How many days should you be in the office? It depends on what you do.

Article content

Imagine you are returning home after a day trip to upstate New York. He has just arrived at the customs booth at the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge and discovers a message taped to the window. “Call me,” she reads, above a hand-scrawled phone number. She calls the number and connects with a Canada Border Services Agency employee. He works from home three days a week, he explains. This is one of those days.

Article content

In retrospect, you probably shouldn’t have responded with a snarky comment, but we can’t change the past, right? And then you wait for the arrival of the two CBSA agents she sent to dismantle your car. Since they also work from home, it may take a while.

Article content

Of course, that’s a ridiculously far-fetched scenario (we hope). But it serves to underline the one question that needs to be answered when deciding who in the public service can and cannot work remotely, and how often: Are the public being served? After all, that’s why they’re there. Public service: it’s even included in the name.

Clearly, border workers need to be on the border, just as Canadian Coast Guard workers conducting offshore search and rescue operations need to be on the high seas. Similarly, public servants who directly serve the needs of the public must be where the public can find them.

In short, people need to be where they can get their work done.

So if people wait in line longer than necessary at the passport office or listen to panflutist Zamfir’s entire repertoire while on hold because there is no one on the phone in his 12th floor office or at a service desk, then that worker You need to saddle up and get out of the house. If new hires in public service can’t do their jobs properly because they need someone to show them the ropes, those mentors should put on a shirt, tie (and pants) and rush out to work.

Article content

If, on the other hand, a public servant’s job can be done just as effectively from home without compromising the public good at all, then by all means let him work from his La-Z-Boy in his pajamas.

Much of the noise about remote work has been just that: noise. The argument that government workers are needed in offices to rejuvenate downtown Ottawa, for example, makes no sense. As concerned as we in Ottawa should be about the future of the city centre, it is not the job of individual public servants to fix that.

There is also the argument, from many online commentators, that public servants working from home are simply screwing the dog. I’ve always believed that people who slack off at work will do so no matter where they are. If I’m wrong and that’s part of the government’s reasoning, it would be nice to say so explicitly and provide data to support that claim. However, by its own admission, the Treasury Board Secretary has not conducted any studies on productivity or collaboration to support her decision, which is alarming. The government also failed to consult its rank-and-file workers, at least according to the Public Services Alliance of Canada and other unions whose members are directly affected.

Article content

Based on my reading of the telework agreement letter between the PSAC and the Treasury Board, it is not necessary. While there is a mechanism to address employee dissatisfaction with decisions resulting from government directives, the feds really have the power. “Telework agreements may be initiated by the employee, are voluntary, and require the mutual agreement of the employee and the deputy director or authorized representative within each department or organization,” the letter states.

Furthermore, “teleworking is not a right or prerogative of the employee unless agreed in relation to the duty to accommodate.”

The wording of a similar letter of agreement between the province and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is even clearer. “The parties recognize that the employer has the right to deny, alter or require modern and flexible working arrangements,” she says. “The Employer’s exercise of discretion pursuant to this letter shall not be actionable.”

Still, I remember what Abacus Data CEO David Coletto told me at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, that the trend toward hybrid work was already underway when the virus hit; the pandemic simply accelerated it. “People have always wanted more flexibility to decide when and how they work, and those who have the ability to do so now expect this to be the norm,” he said in 2021.

Article content

Judging by the current rancor, the issue is far from resolved. The provincial agreement expires at the end of this year, and the federal one in June of next year. We can expect the year 2025 to be anything but quiet on the utilities front.

Meanwhile, the genie of working from home won’t be easy to put back in its bottle. For many people, the option to work from home has become an important check mark in the work-life balance column. Governments should consider whether limiting that option rather than using it as a calling card will attract the best workers and whether that will best benefit the public. Because, at the end of the day, public service is your business.

Born in Fort William, Ontario, a city that no longer appears on maps, Bruce Deachman He has called Ottawa home for most of his life. As a Citizen columnist, she works to keep Ottawa on the map. She can be reached at [email protected]. She can also support his work and our mission to share information that keeps you connected to life in Ottawa by purchasing a digital subscription at https://www.ottawacitizen.com/subscribe.

Article content