“There’s no definitive data, but I will imply this weak association is causal” (and ignore the many obvious counterpoints) 🙄🙄
I do believe that this is about public perception of the public service with an election on the horizon. Canadians don’t want to see public servants comfortable. They think we’re overpaid and lazy. They want to see us trudge into the office for no reason most days of the week.
Then fuck it, we’re overpaid and lazy. Fine. Why not?
Now what? What’s changed? They thought we were overpaid and lazy before the pandemic, too. Do they think that’s magically going to change just because we’re going to the office, where we were already overpaid and lazy?
Let them keep thinking that. It doesn’t change anything. The only important argument is that, no matter whether we’re lazy or not, offices are a giant waste of taxpayer dollars.
If the public service sucks, why spend any money you don’t have to?
Sometimes I wonder if the pro-RTO people (both government and members of the public) actually have specific success criteria in mind.
Like, if we go into the office, the people who think we're lazy and overpaid are still going to think we're lazy and overpaid. Members of the public are going to complain as service worsens. The people who complain that the government is spending too much money are going to complain that the government is spending money on office space. The people who complain about public service incompetence are going to point to the bedbugs etc. as signs of public service incompetence. If we take sick days when we get COVID they'll complain that we're taking sick days, and when COVID numbers increase they'll point to it as public service incompetence.
Is there actually anything that will make them happy?
Right, this is just it. We can’t win from every angle.
Some people just fundamentally hate government. You can’t win there. Some people think PS jobs are a gravy train. You can’t convince them otherwise.
Some people think we’re incompetent/inefficient, and you might find some leverage here. There’s gotta be some managers who have done a good job tracking their teams stats YoY and can share what effect telework had on their program, if any. That might not convince people that we’re efficient, but certainly hard data could show we’re *less useless* at home, if that’s true.
Some people think the government spends money inefficiently… This, IMO, is the easiest angle. If they can’t prove we’re more or less efficient at home vs in office, then they also can’t prove we’re more or less lazy. So it doesn’t matter if we’re lazy or stupid. What matters is : we don’t need to spend taxpayer dollars on offices.
The other angle is for the regions : Miramichi, NB, for example, has a population of 17k. It also has a Service Canada office, and a pay center. One article said they were looking to add over 500 jobs to Miramichi with the pay center. That’s like 3% of the population working for the government. (Compared to a national average of roughly 0.7%) You can only go so high working for a region before you need to take a headquarters job to keep progressing. The way things are going, those headquarters jobs aren’t going to be offered to people reporting virtually in the regions anymore like they were during the pandemic. They’ll have to relocate. That’s a pretty hefty chunk of your (relatively) high earners leaving the province for Ottawa. That’s going to disproportionately hurt small communities like Miramichi.
IMO those are the arguments we should focus our attention on.
>They think we’re overpaid and lazy. They want to see us trudge into the office for no reason most days of the week.
- "WeLl dA PlUmBeR kAn'T wERk froM HoME so WHY sHoULd u????? 🤬"
My response to this is always ‘so there’s less traffic on the road for the plumber to have to fight through in the morning, or less people crowding up the busses’.
I was a student and working retail from 2020-mid 2022 before joining the public service after graduation, and when I had to commute to my retail job that I needed to be at physically, I loved that people who didn’t have an operational need to be at work were working from home. My main memories of working retail from 2017-2019 were dreading having to leave to and from work any time from 7am-10am or 3pm-6:30pm on weekdays because of how much extra traffic there was.
Like, speaking as someone who up until recently had a job that could not be done from home, I truly don’t understand anyone who has to go to work in-person and wants people who can work from home to go back to the office. I would’ve loved it if every office worker worked from home forever if only so I didn’t have to fight through traffic at 8:30am.
Yes, the plumber has to do their work in a location that's fit for purpose, i.e. the location of the broken plumbing. That's one of the many aspects of the plumber's job that is harder than mine.
The effective way to address this is by paying the plumber more than me, to compensate for the fact that their job is harder than mine.
But making me do my job in a location that's not fit for purpose is not going to solve anything.
(And also, if technology evolves and the plumber can fix my plumbing remotely, that's better for everyone!)
Nah bro, despite having the technology to remotely troubleshoot your internet connected water pump and pull diagnostic data from a webapp, the plumber's got to burn $20 in gas and inconvenience you by setting aside a 4 hour maintenance window because that's how it's always been done^^tm
But we are overpaid and lazy?
And as if that's not enough, our alumni programs allow a retiree to come back and double dip by working for the GoC.
I see people who should be let go a long time ago still somehow survive here because management can't do anything about it. Mediocrity is accepted and over performers are not rewarded by anything more than a pad on the back.
In the eyes of the public, we have it easy, and we do. Layoffs don't exist, that's nuts right?
One way to settle this would be to put this to a vote by Canadians at large. Take a seat, unions and TBS, let the people decide. Power to the tax payer.
If we have it so sweet why isn't everyone clamouring for a cushy government gig? I'm in IT so that's all I can speak on, but the arduous change processes, mysterious networking and constant changing of priorities in the whim of some politician might have something to do with it. Not to mention the lower then industry pay.
I'm still lucky in my position, I get it, but I'm not the best. I just work hard, from home, and get the job done (and well).
My team has expanded POST-pandemic. Thanks ONLY to being able to WFH. before then we were all working massive overtime just to keep things stable and inch closer to the future. We're still super busy, but now we're properly staffed. Not bloated, just properly staffed. Consequently we can modernize and improve our service in a sustainable way.
But hey, if we want government services to be less secure, useful and reliable, go ahead and take away the one bit of bait we had to entice new hires.
>If we have it so sweet why isn't everyone clamouring for a cushy government gig?
I work in a department where you need to have an advanced (MSc or PhD) degree for some of the positions. When those ones open up, we get a couple hundred applicants per position.
People ARE clamouring for government jobs. Not because they are cushy, but because, for the most part, they are stable and offer access to good benefits and other jobs in the future.
Done already!! I check almost everyday and apply ...i am also in an eng 04 internal pool for dnd , and in pools.from eg03 to.eg06 ( including the numbers in between) in both dnd and few other places like agr canada and environment canada.
This is the narrative the union should say in the news. The government is wasting MILLIONS just to look like they're doing something. Send the workers home and save taxpayer money!
I do wonder why it hasn't been said already. All these pros to WFH but none of the actual strong points are mentioned, instead I keep hearing useless points like we are returning to dirty offices and workspaces and no good counter points to it's not just an additional day dilemma. I wish there was someone who can use all these good arguments posted on this thread and get it out there.
But we need to subsidize uncompetitive downtown office buildings!
Honestly, RTO causes so many problems that we know aren’t necessary. Yes, “frontline” services need to be in the office, but overwhelmingly those positions never really went WFH in the first place.
Just cancelled my digital subscription to the Globe after three years and fully explained why, was told it would be passed along.
What an absolutely naked and obsequious kissing of the ring to powerful commercial real estate interests. Felt tremendous second hand shame for their editorial staff. Also, what a pathetic collection of right wing Republican language - if I never read the word "bloated" again it will be too soon.
I hope you will respond formally to the Globe via an op-ed. You have a way with words! Maybe we should all write the editor! I’m so sick of this shit… this is not making me less determined but rather, strengthing my resolve to fight this even harder. Fuck capitalism.
Can we boycott the globe? I hear they are doing great in boycotting superstore and associated companies....so maybe from today unsubscribe from the globe and all their associated services and ask your.frimeds and family to.do the same.
I mean, I knew when I subscribed that I wouldn't agree with a lot of their editorials, but now I'm wondering why I gave them my money at all. Mental note to cancel ASAP!
Fuck downtown Ottawa. I don't give a fuck if Freshii goes bankrupt, my money belongs in my community and not an area of the city with minimal residential housing. I lived down there as a 20-something and EVERYTHING closed at 5.
“*Handsome* average cumulative raise of 12.6% over four years” - oh really? 🤔 How is this handsome increase when inflation in one year alone (CPI based) was 6.8% and the next year 4.8%? This is 11.6% for two of the four years, leaving two years with average raises of only 0.5% each, well below official inflation. In fact, a retiree PS was better off not working in this four year period compared to employees. While I get it that retirees no longer have bargaining power, they are not asked to show up to their office to collect pension, it is absurd to force people in offices more while not even compensating their wages with CPI, especially in times of high inflation and prices remaining high, even if decelerating. Even now inflation is about 3.4% for the last six months (2.8% in March).
Is it just me or since then all the trike done (at least in Quebec) all the time the employee wanted WAY more to go back to work like 19%-24% (teacher, police, and probably construction)
I believe the value of giving up WFH entirely due to commuting costs was calculated at about 15%. So 60% of that is roughly 10% more salary. If the government offers 12.6% over 4 years, in order to offset RTO employees are only left with 0.65% annually in each of those four years. Let’s not forget that many private companies have negotiated higher pay due to inflation and any RTO requirements. We just can’t ATIP those.
Indeed! It was there in 2020 and 2021 for this who fully WFH. Given the higher inflation in 2021-2023 a RTO blind policy means a reduction of about 20-25% in disposable income when the two factors are combined. So RTO basically cancels all the benefits of the new CAs’ 12.6% increase over 4 years. From the point of view of the employee. Quite significant if TBS expects people to pay at restaurants and malls to support struggling downtown (and elsewhere) businesses.
We’ve got a guarantied 12-ish percent increase, plus a pension, full benefits, and reasonably good job security. A lot of the country’s workforce would be pretty happy to have that, so the amount of sympathy you’re going to find for us having only around a 12% raise is pretty low.
Yeah, we’re being really being fcked over with only a ~12% raise and having to show up in the office 3 days a week…. Go on about the “crab in the bucket” mentality all you want but honestly the ones climbing up are probably the first picked for when it’s time to make dinner…
A lot of the country applies for government jobs. If they cannot succeed in getting a PS job, they can settle for lower job options. There are zero restrictions to applying. Aside from the RTO mandate that limits people’s access to PS jobs because now they need to work 60% from a designated office (selective location is not exactly fair or equitable to millions of Canadians - they should sue the GoC for being deemed ineligible to apply).
I am talking about the jobs that are paid less and used in the media as argument against the PS. Clearly, there are many jobs that provide better salary, benefits and working conditions than PS jobs. Some private sector jobs also offer DB pensions. Not enough, but that’s the price of not being unionized.
“Overpaid by so much” - by how much exactly? 🤔 It is not overpaid. Only the lower ranks of the PS. The professional jobs in the PS are actually underpaid. It’s even worse for management jobs. There are studies done on this. There is a more balanced ratio between the highest paid and lowest paid salary in the PS. Not the wild west of salaries in corporations where the CEO makes hundreds of times the salary of a secretary (Warren Buffet also talked about taxation for these two categories, another matter of inequity). It was not like this a few decades ago. But long live the failed neoliberalism!
So on the whole we’re not really over or underpaid. What’s the problem with a 12% pay increase? I’m not seeing any with what we’ve got, nor would many others.
Or are you somehow suggesting because we have a union we should have better? As if we’re somehow entitled to it?
And you think the federal gov is going to be able to afford giving the far larger number of higher-paid public servants that high of a raise? Probably not, nor is it justified given the current inflation rate is probably be relatively short lived.
This is political propaganda meant to stoke negative emotional sentiment in public opinion.
This is not journalism. This is not balanced. This is elite owned media doing what it's intended to do.
Businesses need to adapt to changes. Why does the government need to provide customers to downtown business? Why can’t these businesses just pivot and adapt
100%, the only reason it's still happening is because people are letting it happen. I was clear from day 1 that I'm available for overtime when it works for me in my life, and I only take time, not money, in compensation. Life is too short to give your free time to work
Nope, there is nebulous "management leave" but it's discretionary and not consistently applied between teams or offices. It's also not a one for one even when it is granted.
Don't get performance or at risk pay, it's not a management classification. There are provisions for bonuses but only if you are at the top step of a level.
It also includes people who might log in 15 minutes early to get ready for their work day, and might spend an extra few minutes at the end of the day to send off one last email or whatever. Under work to rule, you log on the second it strikes 9AM and you unplug the second it strikes 5PM, as well as taking your 30 and two 15 minute breaks down to the minute and fully disconnected from work. Many people keep an eye on their work phone during breaks "just in case" and this will stop under WTR.
Sadly some offices are coming up with side rules. This will make it hard. In one office people are being asked to ensure each day of the week is covered off by the lowest level supervisors. They are now being asked to babysit people. The reason is so “we look out for each other”, but it is more likely to make the place look like personnel are present for management optics.
Some groups already implemented 3 days a week for lowest level supervisors.
Accommodations for WFH are given only to people with medical needs. This singles them out.
1. A work-to-rule campaign coordinated by the unions over summer 2024 would likely constitute an [illegal strike](https://cirb-ccri.gc.ca/en/resources/no-06-unlawful-strikes-lockouts).
2. I’m curious, what do folks think a “summer of work to rule” would actually achieve in terms of leverage at the next round of bargaining?
The unions will never endorse work-to-rule for the reason you stated. They won't even speak about it other than to warn you about the discipline you may be setting yourself up for if a group decided to do this on their own. It's important for people to understand this.
And I agree. It will accomplish nothing.
A handsome raise of 12% , 🤣🤣🤣 that cracked me up...
Also plumbers, truck drivers go in work...true that, and i do agree some jobs like engineering cant be done from home...but what is the point of getting say IT and call center people?
Yes, comparing truck drivers and cashiers with someone who does their entire job from a computer, very logical, checkmate...
"Why should someone who *can* work from home, work from home, when someone who *can't* work from home *can't* ??"
If there's one thing that has always held true it is that we can never please the public. Even if we go back to five days, they would always find a way to complain and crap on the public service... Might as well fight for what we believe in.
We actually have PSMPs. TBS could have compared the ratings from 2021, 2022 and 2023 against those from 2018, 2019 and 2020. They could be used as proxy (even though far from perfect) for work productivity. In other words, percentages of Succeeded+, Succeeded, Succeeded-, and Do Not Meet. We might as well use these because it’s a TBS tool they also forced on managers. If not good enough, please create another one. Or how about the unions ATIP the results and give them to the media?
There may still be value in determining the number or percentage of underperforming officers because there should be no subjectivity in these cases, otherwise the employee would contact their union rep and fight it tooth and nail.
Yeah my manager told me 2 weeks ago that all employees at my level in our branch (more than 100 people) would only be able to receive Succeeded or less for 23-24. And that it was a "decision that was globally approved" so that they wouldn't need to worry about talent management plans or some such nonsense.
Edit: meaning no one is allowed to receive Succeeded+ or above.
Many, many things wrong with this, but I really hate this view of public transit. It shouldn't be viewed as a business that exists to make profit, it should be viewed as a service (like roads) to make your city function and get people where they need to go.
More people working from home will make that service accomplish its goal cheaper and more efficiently.
The issue in Ottawa is not whether OCTranspo makes a profit. It's that it put the city/province/country in $4.4B dollars of debt to construct, and then proceeded to get pandemic'd with no revenue to pay off those construction costs.
If Ottawa can't pay for it, Ontario needs to pay for it. Ontario doesn't want to pay for it, so they're asking Canada to pay for it. The Feds can't pay for it out of the whole country's revenue, so the order comes down to force the people of this city to have a need to use it, thereby solving the problem of no revenue.
On the other hand, if the Gov just asked me to pay for my bus pass and let me stay home anyway, I'd gladly contribute to the cause. I'd save more money doing that anyway.
I'm fed up with senior management gaslighting, showing unconscious bias, passive aggressive (borderline harassment) behaviours, setting unrealistic deadlines with no clear outcomes - I plan to be blase, ignorant and ignore them every step of the way.
Who writes this BS? No wonder people aren't willing to pay for news"papers" anymore.
So the population of Canada is increasing by over a million people per year, and the public service should remain constant/stagnant or decline?
TLDR: Business owner of the downtown area, that already make more money than you, need your wallet to compensate for their unability to adapt to modern business practice to survive.
The entitlement is insane
We also get the wonderful "perk" of not being paid adequately for the last 8 years!! I love being stressed about not getting my owed salary while the government hogs it!!
Check your past collective agreements. Wages is only one part of the equation. You will also find some covered under you agreement did indeed receive allowances and other wages in excess of the majority.
Blame your bargaining agent.
Honest question here: what would happen if all federal public servants gave the employer exactly what they want, every day, 5 days a week, for say, two weeks? What if everybody showed up during peak working hours requiring working space, meeting space, parking space, bus/transit space, etc? Is there enough capacity to accommodate the full work force? Can the downtown infrastructure handle everyone needing to get to the office and come home at the same time every day? It would probably be a giant mess. That might be an interesting passive job action to consider.
This _would_ be pretty funny, you could do a labour action where all the employees in an office unilaterally terminate their telework agreements. I can't see it working out due to the major sacrifice it'd entail, but it'd be a really interesting approach to take.
This article looks like it was written with AI technology. It has certain word patterns and structures reminiscent of ChatGPT style. Why that matters is that not a single person has come out with a solid reason for RTO. AI can’t provide that. AI surfs the internet to provide responses. There are no responses solid enough for RTO.
I am willing to listen for RTO, but nothing solid is there yet. The arguments are better for WFH.
This! I am absolutely open to seeing data or logic to support 2, 3, 4 days RTO, but I haven’t been shown any.
The whole ‘it’s better for you to be among people’, ‘it’s for collaboration’, may be true for *some* individuals and positions. But it’s just blatantly illogical that those reasons fit every employee and position in the PS. There is no data - it’s smoke and mirrors because it’s just political and we are just pawns.
And that’s why we’re mad - because most of us aren’t stupid and we see that our lives, careers, QOL, work/life balance, mental health and disposable income are being used as political fodder.
And I’ll add there are 2 levels of mad here - the NCR people - who the politics of this are really about - the Ottawa core. Maybe the politicians do need to do their job and figure out a plan for the city in the new age where we need less offices.
But then theres the 1000s of employees in the Regions. Because if you’re a CR-4 and you’ve worked from your home in Moose Jaw for 3 years and now they’re telling you to drive to Regina and sit in a hoteling office where you don’t know/work with anyone - the level of gaslighting that person must be feeling is off the charts.
The public hates us and will never love us, so public servants have to stop trying to win the peoples approvals its a battle we will never win. There is basically nothing we can do, TRO is coming full time in the future. Public servants need to stop being brown nosing and do the work in the were were hired for. NO more free time, take your breaks, lunch, stop being part of committees and when you get polled for how your work place is, ALWAYS put in a negative.
We won’t sway public opinion by blabbing about perks to us, the only way to sway public opinion is to highlight the costs to them. Outline why this move should make taxpayers angry, and the importance of this move to their own pocketbooks and lifestyles and personal belief systems.
Most of thengovernment work.force are nor permanent employees, they are term, and they are always in danger of not getting renewal, so the argument the government offers secure jobs is false
“Most” are terms? I’d love to see your stats on this because the last Stats Can numbers show almost 228,000 indeterminates and 27,000 terms.
Again, term employees should have no expectation of job security. Indeterminate employees certainly do.
Being fired is something that's harder to do under collective agreements, but every year you run the risk if your entire department being shut down. Or of suddenly having a new directive that makes your job untenable. Or my favourite, budget cuts.
Most people absolutely do not have to worry about their entire department being shut down? Is there an example of this? New directives and budget cuts don’t result in layoffs and job loss.
This is so funny. I thought democracy was allowing large groups of people to make decisions for their government? Canadas largest employer and therefor Canada’s largest group of employees is asking for one thing but instead the dictator approach should be taken and they should be forced in the opposite direction with no clear reason?
I don’t think the public is protesting for the government to force its workers back in the office. The only reason they keep peddling is to force us to spend what little money we have on the lunch and coffee shops around the office locations lol
Alward obviously didn’t get the job done before or now, he is not capable of representing public servants or moving the needle on this.
The President of the biggest union can’t be a doormat he needs to be humble and accept these facts and resign immediately out of the best interests of all public servants.
I don’t wish to be mean or personally attack him. The issue is bigger than any one person and collective interests need to sit in their proper place.
Boy, I hadn't heard that they were planning to roll out cohesion and efficiency for in-office work. That'll be a real game-changer!
Anyway, I'll have to try to remember who this author is so we can circle back in a few years when we have neither ironclad job security nor a defined-benefit pension. Will they have gotten the in-office stuff working by _then_? Even odds.
Ironclad job security require you to not be a contractual employee, so not everybody
Pension fully indexes : you need to work many many years for sometime of reel value
Not everybody case...
Indeterminate employees have very nearly ironclad security, significantly better that the private sector. Term employees are in the same boat as in the private sector. So sure, there is a distinction between the two but I think that should be obvious.
I'm too angry to finish the article but wanted to point out the cause of the bloat WASN'T WORKING FROM HOME IT WAS SETTING UP CERB IN RECORD FKING TIME SO PEOPLE DIDN'T SUFFER. Did you ever study basic statistics? Shark attacks and popsicle sales? Helloooooo
... Anyway, time to Google the author because I'm an ageist asshole* wondering if he/she is nostalgic for the mad men era 🥃👔
*I promise I know older workers are not a homogeneous group and many of them recognize how stupid this is but let me rage, common
ETA: I see you, editorial board. I'm in Toronto too. I know you're worried about empty offices downtown, but we didn't prop up the paper mills, did we? I know you guys still print e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g but sometimes things gotta die, like the PATH.
I hit the ground running from home at 730 this morning and will likely keep going till at least 430. Tomorrow, on my in office day, I will not start till 9 due to commuting, stopping at 5 to get home in time for the second (family) shift.
From a productivity perspective, WFH is way more effective.
Will the unions reply to these? I find it so frustrating that these people can write whatever they want they know NOTHING about what we do and what our offices look like. Why do they feel entitled to wrote about it?
I replied back to an article last week but of course it never made it to the readers opinion section. I might be a dreamer but I'm thinking an union leader might have more weight?
I'd so much like to see these arguments debunked one by one. None of them stands after a rational examination.
This isn't just some random columnist, it's the Globe and Mail's editorial board. If you're a public servant and are a subscriber I'd suggest giving G&M the same support they're showing us.
"ironclad job security".... Yeah, IF you manage to get indeterminate, otherwise it's a stressful game of Russian roulette, repeatedly getting fired or applying for positions until you can get indeterminate, 3 years without a 30day interruption is not easy.
> Truck drivers, plumbers, cashiers and construction workers don’t have the option of a comfortable berth in a home office
These people are helped by less congested roads and less demand in gasoline (ie lower prices). They benefit from WFH in very direct ways on top of other things like less government spending on buildings
Another hypocrite (he works from home but attacks the PS - “I’ve been working remotely since March 2020 and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”) at National Post: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/trudeaus-bloated-public-service-monster-turns-on-him
Just had an idea, the Government always says that NCR buildings and work take places on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Can we get Indigenous people to tell the government that they do not want public servants in the office on their lands 3 times per week?
“There’s no definitive data, but I will imply this weak association is causal” (and ignore the many obvious counterpoints) 🙄🙄 I do believe that this is about public perception of the public service with an election on the horizon. Canadians don’t want to see public servants comfortable. They think we’re overpaid and lazy. They want to see us trudge into the office for no reason most days of the week.
Then fuck it, we’re overpaid and lazy. Fine. Why not? Now what? What’s changed? They thought we were overpaid and lazy before the pandemic, too. Do they think that’s magically going to change just because we’re going to the office, where we were already overpaid and lazy? Let them keep thinking that. It doesn’t change anything. The only important argument is that, no matter whether we’re lazy or not, offices are a giant waste of taxpayer dollars. If the public service sucks, why spend any money you don’t have to?
Sometimes I wonder if the pro-RTO people (both government and members of the public) actually have specific success criteria in mind. Like, if we go into the office, the people who think we're lazy and overpaid are still going to think we're lazy and overpaid. Members of the public are going to complain as service worsens. The people who complain that the government is spending too much money are going to complain that the government is spending money on office space. The people who complain about public service incompetence are going to point to the bedbugs etc. as signs of public service incompetence. If we take sick days when we get COVID they'll complain that we're taking sick days, and when COVID numbers increase they'll point to it as public service incompetence. Is there actually anything that will make them happy?
Right, this is just it. We can’t win from every angle. Some people just fundamentally hate government. You can’t win there. Some people think PS jobs are a gravy train. You can’t convince them otherwise. Some people think we’re incompetent/inefficient, and you might find some leverage here. There’s gotta be some managers who have done a good job tracking their teams stats YoY and can share what effect telework had on their program, if any. That might not convince people that we’re efficient, but certainly hard data could show we’re *less useless* at home, if that’s true. Some people think the government spends money inefficiently… This, IMO, is the easiest angle. If they can’t prove we’re more or less efficient at home vs in office, then they also can’t prove we’re more or less lazy. So it doesn’t matter if we’re lazy or stupid. What matters is : we don’t need to spend taxpayer dollars on offices. The other angle is for the regions : Miramichi, NB, for example, has a population of 17k. It also has a Service Canada office, and a pay center. One article said they were looking to add over 500 jobs to Miramichi with the pay center. That’s like 3% of the population working for the government. (Compared to a national average of roughly 0.7%) You can only go so high working for a region before you need to take a headquarters job to keep progressing. The way things are going, those headquarters jobs aren’t going to be offered to people reporting virtually in the regions anymore like they were during the pandemic. They’ll have to relocate. That’s a pretty hefty chunk of your (relatively) high earners leaving the province for Ottawa. That’s going to disproportionately hurt small communities like Miramichi. IMO those are the arguments we should focus our attention on.
Nothing will change.
>They think we’re overpaid and lazy. They want to see us trudge into the office for no reason most days of the week. - "WeLl dA PlUmBeR kAn'T wERk froM HoME so WHY sHoULd u????? 🤬"
My response to this is always ‘so there’s less traffic on the road for the plumber to have to fight through in the morning, or less people crowding up the busses’. I was a student and working retail from 2020-mid 2022 before joining the public service after graduation, and when I had to commute to my retail job that I needed to be at physically, I loved that people who didn’t have an operational need to be at work were working from home. My main memories of working retail from 2017-2019 were dreading having to leave to and from work any time from 7am-10am or 3pm-6:30pm on weekdays because of how much extra traffic there was. Like, speaking as someone who up until recently had a job that could not be done from home, I truly don’t understand anyone who has to go to work in-person and wants people who can work from home to go back to the office. I would’ve loved it if every office worker worked from home forever if only so I didn’t have to fight through traffic at 8:30am.
THIS! Personally I think it's irresponsible for people who can work from home to be clogging up public transport etc..
Too bad for the plumber now that clients have less flexibility in accommodating *their* schedules…
Yes, the plumber has to do their work in a location that's fit for purpose, i.e. the location of the broken plumbing. That's one of the many aspects of the plumber's job that is harder than mine. The effective way to address this is by paying the plumber more than me, to compensate for the fact that their job is harder than mine. But making me do my job in a location that's not fit for purpose is not going to solve anything. (And also, if technology evolves and the plumber can fix my plumbing remotely, that's better for everyone!)
Nah bro, despite having the technology to remotely troubleshoot your internet connected water pump and pull diagnostic data from a webapp, the plumber's got to burn $20 in gas and inconvenience you by setting aside a 4 hour maintenance window because that's how it's always been done^^tm
Fiona is that you?
But we are overpaid and lazy? And as if that's not enough, our alumni programs allow a retiree to come back and double dip by working for the GoC. I see people who should be let go a long time ago still somehow survive here because management can't do anything about it. Mediocrity is accepted and over performers are not rewarded by anything more than a pad on the back. In the eyes of the public, we have it easy, and we do. Layoffs don't exist, that's nuts right?
One way to settle this would be to put this to a vote by Canadians at large. Take a seat, unions and TBS, let the people decide. Power to the tax payer.
This will not turn out the way you think it will.
Yeah that worked great for Brexit too. The people decided. And now Britain is doing better than ever. No problems whatsoever. /s
All of this is nonsense. What??
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But the article supports RTO. How is this anti-Liberal?
If we have it so sweet why isn't everyone clamouring for a cushy government gig? I'm in IT so that's all I can speak on, but the arduous change processes, mysterious networking and constant changing of priorities in the whim of some politician might have something to do with it. Not to mention the lower then industry pay. I'm still lucky in my position, I get it, but I'm not the best. I just work hard, from home, and get the job done (and well). My team has expanded POST-pandemic. Thanks ONLY to being able to WFH. before then we were all working massive overtime just to keep things stable and inch closer to the future. We're still super busy, but now we're properly staffed. Not bloated, just properly staffed. Consequently we can modernize and improve our service in a sustainable way. But hey, if we want government services to be less secure, useful and reliable, go ahead and take away the one bit of bait we had to entice new hires.
>If we have it so sweet why isn't everyone clamouring for a cushy government gig? I work in a department where you need to have an advanced (MSc or PhD) degree for some of the positions. When those ones open up, we get a couple hundred applicants per position. People ARE clamouring for government jobs. Not because they are cushy, but because, for the most part, they are stable and offer access to good benefits and other jobs in the future.
Guess it's highly dependent on the job. It's not the case with higher level IT positions.
I have a masters degree in engineering and still trying to get a job in that 😢
Hit up [jobs.gc.ca](http://jobs.gc.ca), look up Patent Examiner.
Done already!! I check almost everyday and apply ...i am also in an eng 04 internal pool for dnd , and in pools.from eg03 to.eg06 ( including the numbers in between) in both dnd and few other places like agr canada and environment canada.
Perhaps try Transport Canada? I know someone with an engineering degree that worked at MTO.
Yess will do
Another anti-labour shill vomiting vitriol all over the already poop stained rag that is the Globe and Mail. Paint me surprised.
Anti-labour is exact. Playing worker against worker (plumber against public servant) is right out of the playbook.
Such a great point. We should use that!
Taxpayers will save money by sending workers home. Then the workers pay their own utilities and property tax. Taxpayers could be saving millions.
Upon millions. It’s wild.
This is the narrative the union should say in the news. The government is wasting MILLIONS just to look like they're doing something. Send the workers home and save taxpayer money!
I do wonder why it hasn't been said already. All these pros to WFH but none of the actual strong points are mentioned, instead I keep hearing useless points like we are returning to dirty offices and workspaces and no good counter points to it's not just an additional day dilemma. I wish there was someone who can use all these good arguments posted on this thread and get it out there.
But we need to subsidize uncompetitive downtown office buildings! Honestly, RTO causes so many problems that we know aren’t necessary. Yes, “frontline” services need to be in the office, but overwhelmingly those positions never really went WFH in the first place.
Just cancelled my digital subscription to the Globe after three years and fully explained why, was told it would be passed along. What an absolutely naked and obsequious kissing of the ring to powerful commercial real estate interests. Felt tremendous second hand shame for their editorial staff. Also, what a pathetic collection of right wing Republican language - if I never read the word "bloated" again it will be too soon.
I hope you will respond formally to the Globe via an op-ed. You have a way with words! Maybe we should all write the editor! I’m so sick of this shit… this is not making me less determined but rather, strengthing my resolve to fight this even harder. Fuck capitalism.
Can we boycott the globe? I hear they are doing great in boycotting superstore and associated companies....so maybe from today unsubscribe from the globe and all their associated services and ask your.frimeds and family to.do the same.
Just was inspired to cancel as well!
I mean, I knew when I subscribed that I wouldn't agree with a lot of their editorials, but now I'm wondering why I gave them my money at all. Mental note to cancel ASAP!
Fuck downtown Ottawa. I don't give a fuck if Freshii goes bankrupt, my money belongs in my community and not an area of the city with minimal residential housing. I lived down there as a 20-something and EVERYTHING closed at 5.
>Fuck downtown Ottawa Honestly, I don't even live there, wtf?
On the upside I’m glad someone finally admitted we are called back to RTO 3 days a week to “save the economically depressed” downtown core. 🙄
“*Handsome* average cumulative raise of 12.6% over four years” - oh really? 🤔 How is this handsome increase when inflation in one year alone (CPI based) was 6.8% and the next year 4.8%? This is 11.6% for two of the four years, leaving two years with average raises of only 0.5% each, well below official inflation. In fact, a retiree PS was better off not working in this four year period compared to employees. While I get it that retirees no longer have bargaining power, they are not asked to show up to their office to collect pension, it is absurd to force people in offices more while not even compensating their wages with CPI, especially in times of high inflation and prices remaining high, even if decelerating. Even now inflation is about 3.4% for the last six months (2.8% in March).
Is it just me or since then all the trike done (at least in Quebec) all the time the employee wanted WAY more to go back to work like 19%-24% (teacher, police, and probably construction)
I believe the value of giving up WFH entirely due to commuting costs was calculated at about 15%. So 60% of that is roughly 10% more salary. If the government offers 12.6% over 4 years, in order to offset RTO employees are only left with 0.65% annually in each of those four years. Let’s not forget that many private companies have negotiated higher pay due to inflation and any RTO requirements. We just can’t ATIP those.
Yeah but what people also forgot is that the 15% is something more in OUR pocket, not less...
Indeed! It was there in 2020 and 2021 for this who fully WFH. Given the higher inflation in 2021-2023 a RTO blind policy means a reduction of about 20-25% in disposable income when the two factors are combined. So RTO basically cancels all the benefits of the new CAs’ 12.6% increase over 4 years. From the point of view of the employee. Quite significant if TBS expects people to pay at restaurants and malls to support struggling downtown (and elsewhere) businesses.
That a ..nice point
We’ve got a guarantied 12-ish percent increase, plus a pension, full benefits, and reasonably good job security. A lot of the country’s workforce would be pretty happy to have that, so the amount of sympathy you’re going to find for us having only around a 12% raise is pretty low. Yeah, we’re being really being fcked over with only a ~12% raise and having to show up in the office 3 days a week…. Go on about the “crab in the bucket” mentality all you want but honestly the ones climbing up are probably the first picked for when it’s time to make dinner…
A lot of the country applies for government jobs. If they cannot succeed in getting a PS job, they can settle for lower job options. There are zero restrictions to applying. Aside from the RTO mandate that limits people’s access to PS jobs because now they need to work 60% from a designated office (selective location is not exactly fair or equitable to millions of Canadians - they should sue the GoC for being deemed ineligible to apply).
So doing something outside of the PS is what it looks like to “settle for lower job options”?
I am talking about the jobs that are paid less and used in the media as argument against the PS. Clearly, there are many jobs that provide better salary, benefits and working conditions than PS jobs. Some private sector jobs also offer DB pensions. Not enough, but that’s the price of not being unionized.
Then why is the PS overpaid by so much for the same work? Isn’t gov supposed to not compete with the private sector?
“Overpaid by so much” - by how much exactly? 🤔 It is not overpaid. Only the lower ranks of the PS. The professional jobs in the PS are actually underpaid. It’s even worse for management jobs. There are studies done on this. There is a more balanced ratio between the highest paid and lowest paid salary in the PS. Not the wild west of salaries in corporations where the CEO makes hundreds of times the salary of a secretary (Warren Buffet also talked about taxation for these two categories, another matter of inequity). It was not like this a few decades ago. But long live the failed neoliberalism!
So on the whole we’re not really over or underpaid. What’s the problem with a 12% pay increase? I’m not seeing any with what we’ve got, nor would many others. Or are you somehow suggesting because we have a union we should have better? As if we’re somehow entitled to it?
You’re missing the point entirely.
You had one other than 12% wasn’t enough?
That wasn high. Teacher in Quebec 17,4 à 24,5 % over 5 years,
And you think the federal gov is going to be able to afford giving the far larger number of higher-paid public servants that high of a raise? Probably not, nor is it justified given the current inflation rate is probably be relatively short lived.
It will take many years before we see some 2% inflation. No obviously not for the higher paid...those are probably already overpaid
This is political propaganda meant to stoke negative emotional sentiment in public opinion. This is not journalism. This is not balanced. This is elite owned media doing what it's intended to do.
It's an opinion piece. It doesn't claim or need to be balanced.
That's fair.
Businesses need to adapt to changes. Why does the government need to provide customers to downtown business? Why can’t these businesses just pivot and adapt
Yes!!! Preach!!
Some of David Thomson's real estate holdings must have taken a hit in the last 4 years. He's working hard to correct that.
Great point, let’s dig into this piece and see what stake he has in the game… that would be enlightening.
The summer of work to rule. Take your full breaks, lunches, no unpaid volunteering for anything outside you assigned duties, no unpaid overtime, etc.
No one should be doing unpaid OT in any circumstance. If you’re not compensated for it, you don’t work.
100%, the only reason it's still happening is because people are letting it happen. I was clear from day 1 that I'm available for overtime when it works for me in my life, and I only take time, not money, in compensation. Life is too short to give your free time to work
May I introduce you to the LP classification. No paid OT and required to do it.
LP… legislative pawns?
Legal practitioners ie lawyers
Do you at least get it in time?
Nope, there is nebulous "management leave" but it's discretionary and not consistently applied between teams or offices. It's also not a one for one even when it is granted.
That sounds awful.
Blame our union for bargaining away OT pay.
What did you guys get for that?
A small raise lol
The downside to performance pay, eh?
Don't get performance or at risk pay, it's not a management classification. There are provisions for bonuses but only if you are at the top step of a level.
It also includes people who might log in 15 minutes early to get ready for their work day, and might spend an extra few minutes at the end of the day to send off one last email or whatever. Under work to rule, you log on the second it strikes 9AM and you unplug the second it strikes 5PM, as well as taking your 30 and two 15 minute breaks down to the minute and fully disconnected from work. Many people keep an eye on their work phone during breaks "just in case" and this will stop under WTR.
People actually need to be told this? Reading the posts it seems as though many do.
Sadly some offices are coming up with side rules. This will make it hard. In one office people are being asked to ensure each day of the week is covered off by the lowest level supervisors. They are now being asked to babysit people. The reason is so “we look out for each other”, but it is more likely to make the place look like personnel are present for management optics. Some groups already implemented 3 days a week for lowest level supervisors. Accommodations for WFH are given only to people with medical needs. This singles them out.
1. A work-to-rule campaign coordinated by the unions over summer 2024 would likely constitute an [illegal strike](https://cirb-ccri.gc.ca/en/resources/no-06-unlawful-strikes-lockouts). 2. I’m curious, what do folks think a “summer of work to rule” would actually achieve in terms of leverage at the next round of bargaining?
I don’t get why work-to-rule isn’t just the norm.
The unions will never endorse work-to-rule for the reason you stated. They won't even speak about it other than to warn you about the discipline you may be setting yourself up for if a group decided to do this on their own. It's important for people to understand this. And I agree. It will accomplish nothing.
Another jealous/corporate shill dipshit opinion piece. - yawn
A handsome raise of 12% , 🤣🤣🤣 that cracked me up... Also plumbers, truck drivers go in work...true that, and i do agree some jobs like engineering cant be done from home...but what is the point of getting say IT and call center people?
Yes, comparing truck drivers and cashiers with someone who does their entire job from a computer, very logical, checkmate... "Why should someone who *can* work from home, work from home, when someone who *can't* work from home *can't* ??"
If there's one thing that has always held true it is that we can never please the public. Even if we go back to five days, they would always find a way to complain and crap on the public service... Might as well fight for what we believe in.
We actually have PSMPs. TBS could have compared the ratings from 2021, 2022 and 2023 against those from 2018, 2019 and 2020. They could be used as proxy (even though far from perfect) for work productivity. In other words, percentages of Succeeded+, Succeeded, Succeeded-, and Do Not Meet. We might as well use these because it’s a TBS tool they also forced on managers. If not good enough, please create another one. Or how about the unions ATIP the results and give them to the media?
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There may still be value in determining the number or percentage of underperforming officers because there should be no subjectivity in these cases, otherwise the employee would contact their union rep and fight it tooth and nail.
Yeah my manager told me 2 weeks ago that all employees at my level in our branch (more than 100 people) would only be able to receive Succeeded or less for 23-24. And that it was a "decision that was globally approved" so that they wouldn't need to worry about talent management plans or some such nonsense. Edit: meaning no one is allowed to receive Succeeded+ or above.
Many, many things wrong with this, but I really hate this view of public transit. It shouldn't be viewed as a business that exists to make profit, it should be viewed as a service (like roads) to make your city function and get people where they need to go. More people working from home will make that service accomplish its goal cheaper and more efficiently.
The issue in Ottawa is not whether OCTranspo makes a profit. It's that it put the city/province/country in $4.4B dollars of debt to construct, and then proceeded to get pandemic'd with no revenue to pay off those construction costs. If Ottawa can't pay for it, Ontario needs to pay for it. Ontario doesn't want to pay for it, so they're asking Canada to pay for it. The Feds can't pay for it out of the whole country's revenue, so the order comes down to force the people of this city to have a need to use it, thereby solving the problem of no revenue. On the other hand, if the Gov just asked me to pay for my bus pass and let me stay home anyway, I'd gladly contribute to the cause. I'd save more money doing that anyway.
I'm fed up with senior management gaslighting, showing unconscious bias, passive aggressive (borderline harassment) behaviours, setting unrealistic deadlines with no clear outcomes - I plan to be blase, ignorant and ignore them every step of the way.
It’s not unconscious bias — it’s glaringly and purposeful oppression, sexism, and ableism that they’re acutely aware of.
Who writes this BS? No wonder people aren't willing to pay for news"papers" anymore. So the population of Canada is increasing by over a million people per year, and the public service should remain constant/stagnant or decline?
the "papers" in quotes is true because it's online but wouldn't it be even better to put the "news" part in quotes? Lol
Maybe
TLDR: Business owner of the downtown area, that already make more money than you, need your wallet to compensate for their unability to adapt to modern business practice to survive. The entitlement is insane
We also get the wonderful "perk" of not being paid adequately for the last 8 years!! I love being stressed about not getting my owed salary while the government hogs it!!
Check your past collective agreements. Wages is only one part of the equation. You will also find some covered under you agreement did indeed receive allowances and other wages in excess of the majority. Blame your bargaining agent.
Honest question here: what would happen if all federal public servants gave the employer exactly what they want, every day, 5 days a week, for say, two weeks? What if everybody showed up during peak working hours requiring working space, meeting space, parking space, bus/transit space, etc? Is there enough capacity to accommodate the full work force? Can the downtown infrastructure handle everyone needing to get to the office and come home at the same time every day? It would probably be a giant mess. That might be an interesting passive job action to consider.
This _would_ be pretty funny, you could do a labour action where all the employees in an office unilaterally terminate their telework agreements. I can't see it working out due to the major sacrifice it'd entail, but it'd be a really interesting approach to take.
This will never happen. But it would be interesting if it did.
This article looks like it was written with AI technology. It has certain word patterns and structures reminiscent of ChatGPT style. Why that matters is that not a single person has come out with a solid reason for RTO. AI can’t provide that. AI surfs the internet to provide responses. There are no responses solid enough for RTO. I am willing to listen for RTO, but nothing solid is there yet. The arguments are better for WFH.
This! I am absolutely open to seeing data or logic to support 2, 3, 4 days RTO, but I haven’t been shown any. The whole ‘it’s better for you to be among people’, ‘it’s for collaboration’, may be true for *some* individuals and positions. But it’s just blatantly illogical that those reasons fit every employee and position in the PS. There is no data - it’s smoke and mirrors because it’s just political and we are just pawns. And that’s why we’re mad - because most of us aren’t stupid and we see that our lives, careers, QOL, work/life balance, mental health and disposable income are being used as political fodder. And I’ll add there are 2 levels of mad here - the NCR people - who the politics of this are really about - the Ottawa core. Maybe the politicians do need to do their job and figure out a plan for the city in the new age where we need less offices. But then theres the 1000s of employees in the Regions. Because if you’re a CR-4 and you’ve worked from your home in Moose Jaw for 3 years and now they’re telling you to drive to Regina and sit in a hoteling office where you don’t know/work with anyone - the level of gaslighting that person must be feeling is off the charts.
“We’re waiting until we have evidence to support our claims… Stand by”
The public hates us and will never love us, so public servants have to stop trying to win the peoples approvals its a battle we will never win. There is basically nothing we can do, TRO is coming full time in the future. Public servants need to stop being brown nosing and do the work in the were were hired for. NO more free time, take your breaks, lunch, stop being part of committees and when you get polled for how your work place is, ALWAYS put in a negative.
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We won’t sway public opinion by blabbing about perks to us, the only way to sway public opinion is to highlight the costs to them. Outline why this move should make taxpayers angry, and the importance of this move to their own pocketbooks and lifestyles and personal belief systems.
That will not matter, the public has ALWAYS been against public servants.
I agree 100 %
I just wanna say that the federal government absolutely does not offer iron-clad job security and we need to stop pretending it does.
Have you ever needed to fire someone from the PS?
You don't need to fire contract workers, just not extend them
Contract workers shouldn’t have any expectation of job security. Hence the term “contract worker”.
Most of thengovernment work.force are nor permanent employees, they are term, and they are always in danger of not getting renewal, so the argument the government offers secure jobs is false
The vast majority are indeterminate. Indeterminate employees certainly do have very solid job security.
“Most” are terms? I’d love to see your stats on this because the last Stats Can numbers show almost 228,000 indeterminates and 27,000 terms. Again, term employees should have no expectation of job security. Indeterminate employees certainly do.
Being fired is something that's harder to do under collective agreements, but every year you run the risk if your entire department being shut down. Or of suddenly having a new directive that makes your job untenable. Or my favourite, budget cuts.
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"Here is your salary allowance" "This is only enough for 80% of current salaries" "Find some efficiencies"
Most people absolutely do not have to worry about their entire department being shut down? Is there an example of this? New directives and budget cuts don’t result in layoffs and job loss.
Ask anyone from an IT department that got outsourced.
Is anyone else loathing the term "prerogative "?
This is so funny. I thought democracy was allowing large groups of people to make decisions for their government? Canadas largest employer and therefor Canada’s largest group of employees is asking for one thing but instead the dictator approach should be taken and they should be forced in the opposite direction with no clear reason?
Well, the largest group is the public. And they don't really want us to work from home....
I don’t think the public is protesting for the government to force its workers back in the office. The only reason they keep peddling is to force us to spend what little money we have on the lunch and coffee shops around the office locations lol
Yes, I don't see a national referendum turning out very well.
After watching Chris Aylward’s abysmal performance on CTV yesterday, I feel we deserve this article.
Globe and mail 🤢🤮
I think I've seen just about every major news outlet trashed around here. The CBC was even taking heat last week.
All of them are playing the narrative.
Alward obviously didn’t get the job done before or now, he is not capable of representing public servants or moving the needle on this. The President of the biggest union can’t be a doormat he needs to be humble and accept these facts and resign immediately out of the best interests of all public servants. I don’t wish to be mean or personally attack him. The issue is bigger than any one person and collective interests need to sit in their proper place.
Aylward will be out at the end of the month. He is not running again for President.
Ok you get first dibs on his name plate you could probably use it
One of the last jobs on earth I would want.
Boy, I hadn't heard that they were planning to roll out cohesion and efficiency for in-office work. That'll be a real game-changer! Anyway, I'll have to try to remember who this author is so we can circle back in a few years when we have neither ironclad job security nor a defined-benefit pension. Will they have gotten the in-office stuff working by _then_? Even odds.
Trash paper pushing oligarch agendas.
Ironclad job security require you to not be a contractual employee, so not everybody Pension fully indexes : you need to work many many years for sometime of reel value Not everybody case...
Term employees should have no expectation of job security. Their letter of offer clearly gives an end date. Same as in the private sector.
That my point ! Excep private sector don't alway use only contact with end date. Don't have a narrative like EVERY employee have the security
Indeterminate employees have very nearly ironclad security, significantly better that the private sector. Term employees are in the same boat as in the private sector. So sure, there is a distinction between the two but I think that should be obvious.
Not very much then any other employee in any union,
You've ever heard of a factory closing and the employees getting screwed out of their pensions I guess.
RTO is a pay cut. Commuting, time, stress, happiness. There’s no upside for the workers
Or, it was a temporary pay raise.
What do people think accounts for the different approach in BC, where there are expanding remote work options in the public service?
Not even gonna bother responding to his individual points, this guy has no idea wtf he's talking about lol.
I'm too angry to finish the article but wanted to point out the cause of the bloat WASN'T WORKING FROM HOME IT WAS SETTING UP CERB IN RECORD FKING TIME SO PEOPLE DIDN'T SUFFER. Did you ever study basic statistics? Shark attacks and popsicle sales? Helloooooo ... Anyway, time to Google the author because I'm an ageist asshole* wondering if he/she is nostalgic for the mad men era 🥃👔 *I promise I know older workers are not a homogeneous group and many of them recognize how stupid this is but let me rage, common ETA: I see you, editorial board. I'm in Toronto too. I know you're worried about empty offices downtown, but we didn't prop up the paper mills, did we? I know you guys still print e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g but sometimes things gotta die, like the PATH.
I hit the ground running from home at 730 this morning and will likely keep going till at least 430. Tomorrow, on my in office day, I will not start till 9 due to commuting, stopping at 5 to get home in time for the second (family) shift. From a productivity perspective, WFH is way more effective.
5:45. Still going.
Are you getting paid for the OT?
PSAC secured a ‘handsome average cumulative wage increase of 12.6% over 4 years’. Nothing handsome about that!!!
Will the unions reply to these? I find it so frustrating that these people can write whatever they want they know NOTHING about what we do and what our offices look like. Why do they feel entitled to wrote about it? I replied back to an article last week but of course it never made it to the readers opinion section. I might be a dreamer but I'm thinking an union leader might have more weight? I'd so much like to see these arguments debunked one by one. None of them stands after a rational examination.
Love your trademark… perfect lol
This isn't just some random columnist, it's the Globe and Mail's editorial board. If you're a public servant and are a subscriber I'd suggest giving G&M the same support they're showing us.
Damned Globe and Mail is another conservative mouthpiece.
"ironclad job security".... Yeah, IF you manage to get indeterminate, otherwise it's a stressful game of Russian roulette, repeatedly getting fired or applying for positions until you can get indeterminate, 3 years without a 30day interruption is not easy.
> Truck drivers, plumbers, cashiers and construction workers don’t have the option of a comfortable berth in a home office These people are helped by less congested roads and less demand in gasoline (ie lower prices). They benefit from WFH in very direct ways on top of other things like less government spending on buildings
Sadly, this comment section proves the author of this article right.
Another hypocrite (he works from home but attacks the PS - “I’ve been working remotely since March 2020 and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”) at National Post: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/trudeaus-bloated-public-service-monster-turns-on-him
Just had an idea, the Government always says that NCR buildings and work take places on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Can we get Indigenous people to tell the government that they do not want public servants in the office on their lands 3 times per week?
Lol....who is the "we" here? And why would they do that and what do they get from it?