Civil Service - Post Lockdown - Blended Working?

No.

Sorry Wench just rereading some of the posts. Im not single scheme. I'm post 2004 but pre 2013. My bad.

I'm amazed that the unions have been so quiet about the pension levy. There seems to be no real talk of getting this back, but it is certainly a good target to go after.

How would removal of flexitime help you? You know it doesn't affect the total hours worked by staff, right?

Most sensible employers have moved on from the macho presenteeism BS that you seem to be pushing.

In complete agreeance here and apologies I should have had the foresight to mention that. The only reason I mentioned childcare and caring duties was it was the two most cited to myself. Yes the commute if its shorter is a lot better than when it does not have to be done. Gives you more time to yourself to spend doing whatever you wish. That quality of life is priceless nowdays. I do welcome the bringing back of flexi. Hope it is sometime soon.

I would think so, maybe something like 1 day in February and up to two in March.

What do we think now after the grand reopening just announced?! Be an interesting few weeks. My missus works as a new case officer in DSP and is loving it but it's all been remote so far. She's hoping it'll continue at least 3 days WFH. My own EO role isn't paper based or customer facing so I'm hoping management will allow us to remain flexible. I have two hours extra per day and my local coffee shop sees far more of me for lunch so win win.

I'd guess that there are some people working furiously on some urgent updates to guidance as we speak.

I dont want to work a full 5 days in the office. The last 2 years have showed that I dont need to be in the office to do the work I do. I really hope we dont end up in a situation where we HAVE to go back just to have bodies on seats. I honestly only want to do 2 days a week in the office max and a lot of my colleagues are the same. We have taken on a lot of new staff in my area over the last 2 years and a good number of them are living in places where a daily commute would not be of interest to them due to the long travel time involved. The Civil Service is going to have to move with the times and incorporate wfh into any competitions they advertise if they want to get good quality staff. I totally get that wfh isnt for everybody but the vast majority would like to continue it in some form.

Id seriously considering leaving the CS and going for another job if they start to want to bring us in 3/4 days a week.

I don't know about the talent management argument here. If I was a slacker who did as little as possible, and knew I would have to work 3-4 days a week in the office versus another role where I can work 3-4 days at home, I would go for the home option every time as it's far easier to do. So lower "talent" would not be attracted by significant time on-site. A lot of people choose the C because they are committed to the nature of the work regardless, so some high performers will still choose the CS (though I agree, a lot less probably) even if it was full time in the office.

I do think full time or 4 days a week remote will be the career choice of less hard working individuals, as it's easier to get away with things remotely. That's absolutely not to say lots of people working fully remote don't work just as hard as (or even harder than) in the office - I am just pointing out that low performers will definitely gravitate towards as much remote as possible imo

That's the problem with having a manager who doesn't know how to manage and deal remotely with people who aren't doing the work.

Manager has now decided we all need to be micromanaged and timed.

I heard 3 days aswell of which 1 of those has to be all members of you're unit/section.

Useless managers. Spot on. There’s quite a few in my place walking around since Friday evening with a horn on them that would beat a donkey out of a quarry.

What do you call a manager who goes to work early, goes home late and works weekends.

A lazy bastard.

This is measuring productivity solely by time in seat. Which implies a lack of meaningful real productivity metrics, output etc. More over no desire to have any. Also a desire to waste lots of time commuting. It's using time as inefficiently as possible.

It's painting a picture but not the one you think it is.

I got an email the other day internally saying that despite the new restrictions, the previous plan of a return in March is still in place. It's 5 days in the office or 3 days in the office. I'll do the 3 in the office. I'm not in a public-facing role and I started completely WFT and it's going well. I've a fair bit of a commute which I won't love. I cook and tidy up more when I'm not sitting on public transport. We have flexibility of hours so on the rare time I need a GP appointment or a cut at the barbers, I can do it. I'd like to keep some of that.