Civil Service - Post Lockdown - Blended Working?

I was lucky in hindsight I got out when I did. Only reason I left was my contracts had ended at the height of the crash and they were cutting numbers. Didn’t seem it at the time but best thing to ever happen me. I did struggle for a while to get into the private sector as there’s a definite prejudice against ex public service people. I think I’d have been completely institutionalised (can happen in private too)

I suppose for me I have 25 years in transport management and a post grad in IT with experience.

The Cs suits me and I'm hoping for mobility soon to where I'm living. 5 days in the office wouldn't be a killer for me then.i could cycle to work.

Your misquoting. I'm not the one 3 hours from work.

Did people really move 100's of km's away from their place of work based on being told to WFH during a once in a lifetime pandemic? It seems to be really shortsighted by them. Again not really the depts fault or problem.

So our department sent out a survey yesterday on blended working.

"Please note that fully remote working arrangements are not on offer under the DPER Blended Working Framework."

So it would appear to be a max of 3 days WFH, as also stated in the survey.

Link to the publication from July 2021.

I know not all departments will follow, but I know a few that will just do what DPER does.

I voted against the merger because I knew our interests would count for fcuk-all in such a mega-union, and so it has proved. I used to be on the branch committee, went to conferences etc. Couldn't be arsed to 'attend' the virtual branch AGM this year or last year, and they can't be arsed to tell us from one year to the next what motions were passed (for all the good that does) and what action 🤣 was taken on them. Fuckwits.

When I was an EO we had an AP who insisted on the whole "print it out, attach it to the file, send the file up to my office, I add commas in biro, repeat" process. And there was a typing pool office next door to our office! Only two typists left by then I think and feck knows what they actually did all day because everyone else was using Word and (internal only) email. By the end of my year there he'd finally been converted to using email and Word to approve drafts of letters going out.

This was the late 90s though!

I am hoping the opposite- 3 at home 2 to n office

Sorry, by "all agreed" I meant all those who responded agreed that the "return 1 day a week to the office" was what they'd been told to do, not that it had been agreed with management/unions.

Would be nice. We can all hope 😊

Ours certainly didn't. Over 90% responded that they'd favour WFH or blended with just one or two days per week in the office.

It was never mentioned again and we kept getting emails from the top about how everyone is looking forward to returning to the office.

I have empathy for your situation but if you are looking after someone full time then you aren't in a position to carry out you duties. WFH was never going to happen full time. The best we could hope full was 3 days at home and 2 in the office. At local level I think most managers will facilitate that unless the staff member is being totally unreasonable or inflexible.

All I can say is your experience of the civil service does not match mine, and I've been in it for 25+ years, working in three departments and three other CS organisations. Yes, 25 years ago, there were typing pools and red biros. And in the last 25 years they've all disappeared. The only "memo" I've written in ten years was to let an A/Sec know that the six-figure invoice they were being asked to sign off on was legit, and I don't think that's unreasonable! Ironically, the one place I've worked that produced the most paper was because most of the staff there weren't career civil servants, they were recruited from the private sector.

It looks like you have managed to end up in one of the few places that's still fairly archaic, though. If someone doesn't know how to use email efficiently - show them! Or if it's winding you up that much - use the mobility system, and look for a transfer!

Fair point. I worked in Revenue years ago and although it was old-fashioned in some respects (deference to tax inspectors and the like), it transformed completely over the course of a few years. Early adopters of decent IT systems and changes to bring in greater efficiency that actually worked, rather than change for the sake of it.