Civil Service - Post Lockdown - Blended Working?

I can understand that some people want to be back in the office for various reasons such as those who are renting and may not have an adequate set up, like the social interaction and being in town so they can head to the pub after work etc. The few times that I used to go in were just to have a long lunch with some of the team, but given 3/4 of my team work in other European countries and the states, it's not like I can physically interact with them in an office anyway.

It also means that local businesses receive the money that I would otherwise spend in Dublin. When I used to have to go to the office daily, I did my shopping including food in the nearest places to the office and only used the local shops for items that might have been forgotten or need at the last minute for a meal. Same as eating out in restaurants, going to the cinema etc all done in Dublin on a Friday night, because I was already there and the missus could drive up and drive us home afterwards. Since I've been working from home over the last five years or more, we now do all these activities in the closest local towns to us.

There are other long term benefits to blended working for those that can do it, for both the employees and the employer. These include increased staff morale and improved productivity, better physical and mental health, reduced expenses and environmental benefits amongst others shown in multiple studies around blended working for those that want to cite them to their union representatives and push them on blended working become the norm.

It won't be popular with some people in the general public, but given some people just have a bee in their bonnet because they either failed to get a job with ye or just swallowed the whole U.S. based libertarian economics bs, and will complain about ye even having jobs in the first place, so ye might as well fight for something that has benefits both for you, your families and your local communities among others.

Blended working isn't going to be possible for people like my wife who due to the very nature of their work simply cannot do it from home. She does however see the benefit of it being in place for others and wouldn't begrudge them it, as she does the job she does because she loves it. I would however like to see additional benefits either financial or additional statutory leave given to those in both the private and public sector who simply cannot do their job from home.

Such a practice is in place where a friend of mine works. Their field service engineers have to travel to customer sites and cannot work from an office never mind from home. So they get an additional five days annual leave compared to the office based staff, and given that they have at times to do twelve hour plus days due to travel time to and from customer sites, can head home but be on call until four o'clock on days they manage to get their calls finished early.

I believe most departments have staff back in the office at least one day a week (mandatory), including Health. My dept were planning to increase the number of days in November, but due to increasing case numbers it was decided to continue the "cautious" approach for now.

However, the decision taken by Department of Health to tell its staff to return to working from home full time indefinitely in response to rising case numbers, may change this.

Department of Health staff told to work from home indefinitely (irishexaminer.com)

It will be interesting to see if anything changes now, that Health have pulled back.

DPER and the Unions are currently in negotiation on the framework that all Departments must work within. That framework is due to be delivered this month, and Departments have been instructed to have their blended working policy in place by Q2, 2022.