Civil servants have turned on their bosses for forcing them back to the office, forcing one executive to admit the decision was made without even consulting staff.
Leaked screenshots of an online meeting, posted to The Aussie Corporate’s Instagram account, reveal the fury of NSW government workers at being told to stop working from home following an executive order by Premier Chris Minns to restrict the practice.
One participant in a recent virtual Teams meeting said, “I feel like the conversation didn’t adequately address the majority sentiment felt by the audience.”
“They don’t care. They just said it was normal for people to come and go from public service,” one colleague replied.
“That’s probably because most non-executive staff were not consulted before the decision was made,” reads another response.
One department secretary was repeatedly asked whether younger staff were consulted about the sudden change, noting that a “key” justification for more office-based work was to support younger employees and improve their career prospects.
In the end, the secretary was forced to admit that there had been no consultation with staff, even though the decision to work from home had supposedly been made for their benefit.
Another screenshot summarises the arguments made against returning to the office.
Civil servants have turned on their bosses for forcing them back to the office, forcing one executive to admit during an online meeting that the decision was made without consulting staff (pictured: a leaked screenshot of the meeting)
He said the NSW public sector was “not competitive on pay and now not competitive on flexibility”.
“Younger generations will not find this attractive,” argued the meeting participant.
He also said that government sector employees whose work cannot be done from home “receive a lot of subsidies that we don’t have.”
The example given was the tobacco allowance, which the participant said he received in “circumstances where we have to eat (at) our desks and work through unpaid lunch breaks.”
A parenting allowance is a paid time off to support oneself when one is forced to work overtime.
The participant also argued that Mr Minns’ circular only “strongly encouraged” the public sector to reconsider its work-from-home policy.
“We never thought we would see the day when the public sector would be less flexible,” the Instagram account wrote on the screenshots.
A Reddit thread associated with The Aussie Corporate showed that some private sector workers were also concerned about what was happening in the public service.
“It’s scary to imagine a world where I have to spend three-plus hours commuting and getting ready for work for no pay, going into an office and having to deal with people in real life again,” one person posted.
The public service revolt amused The Aussie Corporate Instagram account, but a Reddit post showed some private sector workers were anxiously monitoring the situation.
‘Do you think the nonsense of returning to the office will influence private companies?’
‘Working from home has been a game-changer in terms of the time I have each week for myself and my family, which has also had a huge positive impact on my mental and physical health.
“I don’t think I could handle going back to working five days in an office downtown.”
Others agreed.
“100 percent. I left public service two months ago, when I was able to work 80 percent remotely, and ended up in a 100 percent in-office position,” one response read.
“It’s crushing my soul.”
However, some suggested thinking twice before making the decision to leave.
“Where will you go? I ask myself this question,” said one Reddit user.
‘A lot of people express their outrage online, but in the end, they’ll just put their heads down and head to the office.’
One moderator of the thread thought the problem had been exaggerated.
One of the reasons given for ordering NSW civil servants to return to the office is that this will provide more workplace support and better career development for younger employees – but one secretary was forced to admit there had been no consultation with staff at all.
“The press has exaggerated the New South Wales RTO mandate,” he said.
‘It’s not about working 5 days a week in the office, it’s an instruction that the main place of work should be the office.
‘Which will be interpreted as 2 or 3 days a week, once it is filtered to the people who will be affected.
‘That’s totally in line with what many companies are already doing (CBA, Optus, etc.).
“I don’t see that changing much in the short or medium term.”
Daily Mail Australia revealed on Thursday that the public service union is in open rebellion against the move to force up to 43,000 public sector workers to return to the office.
In an email to its members on Monday, the Public Service Association (PSA) said it had been inundated with queries about the prime minister’s directive and said it believed the workforce would “never” return to the previous arrangements.
“Your union believes that there will always be flexibility in the workplace and that we will never return to pre-Covid working arrangements,” the email states.
Some Reddit users claimed that being forced to join the commute was “soul-destroying.”
As evidence, the PSA said it had been in contact with several NSW government department secretaries.
“We have been informed that many offices are unable to accommodate all staff working on-site and that current arrangements will not change,” the email said.
The union said it had also been mobilising delegates to address members’ concerns.
“The more information we have from our members to take to the Government, the better,” the email said, with the PSA promising to pass on any “further developments” to members.
