Civil service office attendance query

[intrepidgiraffe]

I’ve applied for an SEO role in the MoJ and have got through to interview stage. The job advert says the role is suitable for full time, part time or job share and that office attendance is required 2 days a week minimum.

If I got the role and worked (hypothetically) 0.5, would it be realistic to get 1 day a week office based agreed (50% of the 2 days stated in the advert)? Or do you think the 2 day minimum is already taking account of part time, and full time would be more?

The role seems a great fit, but would involve a 2 hour commute both ways to the office, and I’m not sure I could make it work if I needed to do the 4 hour round trip more than once a week…

And is there any suggestion the typical 60% requirement might change after the election?

If I did get the job, and went in 1/2 days a week, could I always go in on, say, a Wednesday and Thursday - get childcare arranged, book trains in advance etc, or would there need to be more flexibility to coordinate with colleagues, be in at the same time for meetings etc?

Usually you would have set days which would allow childcare to be arranged but (a) there would be an expectation that you should attend in person training or other required events even if not on your usual days and (b) they may wonder what your child care arrangements are on the days you are wfh. Are you talking about before or after school or working around younger children in the home?

As with anything once you're through probation and they know you and are confident in your abilities more flexibility tends to follow. It's just that the civil service is huge so they have to have some fairly standard procedures for new joiners for reasons of fairness and consistency.

Thanks @NashvilleQueen that's all fair enough. No line management responsibilities. Childcare on wfh days would all be in place, but I would be doing drop offs etc which I wouldn't be able to do on office days due to the very long commute.

I would have thought that would be fine then. Good luck!

I think it's impossible for anyone here to say really, you'd have to phone the vacancy holder (details in the job ad usually). In my experience it really varies in different teams in my department (not MoJ) - we are required to be in 60% and we do have monitoring, but there is no pressure to be in on specific days. Some teams have an unofficial 'team day' when everyone tries to come in to make the most of sitting together, but it is not usually enforced (not in any of the teams I've come in contact with, there may be some managers who do enforce it, I don't know). Some managers may expect you to attend for face to face meetings, but I would expect you should have sufficient notice of these to be able to pre-book train tickets. If you are thinking of only being available to attend the office on specific days (e.g. you could only ever attend in person on a Wednesday) you would be best to agree this up front before starting - I don't know how likely it would be to get agreement, I'm not aware of anyone who has this arrangement but that doesn't necessarily mean it would not be available.

For a job share its not you that joins up with someone when they interview they try for two part people covering a full role

What does PUS mean?

@blackcatstotallyrule - Permanent Under-Secretary! Sorry 😀

They’re the top civil servant in each department - so it’s Antonia Romero for MoJ, Philip Barton and Nick Dwyer for FCDO etc etc.

They agree things such as; office attendance, staff head count, budgets for each directorate, pay etc etc. It’s why different departments currently have different levels of flexible working - I.e. Department for Business and Trade have far more lax rules than, for example, MoD or FCDO. Although the former Govt. wanted people back to the office, it’s the PUS’ who makes the call - including on how it’s enforced.

Thanks, I’ve heard of Permanent Secretaries but not the Under part. In my dept we just talk about the Perm Sec.