Civil service - will you strike?

[Probablygreen]

My department has been informed today that we must now return to the office at least 4 days a week. I only joined CS 6 months ago after applying for a role that was advertised as 60/40 hybrid (2 days in the office per week). The pay is nowhere near what I’d get in private sector but I didn’t join for that, I joined purely for the flexible benefits. We’ve already been told we’ll get a maximum of a 2% pay rise this year after years of freezes, I was willing to go along with that but I draw the line here.
I can’t afford at this moment in time to be doubling the amount I pay for parking and the amount I pay for commuting. In addition, I just don’t want my work/life balance to go back to how it was before, I was run into the ground working full time from an office, raising 2 young kids (one with SEND) and running a home. Yes, I have a partner that does 50% but he works full time too. With hybrid working I could drop off my children and pick them up 2 days a week. That will be gone now. On top of the increased commuting costs, I’ll also have to find money for childcare an extra 2 days a week. I think there’s an element of discrimination against women because, let’s be honest here, we’re the ones who will be leaving in droves because we can’t reconcile the benefits any longer.
I know there are people who don’t have the benefit of hybrid working, but that’s a choice. I chose hybrid and now it’s completely out of my control even though I have followed to the letter what was asked of us.
If you work for CS and the union ask you to strike, will you?

All this, with bells on 👏

your luxurious lunch hours

lol, you do sound bitter. What a load of tripe. Don't you know that stupidity is drinking poison and expecting the other person to die,

either that or we have a Daily Fail reporter in our midst.

I love how you can't bring yourself to refer to a lunch hour, it has to be a luxury lunch hour. What do you think we do during our luxury lunch hour, have our toenails painted?

Clearly you've never actually worked for the Civil Service or you wouldn't come out with such utter rot.

@Swayingpalmtrees

and no, none of my department will be striking, we don't need to and we have too much work to do to have even given striking a second thought.

Could be wrong but for those fixating on a lunch hour, as a symbol of lazy, cosseted desk warriors, this was an unpaid lunch hour in some employment contracts that turned , for example, a notional 42.4 hour working week into a 37.2 week which was a technicality or artifact as most people's flexitime hours meant they'd take a minimum of 30 minutes and usually work at their desks if not public-facing. Factor in unpaid overtime in many offices and for senior grades and it geniunly was an artifact. Things might have changed but it was usually an issue when dedicated staff wouldn't take any break and line managers needed to have a chat. Might have changed and might have been different in different Departments.

Have you all finished now??
A job for life, gold plated pensions, hybrid working and still you want more?

It is truly disgusting to listen to - the entitlement and performative outrage of striking. Pathetic. You should be grateful you still have a job, I couldn't work with most of you - negative and small minded and totally lacking in any real world concept. I think you have indeed been WFH bubble for far too long and lost all perspective.

Time to go back to the real world folks.

Have a biscuit sway ** or come join us! Plenty of jobs on the Civil Service website!

Loads of biscuits, loads of fun and loads of nice colleagues to work with.

oh, and loads of annual leave, yay

Resurrecting this thread in light of the current headlines again. Have any other departments caved on WFH/Hybrid?

Benefit delivery here, not yet backtracked on hybrid working but it wouldn't surprise me if that happens. Morale low in my particular department/area too as they are closing offices in our region to 'centralise' jobs...so more slashing of back office workers. Unfortunately when the public realise the effect it will have on the service we deliver it will be too late. It only made a brief headline on the BBC a month or so ago.. ...

Totally agree that this negatively impacts on women specifically. I hope civil servants do strike, it’s complete bollocks and will lose productive and qualified staff at a time when the civil service needs people who will work all the hours on a skeleton team for low pay. We want the best people delivering public services. Not the Tories’ mates via private sector contracts.

when you have an office with 40 desks and 150 people - its not going to work is it.
Some of our offices now have rota systems - you can’t be in more than 2 days a week

It's all smoke and mirrors. Tories judging the public sector by their own low morals and proven lack of commitment to their own work. Hopefully the general public won't be fooled by these tactics.

I work for one of the regulators and we've been told that despite all shite being spouted by BoJo and the rest of his clowns, we will still be doing hybrid working, with a minimum of 1 day a week in the office. Suits me fine. We simply don't have the desk space for all of the staff, and hybrid working was already well established before Covid.

This is a Tory strategy to get true of a bloated civil service I think. There’s always been far too many people in central government and putting them off by demanding hours in the office is a great way to work around the union and reduce headcount without massive redundancy payouts.

I am ex civil service fast stream btw.

I'm MoD - we're still hybrid working - well smarter working we're calling it - not one single acknowledgement of the all the back to the office!

Rhetoric!

I will absolutely strike, yes. I can imagine that most of the people I work with will too.