We've been on the clock since March 2020
What an odd thing to say!
It does seem a bit nuts. How long before someone injures themselves at home and puts a claim in?
Absolute madness by the Government to allow hyrid working in the Civil Service. I can't believe they'd be so short-sighted. It's going to cause chaos in terms of Industrial Relations down the line when those that have to go into the office each day demand additional allowances and so on.
well the public dont come into the office but they'd be ringing us up. But we deal with a lot of sensitive documentation that cant go online and cant leave the building which is why the majority of us cant work from home.
Only the very few people who have been able to do their work from home are complaining about being in the office, the rest of us dont mind as we didnt get to see what the grass was like on the other side anyway. Work has been as normal
wow - we have always been clocking in. Just once a day since the sorted the tech but that was early last year.
Public office? I worked in a public office in my last department for a few years and they were all in as well for the most part from what I've heard from friends. My current office is not public facing so it's much easier for us to work from home. I suppose things like that will throw up the issue of fairness across the civil service in terms of blended working.
1 day a week from some date in September. 2 days a week some date in October, and we'll see how things go. Never had to clock in or out where I am.
Really nice to see some departments are getting a blended working option. We wont get it in our place because of the nature of the work we do. Its all hands on, in the office stuff and apart from the 3 weeks at the start in march/april 2020, we've been in the office ever since. I dont mind though. I like the routine of going into the office. I would find it very hard to separate work from home if I was working from home
us also.
We were clocking in and out the whole time working from home. Were other departments not doing that?
We've just been told we're back from 20th Sept one day a week and from 25th oct 2 days a week. Will also have to clock in and out if we are working from home
We are going one day a week in September and nobody knows what's next after that. Seems many departments are starting with one day a week in September.
I work in a small sub section of a team. I'm the only person assigned there so I mainly work on my own. One visit to the office per week is all I'd need but I imagine I'll be seeing more of the office than that. Not really too interested in seeing work colleagues despite department really pushing the mental health aspects of it in their address to staff.
That's a great approach - to allow those who actually need or prefer to be back in the office to get back there.
I heard one dept is looking for volunteers to go back and trial back to the office. Same dept is looking into blended working
Got an email with the title Transition, Adapt and Look Forward. My Dept is going to begin the process of bringing staff back to the office by the end of September. All teams will be working in the office together for one day a week. This may increase incrementally to two days in time, but public health compliance and our well-being is their priority.
It goes on to say that in common with other CS Depts, over the next few months, they will begin planning & preparing for the introduction of blended working in the first quarter of 2022. For roles that are identified suitable, blended working will involve a combination of working from the Department’s premises and working remotely.
Sounds promising, but the devil will be in the detail.
Our official consultative group has still not met yet!
Hadn't heard that about flexitime, that's interesting.
Nothing specific from my own place yet. Still think that this will be a big week in finding out the likely way the government will approach all this.
It does again seem that the government are pushing ahead with their "Return to Office" plan. Reading the independent today they stated "that office workers are expected to return to the workplace in phases from September 13. Government officials will work over the weekend to finalise a roadmap for reopening with set dates, with September 20 a key date for lifting of remaining restrictions."
It will be really interesting to see how much flexibility that may or may not be given to departments and their management as this whole thing unravels.
Anymore developments in various Departments? Just been told that we will be in one day per week by end of Sept and possibly two at end of October. I am hoping that there won't be a requirement for any greater levels of attendance, provided that work can be done remotely etc as part of the blended working policies being developed.
My Department isn't operating flexi at the moment.
But I heard through my Union last week that Dpers are in discussions with unions to do away with flexi completely as part of the blended return to work.
I wonder will how much will this comprehensive roadmap that the government are talking about publishing on the 31st of August affect the CS and there possible return to work. The Taoiseach did state in the news that it would include information on return to workplace and return to offices.
Its quite something that you assume just because you haven't seen it that most people will have heating is on.
Many homes now ( including my own ) run at a constant temp, regardless of if it is occupied or not. Plus in lot of other cases, one person is at home with kids etc.
I’d like to think we’ll have caught up on our health system back log, women will be able to have babies with their partners present, musicians will be allowed perform in front of crowds, etc, before we have to go to another room to use the laptop we’re using now from home.
Are some Departments operating Flexitime again or how is the above scenario viable?
Yes and Covid will remain endemic. After the delta variant we will have epsilon, eta, theta etc variants.
Most people are fully vaccinated now, but numbers are still going up.
Surely most people will be vaccinated by then? It shouldn't really be an issue going into the office.
Surely this Covid surge is going to end up affecting the September/October back-to-the-office plan.
You can control how much heating you use and your personal electricity too. You can even use a provider that is 100% green like SSE Airtricity. What you can’t do is find an alternative to a bus train or car if you live on the commuter belt and even if you can brave the traffic in a car good luck finding and paying for parking. Besides that the country needs this anyway. It’s not healthy or sustainable to have people spending 3+ hours every day commuting. Not good for family life, parents weren’t getting to see their kids at all. They were leaving for work before they were awake and returning when they had gone to bed. That is no way to exist. Secondly Dublin is not able for the volume of ppl and even if we could build all the homes we need over night the objectors would bring the whole thing to a halt. But more to the point some people have now seen the other side and want to move out. The government’s connected hubs.. our rural future and making remote work campaigns support all these sentiments. They can’t expect everyone to row in if they don’t themselves.
Of course I was referring to extra heat required for wfh which is what the article is about, normal household heating in the morning and the evening would be on regardless of anyone being in the house during the day so is not part of the equation
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