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As someone who worked for over 33 years as a federal public servant, some of it part-time and most of it as a member of one or other of the two largest public service unions, I have quite a lot to say about the return-to-the-office order that takes effect today.

Some of my union-sibs (I remain a member of PIPSC, in the Retired Members Guild) may take exception to the fact that in my working years, I honestly preferred to go to the office to work. I valued having a clean break between work time and personal or family time. That said, the public service office of the 1970s and that of the 2020s are two very different environments. Technological and social advancements (or regressions, depending on your point of view) have steadily blurred the boundaries between time you can call your own and time on the Government's dime.

Here are some other things I valued as an in-office worker back in the day:

1. I had my own workspace, be it ever so humble. I could personalize it a bit with photos of the family, posters or whatever, as long as they weren't racist, pornographic or overtly political.

2. Someone else was responsible for ordering and providing the necessary equipment, stationery and supplies. Also for vacuuming and cleaning the floors, emptying the wastebaskets, cleaning the toilets and so forth. There was also a cafeteria with reasonable prices and usually acceptable food. If you preferred to brown-bag it, many government workplaces also had a lunchroom or lunch area, with a mini-fridge and microwave oven.

3. Management has adopted the slogan that public service work is a "team sport". I must confess that while I got quite fed up with retreats, "team-building" or "morale-boosting" exercises and such over the course of my career, there were certain features of the social life of the office that I definitely appreciated. Things like going out for lunch together if someone was leaving. The Christmas pot-luck spread, where there was always something suitable for us vegetarians (one of my colleagues used to bring in some wonderful samosas). The annual picnic. These are some of the things I genuinely miss now that I'm retired.

But let's talk just about the work itself. In the olden days, certain times of the year were extremely busy while at other times, the workload was relatively light. If you went in to work during a light workload time, you still got paid, even if you weren't doing your regular work. Most times you could still be productive, though. Maybe starting on a long-postponed project that just wasn't feasible before. Maybe helping another section, where the ebbs and flows of workload were different from yours. Maybe catching up on some professional reading or discussing new ideas with your colleagues.

Seen from a unionist perspective, I wonder if the great strike of 1991 would have been as successful as it was, if everyone had been working from home? And what of the decades-long battle for pay equity?

I do find it interesting that for a change, the back-to-the-office requirements (4 days a week) for the executives are actually more stringent than those for the folks in the trenches (3 days a week). Mind you, they presumably all have nice offices with doors (maybe even windows) and staff they can call on at whatever hour of the day or night. But still ...


I know we can't turn back the clock. Working from home was a public health imperative when the pandemic was at its peak. It remains so for some workers. Even if the Employer generally has the right to dictate conditions of work, Employers also have the obligation of reasonable accommodation of individual employee needs, and of ensuring occupational health and safety requirements are met.

The enforced hybrid work arrangements were imposed in a very ham-fisted manner, whatever our labour laws may be. I'm a big believer in labour-management consultations. The interests of employees and top brass are not always at cross-purposes!

It would seem to me that at the very least, those employees who were happily and successfully working from home 24/7 before the pandemic lockdowns should be allowed to continue to do so. As for the others, who have had over four years to experience the pros and cons of a home office, surely that has to involve a process of consultation and negotiation? The move towards more "flexible" work arrangements actually began several decades ago. But the question that doesn't seem to have been answered satisfactorily as yet is "Flexible for whom?"

I suspect the current Treasury Board president is likely to be a little more reasonable in negotiations than whoever we get after the next election. There's work to be done here, and the sooner the better.

But to end on a somewhat hopeful note, my advice to those still in the workforce would be: Don't despair, fonctionnaires!

https://www.ottawalittletheatre.com/ProductionHistory/PlayProduction.php?productionid=427

As quoted in an article by Sharon Kirkey in today's paper, University of Ottawa professor Amir Attaran is sharply critical of our prime minister for failing to implement a national COVID-19 strategy:

https://theworldnews.net/ca-news/as-covid-19-smoulders-in-multiple-regions-experts-question-why-canada-has-no-national-strategy

Maybe he has a point, but I'm not altogether convinced. He thinks the current Trudeau ought to be doing precisely what another Trudeau did fifty years ago - invoke the Emergencies Act (known back then as the War Measures Act) - and was widely criticized for. Well, fuddle-duddle to that, I say!

It all leads me to speculate what life would have been like in decades gone by, if the Covid-19 pandemic had hit us back then.

Covid-60: I was in a split grade 1-2 class here in Ottawa, at Vincent Massey school. They had split grades back then too, not because there were too few kids to have separate classes but because there were too MANY - and too few teachers available to teach them. As I recall, there were about 45 kids in the class. Some of us had to share desks. Can you imagine trying to do physical distancing under those conditions? Online schooling was definitely not an option. No one had home computers in those days! We did have telephones and radios and even TV - black and white, with only one or two channels that didn't begin their broadcasting day until around noon.

Okay, so let's talk about day-to-day life. Shopping could be done at what we now call "bricks and mortar" stores, or by leafing through the Simpsons-Sears or Eaton's catalogue, phoning in your order and getting it delivered. Well, delivery services are one thing that's definitely making a comeback these days, though I don't hold out much hope for the restoration of our six-day-a-week door-to-door mail deliveries! Online ordering? Nope, though mail-order catalogues were definitely a thing. They'd often do COD orders too!

What about health care? There were one or two positives. Doctors usually made house calls if the illness was serious enough. And there were plenty of serious illnesses you couldn't get vaccinated against in those days! Most schools also had a nurse on site full-time. As I recall, Medicare was in its infancy and not that many people had extended health care coverage through their employers. We worry now about "twindemics" and the co-existence of flu and Covid-19 but back then, there were several pandemic threats still lurking in the background: polio, tuberculosis and all the typical childhood diseases like measles, mumps and chicken pox.

Okay, enough of that. Maybe I'll do another Throwback Thursday next week and tackle Covid-70.