Civil Service - Post Lockdown - Blended Working?

The opw got a lot wrong with Miesian but they weren't the only ones who got thing wrong.

Do you need someone to explain to the difference between commuting costs and basic office provision costs for you? Employees were always responsible for their own commute - employer didn't care whether you were walking five minutes round the corner or driving for 2.5 hours from Roscommon. It was the employee's problem. Employer was always responsible for providing a safe work environment, appropriate furniture, heating the environment and powering the environment. That's the difference with WFH.

Employees have one chance to make sure that they're not lumbered with the basic costs of providing a safe place to work.

I've no idea which bits you are struggling to understand. Let me repeat again:

I don't expect my employer to pay my commuting costs. My employer has NEVER paid my commuting costs or anyone else's commuting costs. Commuting costs are the responsibility of the employee, and therefore savings in commuting costs are ALSO the benefit of the employee.

It's a preposterous idea that you could have three employees working on a team, one of whom is getting zero towards their out-of-pocket WFH costs because they used to walk or cycle to work, one of whom is getting €4 a day towards their out-of-pocket WFH costs because they used to get the Luas to work, and one of whom is getting €40 per day towards their out-of-pocket WFH costs because they used to drive from Roscommon to Dublin every day.

Commuting costs are the responsibility of the employee. Savings in commuting costs are the responsibility of the employee.

Out-of-pocket WFH costs like heating, power, broadband, furniture absolutely should be the responsibility of the employer, just like any other out of pocket costs necessarily during employment. Employment starts when you get to the door of your workplace. It doesn't include your commute.

Employees and trade unions have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure that savings in office accommodation costs aren't entirely snapped up by employers as additional profits, while employees are left carrying the can for providing extra space, power, heat, networking and furniture.

If the civil service wants to give me an allowance for having to be in the office 5 days a week, I would be open to that :)

Is this the thread for how you can make your cushy number even cushier?

You can just tell your employer that once the pandemic is over you want to work 5 days a week from the office. I know I'm happier with the time saving and the improved quality of life working from home rather than wasting the best part of 6 hours a week travelling to and from work.

Not in my office they aren't

Childcare is a necessity when WFH, and I would imagine future implementation of WFH will stipulate that it is in place.

During the lockdown we had people thrown into situations overnight, with their children on top of them. There was an understanding that the same amount of work wasn't going to get done by these people, which was completely fair.

Moving forward where the person might have an option to either work from home or in the office, their choice cannot allow for distraction which impacts productivity. This won't be the same as being forced to WFH. If you decide to work from home, you cannot be spending that time looking after your children and if that is an inevitable consequence of you working from home, you should be in the office.

Yes, I would say in other areas it's harder to quantify output, and things like developing projects, growing an area and developing new services etc. are less easy to specifically call out in a way that the unions won't criticise / question.

We're looking at volunteers to the end of the year.and blended working by q2/2022

Not Been worked out yet, hence the need for volunteers. Number of staff in the building will be reduced I assume.

Im public service and one area in my workplace some staff have been asked to return to office 4 days a week from Monday. We have no union agreement re return to workplace but some managers seem to do what they please. Thankfully been referred to Union as that seems extreme

Do you mind saying which department you are with?

Public service and education but non front line or customer facing.

You can guarantee it won't be f/t WFH when the policy comes out in the New Year. For Dublin based staff they will want civil servants to return asap to support local businesses i.e coffee shops, pubs etc.

Wifey is in civil service. Is flexi gone?

yes sorry suspended while working from home and will remain suspended for us while we are blended. Only available if full time in office but that isnt an option for anyone in my workplace yet. Complicated I know. Thats what I meant in respect of buying your lunch or getting a coffee if you worked near shops etc. Possible with flexi maybe but not for me working set hours even if Im in the office.

Remove flexi then bring everyone back to the office.

Feels like people will be worse of than before.