Civil servants told to spend more time in the office - Irish Times - Mod warning #526

But in the office everyone has to put in their time in. No picking up children, shopping etc while on the clock.

Delighted to see Forsa fighting this. We need a standardised approach to WFH across the Civil Service. 2 days a week in the office is enough.

It's also time to fully roll out Flexi time building from home. I've heard the Officer of the Comptroller and Auditor General even allows this and they are meant to be the goody two shoes of the Civil Service. If they think it's acceptable, it should be acceptable everywhere.

As a team leader myself, i have seen first hand a small minority of WFH people who abuse the system for their own benefits and this in turn creates mistrust in the system and disillusionment from those who do turn up to the office. From being non contactable for lengthy periods, these so called WFH individuals give the term a bad name and they have milked the system for almost 5 years now. Had numerous difficult conversations with a handful of direct reports about this. Being asked to go into "work" at least 50% of the time is not unreasonable - Pre Covid, WFH was a rare exception rather than the rule and that's the way it should be….

You see that's the problem. Managers won't do their job and manage. People who don't do a thing , won't be any different at home or work if not managed correctly.

I'm in the office full time and it doesn't bother me. Worked at home for 2 years full time and loved it. I'm as productive at home as in work

Being asked to go into "work" at least 50% of the time is not unreasonable

I disagree. As do most Civil Servants.

Pre Covid, WFH was a rare exception rather than the rule and that's the way it should be….

Before 1993 being gay was illegal. We don't stifle progress because of the way things used to be.

My own brother in law (and a Class A prick to boot!) is a principal officer in the civil service and is WFH 4 days a week - he is always boasting about how he gets his daily jog in, goes in and out of town to run errands during the day and does the school drops/ collections when he is WFH - it's guys like him that have created mistrust in the system 🤬

People who doss will do so at home and at the office.

Presenteeism is not the same as productivity. I went into the office 2 days in Q4, and those were probably my least productive days. I spent half of the day in meetings (at my desk, on zoom), and the other half having people talk at me at my desk or at coffee or at lunch. Got almost nothing done. And a 4 hour round trip to boot.

I was remote before covid and I'll remain the same. I simply will not take a non full remote job unless there are massive other benefits.

Can't see why sending civil servants into office more does anything except justify the existence of too many middle managers.

I'm VERY dubious about claims that WFH increases productivity. We discourage it for most staff, mainly because most of the work we do is collaborative, and we find that we just don't get the same quality of work when staff are not in the same place. We have overseas teams, but the key word is teams - they work in the same place as each other, just not the same place as us.

In terms of quantity of work, as opposed to quality, I find that the people who are diligent and hard working in the office, are diligent and hard working when working from home, and the reverse also applies - the people who are workshy, who miss days, and who rarely meet deadlines don't suddenly improve because they are at home - in fact, the good ones seem to stay good, but the bad ones get worse. I've no problem with people picking up kids from school, going for a walk, etc. when WFH, as long as they do these things at times that suits their work commitments. I've met employees in shops and cafes who are WFH during the work day, and have no issue at all as long as I know they're not missing a Teams call or whatever.

On the civil service thing, I suspect, perhaps because I'm a filthy capitalist, that there is a far higher amount of work-dodging going on there than in the private sector. I know a few civil servants that WFH, and what I hear and see from them makes me think that WFH is treated more as a holiday by many than it is work.

If they do this in the office you can only imagine him WFH

Him?

I find it very easy to get stuff done at home. It's proven that WFH is more productive.