Civil Service - Post Lockdown - Blended Working?

I have a commute of over two hours every day. I work in IT in the service and it is costing me €20 euro a day to come into work.

Yes I know it was my decision to live that far away from my work place. Where it was one of those things that you did before COVID. But when you can do two and half years at home and be more productive. Why do I need to be in the office? It has opened a lot of people's eyes.

In our section there is about 20 staff. And 75% of them are going through the interview/application process to get out of the section.

The reason being we are officially one day WFH. The management are so short sighted they don't see that people are so peed off working in the office with everything that it involves. That they are going to loose so many skilled people. And even then they still think they are doing a good job.

I am at the interview stage for a new role. I wouldn't have looked for the new role only for the policy and the way the whole situation was handled in my department.

They don't want people WFH so they offer one day and make the policy and form that needs to be completed when applying for WFH as long and tedious in the hope that people won't apply for WFH.

I am curious after following this for a while I feel like most people prefer WFH but is there anyone out there that hates it? I have never liked it no matter how hard I try feel like I am the only person that just hates it, I like to get up and get out of the house and have a routine, its really impacted my mental health over the last 2 years.

I'd be the same. Spent a year and a half working from home and it wasn't for me. Spending an extra 45 hours a week in the house had no appeal at all. Back in the office full time for the last year....much prefer the routine and the separation of work and home.

It is not the NSSO application form. But hey you keep on making assumptions. It is a local form within the department.

Some of the key Departments haven't published/agreed their policies yet.

As an aside, I've also heard of some organisations asking staff to jump through a fair few hoops to ensure the right facilities are in place at home to ensure the work station is safe etc., but at the same time offering nothing in terms of provision of necessary equipment etc. All heavily weighted in the employer's favour.

A lot of sense in this post, balance is key.

For me the writing is on the wall when a Department starts engaging with staff regarding ergonomic risk assessments for the first time about 18 months into the pandemic when they wanted people to start coming back to the office, especially when they don't do those assessments for the Departmental work spaces (at least not at an individual level anyway).

Departments could also use more supportive language to set out that they'll work will staff to ensure that they'll work with people to try and ensure that people have the right tools to be productive and safe wherever they're working, and to ensure business needs are met and achieved. But instead you're getting asked to fill in some form and apply for something you've had for the guts of three years.

I find the whole thing fairly deflating. I think people are starting to gravitate towards the organisations, and the managers within organisations, who are a bit more progressive.

Yeah we had none of that support for equipment. A few months into the pandemic people were invited to call into work to collect the chair or screen they were using and bring it home, which was about the height of it.

So, September is here and the blended working pilots have begun at this stage or will begin next week for most departments and offices I think. The cabinet is meeting today to discuss energy and fuel saving measures to be adopted in all publicly owned buildings. What are the chances they'll consider not needlessly forcing staff back to long daily commutes, burning large volumes of expensive and polluting petrol and diesel, when it has been proven over the last two and a half years that a lot of this work can be carried out efficiently and to a high standard at home. Personally, I have no complaints about the levels of attendance expected in my unit, but from some of the comments in this thread, it's obvious that a lot of offices and departments are forcing people back for no good reason. But I suspect the answer to my question is, slim to none.

Hi, still waiting on the dept of Education policy re wfh and flexi. Anyone have any insight?

DECC also

Hi All! I have just stumbled across this thread & I am hoping someone here can advise! I recently applied for Revenue AO (Audit & Compliance) position. I have also applied for EO Position via PAS (hoping for Rev Comm but I have not heard anything back on this yet!). I am just wondering if anyone here can advise on the current work situation at Revenue? Do most Revenue depts (or specifically EO & AO's) still work from home? Or If blended, is there generally a minimum amount of days required in the office? .. I currently work remotely & have absolutely no desire to ever return to an office 5 days a week! Looking back now it was soul destroying & ridiculous driving in just to look at a computer screen! I certainly value my time with family a lot more since Intro of WFH!!!