Civil Service - Post Lockdown - Blended Working?

will the Great Reshuffle make it to Ireland? Job-seekers want work-life balance. Heard some accountants are moving out of Dublin requesting WFH.

this sudden return is the push we need to kick up!

You're saying public servants WFH is why you were on hold for 52 minutes and people are pointing out that the elements of the private sector have always been like that?

I think it is actually your interpretation of what I said is the problem and quite honestly your defensive responses speak volumes so over and out for me on this topic as its obviously a very sensitive subject for some !!!

They just corrected you. Let it go.

Yeah that's gone very quiet. Recommendation was meant to be passed to government weeks ago.

It will eventually be 3 days in and 2 at home. That's the rumours I'm hearing in terms of the Civil Service wide policy.

Hybrid isn't just people who moved out of Dublin. Its for people in Dublin who want to work from home some of the time.

Childcare is still needed 5 days a week though even if you are only working 2 days (or none) in the office, so it's not really a relevant argument in making a case for full remote working imo

Well everything is for people in Dublin in fairness 😂

God forbid da culchies down the country get a leg up and can work in their own country without having to think about emigrating. Won’t be long anyway til the country is run by foreign vulture funds. we can’t even house our nurses and doctors and public servants.

Yes but the Government can do something about it. By letting their staff WFH where possible. Not just two days a week WFH which is ideal for the dubs to get the washing done etc. or an easy Monday. But more so three days WFH at least to entice staff to commute from outside the Pale. It would be easier to say that to the public than the two days to clear the head around the weekend. Just seems a more valid reason for the country. Officials get train up and stay in hotel one night to attend scheduled meetings. Sounds progressive. More like something I’d hear on the continent.

For a country hugely dependent on attracting foreign talent in every sector, how can we do that if Dublin is overrun with “pencil pushers” for the most part who could do their (valuable) work from home in many cases.

I had a service issue recently with a public sector organisation. What I was told was that there was some re deployment to focus on certain Covid related supports which was the priority. The re adjustment period has not fully happened. Not WFH related just the area now is short staffed and also anecdotally people are catching up on leave.

Fully agree.

The thing about WFH and COVID is a lot of places have had to rapidly change direction. Paper based system to computer and online systems. Often instantly supply hardware and software and train and support staff in this new world. There may have been a sudden and massive business demand in a new area, that you have no experience or procedures in place. All of this has constantly changed over the last two years. Its going to have an impact on service with finite resource's.

Oh, definitely. I mean, if one of my team members, say, has a kid with a half-day on Wednesdays and so can they use that as one of their WFH days, then I'm gonna say sure, no problem 99% of the time (depending on the requirements of the job and the rest of the team, obviously). As long as there's cover and the work is being done, then why not facilitate people?

I'm more just speculating about Avenger's scenario - which I think is realistic enough - where The Powers That Be decide 'right, it makes sense to bring everyone into the office on the same two days to facilitate face-to-face meetings' and that's their only consideration.

When I worked in the PS (not civil) my office location was specifically at a fixed location with discretion to move you as needed be. Actually that worked in my favour a few times as I got travel allowance for work in another office (35+ km away) where they stuck me for a few months. So I’d say most people’s contracts are still similar