Civil Service - Post Lockdown - Blended Working?

It's a mainstream government department.

I can tell you one of the people that left had a technical background and he felt his qualifications weren't be used appropriately so he left for a company that wanted someone with his particular skillset. (I think he would have left anyway, eventually).

Two of the admins grades - one had bought a house down the country during covid and wasn't prepared to commute two days a week to Dublin. In fairness, they were open about it, and from the start said if they were required to return to the office any more than once or twice a month they'd leave, and they were good to their word. The other was on a contract and declined an extension as they said they needed a job that paid more money.

The absorbing the work situation usually occurs in the private sector when a company thinks it has a monopoly or are killing off a product that they can no longer cash cow and they can afford the bad customer service experience and exposure.

I have seen your later posts and the reasons behind their leaving. I guess it is a balancing act between those whose roles can be done from home and those who need to be in front of a customer or in the case of the likes of Customs and Revenue out doing physical inspections and the fact that ye have the same level of pay based on grades regardless of the actual role itself.

Personally for the likes of Revenue if I can't get an answer through the site, I don't care if the person on the phone is at home or in an office. Quite often when people are in an office answering customer queries there is more background noise from their colleagues talking to other customers and each other than when they are at home.

@DubInMeath

To clarify, the person who left over pay, said one of the main factors for them was renting costs in Dublin. If they could have remote worked, then they could have rented anywhere, but working 2/3 days a week from the office meant renting in or close to Dublin.

A lot of the more junior grades (and single people) who moved outside of Dublin during the pandemic are reporting the same back to the Lead Worker Reps. There is a lot of anger and frustration about having to return to Dublin offices and a lot saying they cannot find suitable / affordable accommodation.

Well, thats what happened after the clusterfcuk that was decentralisation, so I'm not expecting anything very different this time. We just trained up new staff (as we got them) and got on with it as best we could. I'm expecting to see a huge jump in numbers applying for mobility.

As an aside, being senior does not automatically make someone clueless or uncaring about younger, less senior staff. And dinosaurs (like myself) are equally run off our feet, don't forget (and have been working our asses off in the most challenging times for the last two years).

I think thats why my supervisor is not pushing us to go in. They know that we're more productive from home, and we're short staffed as it is.

There is method to their madness.

(Also four colleagues who did attend the office last week, have now tested positive for covid!!)