Federal Government & Union spar over returning to office

[rmc_wannabe]

As a single dude, I can assure you that I am more productive at home... No pets, no spouse, and no "Jim from finance"

I appreciate that I am not necessarily typical of the average Ottawa denizen, but I'm not that rare.

I completely disagree with the bolded part... I live in a low distraction environment, I work in a high distraction environment.

You proved the bolded text by showing the duality of circumstances in which folks are employed. Both of which should be at the employee's control. I have been ordered to WFH due to strike action/ building maintenance/pandemic and every time have told my supervisor that I would be working from Starbucks or some other venue, as home is not a productive environment. Hell I have gone into the office in a parka when the heat was off because I would have literally lost a day of work staying at home.

Not every person required the same solution, as you allude to below.

My problem with the way the CAF has handled thing is the CAF has taken a typically "CAF" one size fit's all approach. Working as a clerk in an OR is not the same as being a policy guy in D Met Oc. I get zero out of being near a clerk/LogO/IntO/Geo Tech during the day, and they get zero from me. Why should my work location be based on what works best for a section commander in the infantry, or a chief clerk at an OR?

You have my full agreement here, but the problem is that we don’t set policy based on individual situations. It's ass backwards I know, but it the way we're currently structured and it is hurting us tremendously. The same can be said for pay, leave, and many other things that are cookie cutter, one size fits all solutions.

There are pros and cons to the level of granularity applied to policy, especially Compensation and Benefits, but that is far above my knoedge, expertise, and pay grade.

 

[Furniture]

You proved the bolded text by showing the duality of circumstances in which folks are employed. Both of which should be at the employee's control. I have been ordered to WFH due to strike action/ building maintenance/pandemic and every time have told my supervisor that I would be working from Starbucks or some other venue, as home is not a productive environment. Hell I have gone into the office in a parka when the heat was off because imI would have literally lost a day of work staying at home.

Not every person required the same solution as you allude to below.


You have my full agreement here, but the problem is that we di t set policy based on individual situations. It's ass backwards I know, but it the way we're currently structured and it is hurting us tremendously. The same can be said for pay, leave, and many other things that are cookie cutter, one size fits all solutions.

There are pros and cons to the level of granularity applied to policy, especially Compensation and Benefits, but that is far above my knoedge, expertise, and pay grade.

If you keep being reasonable and seeing my perspective, how can we keep an angry thread alive?

Army sucks!

Ready Aye Ready

 

[rmc_wannabe]

If you keep being reasonable and seeing my perspective, how can we keep an angry thread alive?

Army sucks  Less!

Ready Aye After Refit, Ready,

You hate us cause you ain't us

Vigilamus Pro Te

 

[Furniture]

You hate us cause you ain't us

Vigilamus Pro Te

 

[Jarnhamar]

"Can you help my boss? I am working from home, but am taking my kid to an appointment, so can you send my boss the info needs that I can't access on my phone?"

Yup.

Other favorites include getting called at work and asked to log into someone's email for them because their network at home doesn't like the VPN or trying to deal with someone in a single point of failure position who's working 2x 1/2 days per week from home.

 

[Furniture]

Yup.

Other favorites include getting called at work and asked to log into someone's email for them because their network at home doesn't like the VPN or trying to deal with someone in a single point of failure position who's working 2x 1/2 days per week from home.

I think the bigger issue is that we have single point of failure positions at all.

Courses, medical, leave, etc., happen, nobody should be the single point of failure in our admin systems.

 

[Navy_Pete]

I think the bigger issue is that we have single point of failure positions at all.

Courses, medical, leave, etc., happen, nobody should be the single point of failure in our admin systems.

Especially if it's something so urgent it can't wait (or arbitrary deadlines that don't actually make sense).

Sometimes telling people 'no, we can't meet that turnaround' is fine.

 

[brihard]

I think the bigger issue is that we have single point of failure positions at all.

Courses, medical, leave, etc., happen, nobody should be the single point of failure in our admin systems.

Redundancy costs $$$. 95% of the time they risk it out and things work out.

 

[Eaglelord17]

Redundancy costs $$$. 95% of the time they risk it out and things work out.

That policy is even more stupid when we consider we are in a organization that is expected to take losses.

Its fine in peacetime, but the moment bodies start piling up we are screwed.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I think the bigger issue is that we have single point of failure positions at all.

Courses, medical, leave, etc., happen, nobody should be the single point of failure in our admin systems.

Dude… don’t cramp our business model!

I enjoy watching the lightbulbs come on when we bring together cross functional teams, consisting of staff who have worked together for years, and they discover what everyone else does at work for the first time, ever.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Dude… don’t cramp our business model!

I enjoy watching the lightbulbs come on when we bring together cross functional teams, consisting of staff who have worked together for years, and they discover what everyone else does at work for the first time, ever.

Sounds like a CBG HQ

 

[daftandbarmy]

Sounds like a CBG HQ

Job security depends on job secrecy!

 

[Furniture]

Job security depends on job secrecy!

We also insist on referring to people/sections/things by their acronyms, assuming people know what they are, and as soon as people start figuring them out, we change the acronym and/or the people.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Funny rumour going around that the RCN HQ folks will be going to a 3 day in office minimum for civilians, and 4 day for military in September. Will wait and see what happens, but with the ratified agreements not even having dry ink yet, that seems like a bold move. Similarly imposing an extra arbitrary day on military folks seems antithetical to CRCN letter for this FY that people and retention is top priority.

No issue with that kind of direction if it makes sense for the particular job, but pushing it down from the top seems unwise. If big chunks of your job involve spending large times of your day talking to both coasts across 4 time zones, and you've been able to do it for years mostly working from home, that's hard to rationalize. Also, doesn't work at all with the hoteling plan that drops the footprint down to about a 40-50% of current number of workstations.

If there are individuals who haven't been producing while WFH, that's a supervision issue, but can't see them suddenly being more productive at work (but maybe looking busier).

In the bigger context of the LRT being fundamentally broken, and now down hard yet again with no ETR, see this going well in the NCR.

 

[PuckChaser]

Nothing says "Defence Team" like 2 different standards...

 

[Ostrozac]

I think it’s a perfectly fine thing to have separate standards between the CAF and Defence civil servants. Civilian employees have to meet direction imposed by the Clerk of the Privy Council, and to be compatible with the wider civil service, while members of the CAF report to the CDS.

Besides, the CAF are currently having an existential staffing crisis — while the civil service are reportedly still capable of hiring and retaining in numbers. HR policies for one should not be imposed blindly on the other when their situations are so far apart.

As to work from home? Industry will tell us whether it works, because no one in the private sector will build and maintain billion dollar office blocks in downtown cores just to placate a supervisor’s desire to physically oversee a cubicle farm. If WFH is really the future, then companies that pursue it will eat more traditional companies for lunch. But I’d want the civil service to lag — the public sector is traditionally kind of crappy at leading the way on cutting edge techniques. Probably better to let industry lead the way, then implement their results as a ‘proven best practice’.

 

[Furniture]

Funny rumour going around that the RCN HQ folks will be going to a 3 day in office minimum for civilians, and 4 day for military in September. Will wait and see what happens, but with the ratified agreements not even having dry ink yet, that seems like a bold move. Similarly imposing an extra arbitrary day on military folks seems antithetical to CRCN letter for this FY that people and retention is top priority.

No issue with that kind of direction if it makes sense for the particular job, but pushing it down from the top seems unwise. If big chunks of your job involve spending large times of your day talking to both coasts across 4 time zones, and you've been able to do it for years mostly working from home, that's hard to rationalize. Also, doesn't work at all with the hoteling plan that drops the footprint down to about a 40-50% of current number of workstations.

If there are individuals who haven't been producing while WFH, that's a supervision issue, but can't see them suddenly being more productive at work (but maybe looking busier).

In the bigger context of the LRT being fundamentally broken, and now down hard yet again with no ETR, see this going well in the NCR.

CFINTCOM went to that back in April... It's great having the civilians work from home, while you're sitting at your desk fighting with crappy IT infrastructure while trying to do your job. It really builds morale, and cohesion...

 

[OldSolduer]

Nothing says "Defence Team" like 2 different standards...

Just 2?

 

[dapaterson]

My RTO includes planning days with many virtual meetings at home, as my bandwidth and setup at home is better for that than my office cubicle. A webcam atop an older 32" TV is a great videoconferencing tool.

 

[Halifax Tar]

@Navy_Pete nice! Wonder if we will see that in the fleet soon!

I'm not holding my breath.