To ask if Civil Service are really enforcing the hybrid work policy to the letter?

[Lilifer]

I hope some CIvil Service employees can help me here. I about to leave a job for a position in the civil service. My current job is 90% remote and I love the work and my team but it's s big US corporation and the holiday and time off is quite restricted compared to the civil service which I think offers s better work life balance, flexitime more annual leave etc

The civil service Job ad says their policy is 2 days in office and 3 days work from home. Problem is I live 55 miles from office and nearby parking is £25-£30 a day and there's no civil service discount becasue there's so much demand for it that there's a waiting list. I did not know that when I accepted Job and now this adds £50-60 per week to my commute bill., as well as about £40 per week on fuel.

Are there any CS employees out there who can advise me how much flexibility there is in individual departments on the hybrid policy. Do they take in to account individual Circs such as how far away people live and the likely cost to them of parking etc or is it a rigid rule set for all regardless of circs?

Am quite worried about this and am thinking of now reversing my resignation in my current job. I really really wanted this cs job and if they can allow me to work a bit less in office then I don't mind a bit of extra expense but can't justify £200-£240 per month just for parking and the same amount again for fuel.

Where I am, yes they are. We’ve been lucky on my team in that we can choose our own days but other colleagues have their days imposed on them.

The CS is also very subject to political pressure, in a way that private businesses aren't. If the government decides that it wants all Civil servants in the office 3 days a week, pressure will be applied to make that happe. This will be beyond your control, and beyond your manager's control.

You need to speak to the person who is hiring you. I have come across people who are allowed to work at home but only in the context of having unusual skills or a disability.

My dept HMRC, ask for 3 days because our offices cannot accommodate everyone 5 days a week. In practice at present, some people do less than 3 days, however these tend to be people with a disability or caring responsibilities.

There are other plus points though.... I am expected in the office 3 days a week, but I get flexitime, which is a major perk. If I work over my hours I can claim that time back. I've also got a lot of autonomy over when/where I work in that I can choose which 3 days to go into the office, and choose how to spread my hours across the week (within reason, there are some core hours).

Rees-Mogg made things hard for civil servants and was very public about making them seem lazy (completely untrue) by wfh and its now difficult for depts to step back from this pressure!

What a dickhead that man is 😓

Thank you. Yes I may have another chat with my future boss, she seems really accommodating.

In my dept it is fairly strict but no one really checks iyswim, so if you asked the question of my manager they’d have to say yes you have to do 3 days in, but in reality it’s not monitored much.
For a while I also worked a compressed week over 4 days and one of my reasons was that then I only really had to come in 2 days, maybe that’s worth considering.

Strictly enforced in my sibling’s department and monitored by data from swiping in and out the building using their security pass. Sounds like it varies though so worth checking.

have you looked into public transport?

Blimey, that does sound strict. What if he was working on the Monday and on leave Tues to Fri - would they expect him to be in the office on the Monday?

There’s plenty of jobs I’d like to apply for but they don’t work for my individual circumstances and so I don’t apply for them but the OP didn't know about the expensive parking until after she'd applied. Although I've got to say I wouldn't apply for a job 55 miles away regardless, that is just too far unless you really only have go in once a month or something.

As an aside, 3 days a week in the office is silly, because 3 days rail travel costs the same as a 5 day a week season ticket. If you work where people commute by train, it needs to be 2 days office/3 days remote. If people drive it's obviously different

I should say also that to begin with I thought I wanted to be at home more but being quite new I’ve found I really like going in and learn a lot from being there

If you can tell us what dept, you may be able to get really specific answers.

For example, if HMRC - they have recently introduced new standard T&Cs as part of a pay and contract reform deal. Managers are very reluctant to approve < 3 days a week unless there is a health need in my experience.

A few older employees are on home working contracts because their old regional office closed, and they were a long distance from the new regional centre. This won't apply for new joiners though as the job will be advertised at the new office from the outset.

Can they fire you if you can't make the 2 day quota regularily?

Of course they can. They can fire you for any reason that isn’t discriminatory in the first 2 years.

Probation doesn’t really mean anything. You’re not “safe” after you’ve passed it.

Train companies have introduced flexi season tickets (aimed at 2-3 days of travel a week) for exactly this reason.

Train companies have introduced flexi season tickets (aimed at 2-3 days of travel a week) for exactly this reason.

Oh they're shit though, I tried looking at this and it was still extortionately expensive vs paying as you go. They have to be used up within a really limited time and are still quite a high number of travel days. Not suitable for those doing less than 3 days a week.

Every civil service dept is different. Im a civil servant and work 1 day per week in the office, flexible hours. They are great with it and trust employee to manage it, no clocking in or logging hours.

Probably missing the point, but anywhere with parking that spendy is bound to have a park and ride scheme. For my office days I do the easy bit of the drive, leave car in outskirts of city and pay a few quid for a bus to the centre. No stressy city driving and no parking fees.

Would compressed hours work so 5days in 4days or a 9d fortnight so you could get away with 1d in the office. If you have an in demand skill set negotiate now not once you have started.

Where is the office if the parking is £45
Most of the cities with large offices have a park and ride (Leeds , York, Sheffield, Bristol etc )

Varies hugely. As a manager, I don’t care where someone is as long as the person communicates well, and does their work well and to time. We no longer have a tracker, so there’s no official way of knowing how many people are in offices, other than through desk bookings which would be easy to manipulate if people so chose.

But there is always the risk that I’m asked to enforce office attendance due to a political ask - and if asked, I would have to do it. I’m pretty sure one of my team would resign (it would be a shame, she’s excellent) and we might well need to work out formal reasonable adjustments for another couple of people, rather than just being informally flexible.

From my experience there is some pressure from the higher ups but ultimately it depends on your direct management chain. I don't believe we are activley monitired on any corporate level for WFH and they haven't outright suggested any loss in productivity (for our area at least).

Originally it was come in for a purpose and officially it still is, but I think a lot of people are used to the 'old ways' of working and struggle with IT/ not seeing people in person. They then enforce using the office on everyone regardless of how they feel about it.

mine is 2/5 in office. there is some flexibility in that it is measured over a 4 week rolling period so you could potentially do 4 days one week and none the next but there is no flexibility in the 40% over the 4 week period and it’s regularly monitored. it’s a political hot potato - civil servants at their desks- so the view is we have to stick to it or else hybrid will be pulled and we will need to be in office 100% as before

Is that really the only parking available? Look in a radius of a 20-30 min walk or even a short bus ride away? I assuming it must be city centre at that cost

I agree with you.

It’s 40% of time in my dept (rather than the number of days). It’s monitored and they’re moving to enforcement.