven't been told to come in at all yet. If staff transfer internally or are promoted internally they have to figure out their working arrangements with their new manager regardless of what was agreed in their previous role. Waiting for DPER to formalise WFH policy before developing DFIN policy. Flexitime still suspended for all staff, regardless of whether they are working in the office or remotely.
• Initially 2 days increasing to 3 in mid March with intention for full return which must occur before a blended policy is in place. (local authority)
• Must come in full time until there's a formal WFH policy (local authority)

The answers here point to poor communication internally within organisations. Where there were multiple responses from people working for the same employer, there were often different answers. E.g.:

• DAFM (6), people saying they have to come in 1 day a week; or 2 to 4 days a week until there's a policy; both categories saying it's a blanket policy.
• DECC (5), all agreed, 'continue on as before'
• Defence (1), 1 day a week
• Education (8), blanket policy, 1 day a week in the office, one person on 2-4 days/week
• Finance (1), see comment above
• DETE (4), 1 day a week, all agreed
• DFA (2), 1 day a week, all agreed
• Higher Ed (2), 1 day a week, 2-4 days a week, blanket policy
• DPER (1), 1 day a week, blanket policy
• DSP (8); a mixture! continue as before (4), 1 day a week (3), 2-4 days a week (1), with two saying it was a blanket policy, the rest saying it depended on unit
• Tourism (1): 1 day/week, blanket
• Revenue (13): 12 'continue as we are', 1 in 1 day a week and increasing soon, 1 in 2-4 days/week; most saying blanket policy, 2 saying it's dependent on division.

This one on COVID measures being introduced or already in place had the most discrepancies between people from the same organisation. 42% saying no special measures are in place at all. Where there are measures, "wear a mask when circulating" is by far the most common. The write-in 'other' responses included:

• This varies depending on the building the staff are working in. Wearing of masks recommended when moving around buildings but not enforced. No social distancing required.
• social distance gone, no masks except in public parts of building
• Face masks, distancing etc. are recommended (not "must", as far as I know)
• Must wear a mask when circulating, Must maintain social distancing/2 metres, Masks & social distancing as ticked above are not enforced and lots don't bother

Air quality monitors (they cost €50 to €80 retail) and HEPA filters (from €170 retail) are mentioned as being introduced by the CSO, DJustice, DETE, and nobody else.

And last one:

42% of us still don't know what employers' plans are (100% of employers don't know what their plans are?! 🤔 ) There is a lot of confusion here. Where there were multiple answers from people with the same employers, they were often contradictory. Where there was consistency, these were:

• DECC: majority expecting a policy in Q2
• Justice: 2/2 expecting a policy in Q2
• Revenue: majority don't know when a policy is expected, 5 expecting one in Q2

Interestingly,

• DSP: 4 don't know when a WFH policy will be introduced, 2 expect one in Q2, and 2 say there already is one!
• Prison Service: no policy being introduced.

My takeaway from this is we that don't communicate enough with our peers and colleagues; and probably our unions should be communicating more with staff across and within departments and offices.

Thanks to all who answered!

Did management actually use that kind of threatening language and approach with you? Christ. Were you previously based in Dublin but moved hone during the pandemic?

if you could find some kind of cheap accommodation in Dublin the day you were working in the office like a hostel or b&b?

Re: Good performers staying, I think there are various reasons and people can sleepwalk themselves into a rut. There appears to be very low staff turnover in PS organisations which outwardly seems like a good thing. Not so good if you consider that fear, institutionalisation and the "golden handcuffs" (pension) are factors IMO.

Private sector employment is IME very difficult to obtain after an extended stint in the public sector - a private employer would rather employ someone straight out of college rather than someone who they'd (rightly or wrongly) regard as an institutionalised, lazy as sin, professional tea drinker.

I've seen people in the PS who realised they were in a rut but it was an ok rut. They enjoyed the job and were performing well. The key factor was they were lucky to have one of the few good leaders as head of their dept. When that person left or retired and was replaced by someone with zero leadership skill, the house of cards collapsed. Those with the power to rectify the situation were completely apathetic - shur why would they do anything, they'll get the same pension either way.

As for the resistance to WFH - change is bad and a lot of problems in the PS relate to fear of looking foolish. We have offices, we can't be having staff WFH as we'll look stupid if the offices are under occupied. Get everyone back to their typewriters.

It is school-like too. There are plenty in the PS who went in straight after school and never left, their "management style" is like that of a teacher. Extremely patronising emails full of bold and underlined fonts directing people what to do. Insisting on printed memos for the smallest thing, then correcting small errors in these memos with underlining and red biro and sending them back to be redone.

As someone who has worked in the private sector and the public sector, I've come across shite managers and excellent managers and leaders in both. I've never come across the other situations you're describing, though, in 25+ years. Who has time for that?!

I was just about to write the same post, except for 20 years in my case. The scenarios outlined are unrecognisable to me.