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.

I have a team in the CS, we work a 3/2 hybrid model. I have to enforce it the same across the board for the whole team.

The team was five days in the office pre-Covid and the CS departments that see members of the public are often full time in the office again now. It depends what department you’re in and sometimes what grade or job you’re in.

@ted27 yeah I didn't consider that. Maybe for the SEOs that could be true.

I'm an SEO... haven't been in the office for 5 years.. admittedly on DD for 3 of them but nonetheless no one has asked me to go in.. I am in the SE and G7 in Yorks so how would they know and why would they care as long as the work is done - it's just geography...

Wow! That's great, I guess tho with new joiners they want to start them as they mean to go on, but I'm hoping my new manager will clarify this.

Yes deffo agree with this 🙌🏻

Completely varies by Department. For example I hear from DFE colleagues that 4 days per week is strictly enforced.

Other Departments aren't doing that but I don't think any of them will grant an exemption. The best you can hope for is that the DD doesn't enforce it. But that of course is dependent on their view.

In our place, it's not strictly enforced and visits elsewhere other than the office count. Not sure where you need to get to but if there's an office closer then that could maybe also work.

@AnneElliott

That's interesting- I'm DfE. I'm not aware that 4 days a week is being enforced - strictly or otherwise
I go on once a week for an afternoon as there is no one else in my team in my office

Quite strict in my experience. A family member works for them and lives over 100 miles from the office. They make her go in. Train is expensive and time consuming but they do that over car so they can use journey time to work.

We're having to log our time in and out of the office for the next month and conversations will be happening at a team level if minimum 2 days a week in the office isn't being adhered to.

I’m in an ALB and it’s not enforced at all yet, but we’ve had big changes to our car policy and pension, and together with a massive staff churn they’ve decided not to enforce it yet. Boyfriend is in DfE and his team are on at least 2 days in the office or on a site visit.

I know you don't want to say which city but if it's Leeds you can park gor £10 a day.

They said there wasn't anything else he could do its very frustrating

My best friend works for CS and has been working there since last summer in London and he lives near Brighton, he said that whilst they are fairly flexible he is pretty much expected to show his face at least once every two weeks minimum. He is now looking to complete his year and move on as they've been suggesting people start going in more regularly and his journey in can cost him a fortune and takes up to 2 hours on a bad day. He is also paid well below what the private sector would pay him for the same role. He is grateful for the experience this role offers him as before this he was with a company after his masters for 2 years on training schemes but he knows now he can earn much more and entirely remotely as we are in the same industry and I'm actually less qualified than him but on more money! He spoke to some older people in his team on of whom told him they had been there nearly 25 years and lived in a tiny flat in Croydon, he said that made his mind up that he wouldn't be staying as the progression opportunities seemed appalling.

I’m public sector, not CS - our policy is now 2 office days per week, this seems to be working well and people have adjusted. Our main site now has 300 desks for nearly 900 people, so no chance of a return to 5 days. However until our hybrid policy was finalised, we found it almost impossible to recruit new staff, potential applicants all wanted hybrid (understandably) and the uncertainty around our arrangements was costly. People need to know stuff like this.

There has been another recent thread about CS and hybrid, and one poster mentioned some interesting articles on the PCS union website. My workplace union is UNISON and they have obtained written assurances that hybrid is here to stay. Hoping the CS union can achieve something similar?

Also people who moved many miles away during covid tend to do two days in a row in the office and stay overnight in a cheap hotel or with friends.

Also, partly depends on the role eg if there is an external or ministerial meeting on a sensitive subject then expectations will be that's in person. So some weeks might need to come in 3 or 4 days

Thank you. I can get parking a 20 min walk from office for £10 so that's an option but it adds to an already long commute 😔

I think that this is partly about your expectations of an office role.

A twenty minutes walk is nothing. All major train stations are generally at least that from any central city centre office.

That's what everyone else will be doing.

If it IS Leeds a 55 mile commute will likely take longer than 90 minutes, especially if the journey involves the M62.

Is therea train you can take?
Commuting costs from a distance are horrendous but its generally worth it for cheaper housing

Walking adds to the long commute- but it's exercise on days when you have along commute and might not otherwise do any ?

That's very true! 🙌🏻

The train service is not great, a 30 minute drive to train station and a 1hr15 mins train journey (ridiculously slow train that it takes that long for basically a 50mile journey) and then a ten min walk from city centre station to office so all in all a 2 hour commute but will prob do that one of the days

I guess it depends on which bit of DFE you're in @Ted27. The two people I know who work there do absolutely have to be in 4 days per week - and very few exceptions are made.

I am a line manager (not CS) and we are all expected to be in the office 3 days a week. It is enforced by monitoring our swipe cards. Half my team does not want to come in for various long list of reasons and I am exhausted from trying to make them come in. I don’t think it’s long until HR will take over and there will be one warning and then dismissal. To be honest I can’t wait as I am so tired of it. If you want a wfh contract, then please apply for a job which will offers one. This post isn’t meant just for OP and I hope it works out, but just a line managers perspective. Everyone thinks they are special and deserves special treatment .

My oh had to leave the CS as they wouldn't allow him to work from home when his consultant said he still wasn't well enough to be in the office due to the covid risk he's found them very rigid in their rules