Civil Service WFH crackdown
- Thread starter Wolveryeti
- Start date
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
I last worked in a university where two days a week was required, and as I was remote it was fairly doable. I started off going in three days a week at the start of my contract and it seemed to make everyone 
so I dropped to two days a week after a month.
I just pulled out of a job in cbridge where the powers that be were demanding three days in the week in the office from January and the team I would have been with were not happy about the change, for all the reasons previously mentioned. Plus I interviewed six weeks ago and they keep saying 'you will hear by the end of next week ' when all I hear is they need more time to make a decision.
so I dropped to two days a week after a month.I just pulled out of a job in cbridge where the powers that be were demanding three days in the week in the office from January and the team I would have been with were not happy about the change, for all the reasons previously mentioned. Plus I interviewed six weeks ago and they keep saying 'you will hear by the end of next week ' when all I hear is they need more time to make a decision.
oryx
Sitting on the bok of the day
Never worked for the Civil Service but used to WFH regularly in my last job.
Took a quick look at the Civil Service recruitment site and yes, as I expected, they emphasise how family-friendly they are.
Took a quick look at the Civil Service recruitment site and yes, as I expected, they emphasise how family-friendly they are.
newme
Giant in Pastyland now
I'm looking deliberately at places ridiculously far away, mostly cos the pay is better but also cos if they want to bring in any policy about working from the office then its going to look bloody stupid expecting me to go 300-400 miles to get there. Working public sector adjacent seems to be a good one tho as since they want you to be able to potentially support more than one site its simply ridiculous to think you would be in Bristol one day then Aberdeen the next and certainly no one wants to pay for it, I may have to make some mods to my desk as I nearly ended up with 3 laptops last time but its far simpler to switch laptops then to charge pointlessly across the country. Especially as a non driver.
Skim
Well-Known Member
This ideological ‘crackdown’ just won’t work in practice. Huge issues with recruitment and retention: the WFH model opens the talent pool beyond the big cities.
Pretty much everyone works from home in my (arm’s length governmental) organisation and it’s very efficient. We’ve also got regional hubs as well, so there’s always office space if you want it, although most of us are contracted to WFH.
Pretty much everyone works from home in my (arm’s length governmental) organisation and it’s very efficient. We’ve also got regional hubs as well, so there’s always office space if you want it, although most of us are contracted to WFH.
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
i must say i've got mixed feelings about the whole wfh thing.
having spent 5 years in a job that meant i was out for just over 12 hours a day to do an 'office hours' job, now having a regular 'commute' that consists of flicking the switch to connect keyboard and monitor to my computer not work's or vice versa, has some attractions.
but, i've been in current job 18 months or so, it's the first time i have started a job wfh-ing, and i still don't really feel part of it. think employer and colleagues have been good about it, we have a fairly informal team meeting on 'teams' once a week, have a fairly informal whatsapp group, and usually get together in the office once a month (and have a self organised 'off site team building exercise' on licensed premises a few times a year.)
but it's made me aware how much you pick up informally without really trying to just by being in the same room as other people. the technical bits of the job i've done before elsewhere, but the who does what, how you do things at this particular place and so on is still all a bit fuzzy round the edges.
i'm not sure i'd have found it at all easy if i'd been new to the whole job, or just starting work and / or if i was a youngish person living in a bedsit.
having spent 5 years in a job that meant i was out for just over 12 hours a day to do an 'office hours' job, now having a regular 'commute' that consists of flicking the switch to connect keyboard and monitor to my computer not work's or vice versa, has some attractions.
but, i've been in current job 18 months or so, it's the first time i have started a job wfh-ing, and i still don't really feel part of it. think employer and colleagues have been good about it, we have a fairly informal team meeting on 'teams' once a week, have a fairly informal whatsapp group, and usually get together in the office once a month (and have a self organised 'off site team building exercise' on licensed premises a few times a year.)
but it's made me aware how much you pick up informally without really trying to just by being in the same room as other people. the technical bits of the job i've done before elsewhere, but the who does what, how you do things at this particular place and so on is still all a bit fuzzy round the edges.
i'm not sure i'd have found it at all easy if i'd been new to the whole job, or just starting work and / or if i was a youngish person living in a bedsit.
Yeah that's it. Whether it's work stuff or social stuff, you just miss.so much online unfortunately from now being in the same place. Asking questions and idle chat that just doesn't tend to happen online. And I say this as someone who enjoys working from home but you do miss a lot, especially training new people and building a team morale.
Hollis
bloody furious
newme
Giant in Pastyland now
I quite happily did an entire week without a single email or teams call from my team once. Just left to get on with things, check in next week things were on track for 30mins then off you go again. Got so much done when people just let me do the project instead of fucking about asking stupid questions. Plus most of it was done in the garden in the sun.I dunno I think my "team" morale increases the less they see of me
izz
Increased Leisure Citizen
Whereas I absolutely acknowledge that's your lived experience I think it's not impossible to train and build morale, I think it takes conscious effort but it's perfectly possible. I would have regular 1-2-1s with my team just to talk nonsense and ensure they were ok with WFH and lockdown and delivered many training/briefing sessions. I think there's a danger they could become too formal, preventing people from asking the daft questions we all need to but if y encourage people to contact me outside of the meeting if they needed to.
Bus Honeygun
This week the score draws are plentiful
Yeah, our chief exec made an 'of course, things might change next year' remark, euphemistically referring to the prospect of a general election.
newme
Giant in Pastyland now
We had a meeting once a fortnight where you were basically allowed to bitch about clients with no repercussions so long as it was legitimate. Team only and even the director was in a hoody and called one particular person we worked with a pain in the arse along other choice words.
They would then work on a formal way to raise this to the appropriate people and language to get things dealt with. Never met any of them in person but it made bringing things up a lot simpler when you could then ask for a 121 for issues in between with the same sort of attitude applied. I had two managers at one place giving me work I shouldn't have got cos they were just flinging it at the consultants (technically title but more seat filling at the time).
Ended up with director having a meeting with their head of procurement for the whole council and more standardised routes as to who could give who work as line managers were being skipped and had no clue about workload. Meant when I had an uppity SLT I didnt know start trying to give me emergency stuff one afternoon they had to go through my line manager first for approval.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
God that sounds amazing! Our office is currently being done up, so we're not in at all. My line manager has called me twice in the last month, to sort out my annual leave, specifically cancelling what I'd arranged for Christmas! That's it. There might have been one 'team meeting' - which consists of the boss talking of ten mins and asking is anyone has any questions. That's it. It is pretty shite.
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
There is no doubt that productivity can be higher for individuals who wfh. It's also clearly unreasonable to change working conditions without sufficient notice to enable childcare etc. to be sorted out.
However it's also undeniable that training new staff is harder to do online. We have trainees who want (and need) irl access to more experienced people to ask 'off piste' questions. There are also more collaborative tasks where something is lost over Zoom.
However it's also undeniable that training new staff is harder to do online. We have trainees who want (and need) irl access to more experienced people to ask 'off piste' questions. There are also more collaborative tasks where something is lost over Zoom.
Cloo
Banana for scale
Yes, they're not really going to be able to do much if good employees just go 'Nope, 1/2/0 days a week is working for me' and there's no evidence it's causing any issues. Some employers are sabre rattling, but it isn't achieving much.
izz
Increased Leisure Citizen
Concur totally. No need is there ?
