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

If you can work from home - even a couple of days a week - you don't need to move to a city or town.

If you have to work where you sleep and eat and have no chat, no craic, no mentoring, etc. - then maybe WFH isn't for you? Good job it isn't mandatory, so! And the vast majority don't WFH full time, they do blended working, a mix of WFH and WFO.

Is this actually a serious question? Or do you know literally nothing about the Civil Service.

I might have phased the question incorrectly.

I do know a bit about the publice service and know a few on blended working.

What I was suggesting is there should be a min 2 hour at a time clock in period maybe there is?

I'm not against WFH it's part of modern life both my daughter and her Husband WFH the majority of the time she goes in 2 days s week and he goes in 1 day, one workes in the public service and one in finance both senior roles.

Seriously? Did you pick the wrong businesses?

Start looking at professional private sector firms - office workers basically. ICT companies, professional advisor companies, architects, engineers, accountants and more. WFH is deeply embedded across the private sector, providing benefits to employers (free office space) and employees.

Yes, everyone should be back 5 days a week by now. We all know deep in our hearts it is needed. Some people work well at home but there are too many slackers.

You really need to google some basic research before commenting.

".. one in three of the workforce are now working at least some of the week from home, or another remote location, compared to less than one in five before the pandemic…

…The figures for those who “usually work at home” are even more dramatic, increasing from 7 per cent pre-pandemic to around 20 per cent now…"

During the period when WFH boomed in Amazon their profits and revenue exploded. But before WFH, companies with no WFH still went out of business. That implies its working in the office that makes them go out of business.

Most professional service type jobs in the private sector are blended working now that's not going change.

See? You prove my point completely. Those statistics by the Western Development Commission, with more than likely most of their 30 staff "working" from home, cannot even get a basic statistic right. Their claim of only 3% of "employees in Ireland" working fully onsite, and 87% of "employees in Ireland" work at least partially from home, is so far off the mark it is laughable. Think of all the jobs in the country where is is not realistic to work from home: shop employees, most restaurant, bar and hotel employees, cleaners, people on factory floors, truck and bus drivers, warehouse people, plasterers, bricklayers, painters, air hostesses, car park attendants, gardai, army, most medical employees etc.

Do you think Ryanair, or Intel, or Lidl, or Dunnes or Supermacs or McDonalds would be as successful as they are if half the staff there worked from home with one eye on the tv and the other eye on social media?

The Western Developments Commissions figures show remote working does not work when it produces totally false figures. Time they came back to the office and do some work and came up with more realistic figures. Either that or they should disband.

Stop trying to dodge the bullet. It was you who said in your previous post

"According to a recent survey by the Western Development Commission, 

38% of employees in Ireland are working fully remotely

while 

59% are working in a hybrid model

 (partially remote and partially onsite). Only 

3% are working fully onsite"

End of your quote. You prove my point completely. Working from home does not work when they, working from home, are so far off the mark.

"3% of employees in Ireland work fully onsite" Oh my God. Time they got off their soft seats and worked like the 3% of all employees in Ireland who may be shop employees, most restaurant, bar and hotel employees, cleaners, people on factory floors, truck and bus drivers, warehouse people, plasterers, bricklayers, painters, air hostesses, car park attendants, gardai, army, most medical employees, Ryanair or Intel employees etc.

You can't tell someone their bag is too big, or stack a shelf or put chicken in a deep fat fryer or fabricate a processor if you're not physically present. We're talking about people in the public service who have blended working in this thread, though?

And most people I know who were WFH are still WFH, whether that's public sector or private sector.

If you're going to participate here, can you at least use some logic. "What about Intel, KFC, Supermacs, Tesco staff?!" is a facile argument. (And I have no doubt admin staff in some of those companies do have remote work - and yes, a quick google confirms both Tesco and Intel definitely do offer blended working for admin/managerial staff.)

Yes, the vast majority of people with remote and blended working work in admin, finance, HR, ICT, sales and marketing, etc. - obviously not customer-facing roles where in-person contact is necessary, or in jobs that require a full-time physical presence. I mean, I would have thought that was so obvious it didn't need to be stated?

https://westerndevelopment.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/National-Remote-Working-Survey-Infographics-2023.pdf is interesting. Comparing April '22 to October '23, there was only a 2% drop in the percentage working fully remotely (to 38%), a 7% increase in the percentage with access to blended working (to 59%), and a 5% drop in the percentage working fully in the office (down to 3%). Actual stats, as opposed to your gut feeling or "everyone knows."

With other research from the same body showing people moving out of Dublin to more rural areas, that's just another benefit of blended working. Great to see.

So you're not going to produce any source to support your own claims then?

So you're not going to produce any source to support your own claims then?

How much of this thread is off topic garbage.

It will be interesting to see how much influence the unions still have across the CS.

It was you who said 3% of employees in Ireland were working onsite, with 87% working from home at least part of the time. However, it is clear the majority of people, even during covid, did not work from home. Even less now.

Now answer the question, if someone is taking the piss when working at home, for whatever reason, in your experience what happens?