Civil service 60% mandate

[meagert]

What have your managers said to you? Do you think your department/SCS/line manager will be strict on this? Or do you think it'll be like the last time they tried a departmental push where it was a bit ad hoc?!

Possibly too soon to tell, our SCS haven't said very much yet and will "be in touch soon".

@PastorCarrBonarra ironically HMRC are one of the departments that have been 60% for a while now and quite hard line with enforcement from what I understand, and yes I doubt it's had any positive impact!

Currently on maternity leave so I haven't seen the latest emails but my TLB has been stating 60/40 in the office for the last couple of years. It has never actually been enforced at a local level though. I'm another one with no actual team members in my local office so if it were to be enforced, I would want to know what the point is for me.

@Astonishing you can still "collaborate and share ideas" apparently

This is one of those issues where you need to aggressively work to rule. They want people in 60%? then you turn up for 60% of the time and when you get to the office and there are twice as many people as desk, you waste half your day attempting to find someplace to work. Performance will plummet.

This will not last -it's just not practical any more. There will be lip service until there's an election.

@meagert interesting, I'll watch this from afar (husband is also CS) and see what the situation is next year. I suspect like a lot of things, it'll be all the rage for a while and then blow over. At least I'm lucky enough to have a line management chain filled with common sense but good luck to those less fortunate!

Hi, I'm an SCS2 (I won't say which dept) and just wanted to say to those people worrying about office space etc, don't worry. Office space trumps this, so if you don't have the space to work 60%, you won't be expected to. Last thing Cabinet Office wants is depts having to pay more for space to make this work. It's Daily Mail fodder and if places are mostly full most of the time, unlikely to be the focus of much attention. If you're based in a half-empty (since the pandemic) office somewhere in Whitehall then maybe more of an impact.

I am completely devestated by this. I've only been a civil servant for 3 months (deputy head before that) and repeatedly said in my interview that I live 2 hours away from the office and have 2 under 2 in nursery so could not do more than a day a week in the office.
Yet again, working mothers will suffer. My department just won an award for their 'forward thinning' hybrid policy based on trust, and we are one of the lowest paid of all departments, apparently offset by our relaxed hybrid advantage. Not any more.
Gave up my career for this and now I'm screwed.

@User65412 I know it's really stressful, but please try not to panic, I think a lot of this is political hot air. You will have a good case for flexible working. They tried something similar (not quite as cross cutting) 18 months or so ago and it died off in the non operational areas. Nod, smile, play the game, and see where all this hot air goes. What's your manager like?

Thanks @meagert that's really helped. My manager is great (we haven't had a chance to chat about it yet though she said to call her over the weekend if I'm worried, which I won't do!) and the G6s and 7s seem just as disappointed and shocked by the lack of consideration as we are. The thing is with a hybrid contract it's completely meaningless if you basically have to be ready and willing to come in up to 99% of the time!
It was communicated very much as 'this is happening' which is what has spooked me so much. I have no idea what I will do, I cannot drive 4 hours a day for 3 days a week I just don't have and can't afford the extra childcare.
This job saved my life from what had become teaching hell and I love it. I just don't know what I'll do!

@User65412 I can't do 3 days either, 1 day a week is my absolute limit but I will be trying to maintain my 2 days a month. I have written a flexible working request but my manager doesn't want me to submit yet, he's suggested we sit tight and see how it all pans out. Our leaders haven't been given any concrete information as to when this is supposed to be implemented or what the repercussions will be, with the level of upset I seriously doubt their ability to really enforce this. SCS will need to tow the line so they will have to be vague and supportive of the "expectation" but how this looks in reality is yet to be seen.

Do you know what office space is like your area?

Last time they tried this there was a spreadsheet to fill in, you had to specify which 2 days per week you were going to go into an office and which office you were going to go into. Pretty quickly everyone realised that as long as you filled in the spreadsheet no one followed up on whether you actually went in.

@grumpytoddler1 and SCS can report high attendance with wilful ignorance, playing the game

We’ve been told to ignore it for now and that they’re going to try to present a case for us staying on 40% (which is working v well).

Of interest to our household...
Have they said how 60% will be calculated? When DH is in the office, he works far far longer days because I do the school run and vice versa. So he's already in for more than 60% of his time, but not days IYSWIM.

Further, I would have thought and easier target would be compliance with London allowance threshold? I can't recall what in-office % was set to retain it post Covid, but DH has people in his team non-compliant, but can't do anything because there is zero enforcement across the department.

We've been told it's percentage of hours, not days. Some are considering squeezing it into a very long day at the office alongside a long drive each end to get it done. Not exactly good for well-being.
Our office space is 1/5, they're saying we should be utilising the shared office booths etc more so doesn't matter how many desks there are.

We have a spreadsheet. Except it’s the opposite issue from PPs; more people turn up than there is desks.

I’ve had to go home twice since August due to lack of space and I get into London at 9am and we can be in any time up until 09:30. I go in once (occasionally twice) a week ATM (compressed hours for a four day week). My commute is two hours each way. So the fact I’ve had to go home twice in three months is insane.

The churn of staff is going to be awful if they mandate this. We’ve lost 2/10 HEOs in my team since October due to CoL and them being unable to stay in London on a HEO salary so they’ve moved up to SEO.

Those who are worrying - don't. Lie low and keep doing what you're doing until it passes. It's a nightmare to put someone on performance management and only an insane manager would try it (most managers don't want to be in the office either).

Funny how the government provides offices with 1/8th of the desks needed and that smell like a toilet and can't understand why no one will touch them😂

I won’t be going into the office , I work about 120 miles from my home office and if necessary I will use the fact I have disclosed disabilities to block any change from full time working at home

No @CSWife they haven’t said. I doubt very much they’d have that level of sophistication to be honest. They failed to put in an effective system to monitor and enforce with the two day a week thing.

I plan to hold out for a bit because surely they have to accept it will take a while to sort out more childcare etc.

Can someone tell me more about this please? I’ve just applied to the civil service on the basis it was 40% in the office. Is this across all departments? Thanks.

I don't see the problem, i think 40%/2 days a week is a good balance, but i think the problem is there are so many people who only go into the office omce a month or even less which to me is ridiculous. Some elements of my job are made so much harder by never meeting half the people in my team

It’s not ridiculous though if you are going into an office where none of your team members are!

You do that then @Youcancallmeirrelevant

Plenty of people hate the office and struggle to work in it

I fully intend to reach retirement in c. 30 years without ever going back to the office for a full day. And I've got the performance appraisals to back me up ;)

i have a job where I don’t live near any other of my team so what’s the point in me travelling in to sit on my own ? If I work from home I’m far more productive if I’m logged on earlier. If I go into work I lose an hour either way

Yes across all departments and from April. Read all the above from existing civil servants though. Maybe get in touch with your contact in the new job and ask - I can promise that once we have gone though all the recruitment process we don’t want to lose anyone!
My office will abide by the 60%. We do the 40% and it’s tightly audited.