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blogcutterWhether you define Management as Treasury Board, the Privy Council Office, the Prime Minister's Office, the Prime Minister himself or someone or something else, I'm genuine baffled at the reasoning behind the back-to-the-office orders for federal public servants. Not that it really affects me personally as a retiree, although I think my 3+ decades as a federal worker should qualify me to weigh in on the issue!
My Public Service career began in the 1970s with a succession of summer and part-time jobs, before evolving after a couple of Masters' degrees into a series of progressively more responsible positions in Departmental and Agency libraries. Over the years, there were some brutally hot summer days when we had to be sent home because the buildings weren't air-conditioned; there were some epic snowstorms and ice storms and other extreme weather events; unsafe indoor air (think, for example, asbestos, mould, UFFI, spilt chemicals ...); computer downtime because in their wisdom, the powers that be assumed automation was the be-all and end-all and so manual procedures were totally abandoned; and so on and so forth. Anyway, my point is that there were multiple occasions, long before the pandemic lockdowns, when federal public servants were sent home because they were simply unable, because of some force majeure, to be productive.
How, precisely, was this beneficial from an Employer standpoint?!
Now, of course, the situation is ten times (or more) worse: federal buildings in critical condition and plagued by vermin, the dire situation with public transit, at least in Ottawa, the housing crisis - most public servants still in the workforce simply don't have a viable office to go back to!
If the above-mentioned problems could be resolved, I suspect many public servants would be quite glad to return to the workplace. There's a huge variety of jobs in a large organization like the Public Service. Some jobs lend themselves well to telecommuting, others not so much. Ditto with people.
At the moment, Bruce Fanjoy seems to be the only MP willing to stick his neck out and say that the back-to-office mandate might not be the brightest idea that Management has come up with. Other MPs are much more reticent, generally toeing the party line and hiding behind the weasel words "No Comment!"
I find it all rather ironic. For my entire career, I (along with other public servants) was cautioned against becoming too politically involved. On the other hand, politicians are SUPPOSED to be politically involved. I'm too loyal to my former employer to name names, but let's just say that one current Ottawa-area MP and one current Gatineau-area MP were public servants and regular clients of mine in the libraries where I worked, before they left to run for office. Now they're refusing to comment publicly?
What's the world and the country coming to?
My Public Service career began in the 1970s with a succession of summer and part-time jobs, before evolving after a couple of Masters' degrees into a series of progressively more responsible positions in Departmental and Agency libraries. Over the years, there were some brutally hot summer days when we had to be sent home because the buildings weren't air-conditioned; there were some epic snowstorms and ice storms and other extreme weather events; unsafe indoor air (think, for example, asbestos, mould, UFFI, spilt chemicals ...); computer downtime because in their wisdom, the powers that be assumed automation was the be-all and end-all and so manual procedures were totally abandoned; and so on and so forth. Anyway, my point is that there were multiple occasions, long before the pandemic lockdowns, when federal public servants were sent home because they were simply unable, because of some force majeure, to be productive.
How, precisely, was this beneficial from an Employer standpoint?!
Now, of course, the situation is ten times (or more) worse: federal buildings in critical condition and plagued by vermin, the dire situation with public transit, at least in Ottawa, the housing crisis - most public servants still in the workforce simply don't have a viable office to go back to!
If the above-mentioned problems could be resolved, I suspect many public servants would be quite glad to return to the workplace. There's a huge variety of jobs in a large organization like the Public Service. Some jobs lend themselves well to telecommuting, others not so much. Ditto with people.
At the moment, Bruce Fanjoy seems to be the only MP willing to stick his neck out and say that the back-to-office mandate might not be the brightest idea that Management has come up with. Other MPs are much more reticent, generally toeing the party line and hiding behind the weasel words "No Comment!"
I find it all rather ironic. For my entire career, I (along with other public servants) was cautioned against becoming too politically involved. On the other hand, politicians are SUPPOSED to be politically involved. I'm too loyal to my former employer to name names, but let's just say that one current Ottawa-area MP and one current Gatineau-area MP were public servants and regular clients of mine in the libraries where I worked, before they left to run for office. Now they're refusing to comment publicly?
What's the world and the country coming to?
(no subject)
Date: 2026-02-12 10:36 pm (UTC)