Federal public servants must return to office 2-3 days a week by March 31

The federal government will require public servants to work at least two to three days a week in person, or between 40 to 60 per cent of their regular schedule, in the spring. Public Service Alliance of Canada president Chris Aylward called a new in-person work mandate for public servants a 'knee-jerk reaction' from the federal government.

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[jeffjeffery]

My question is, why working in an office building, when work can be done from home. Isn't this supposed to be encouraged? There are savings of public funds by cutting office space.
Private sectors do encourage working from home when there is savings.

[deepmind]

Anyone else tired of living under the tyranny of an arrogant Ontario elite?

[mikerochon]

it is easy for her to say all that when she makes $200K plus a year and she has a chauffeur that picks her up and drives her home, and she is the boss. She is full of SH** -- Workplace concepts have an proven to be out dated, it is only the older bureaucrats that need to see bums in the chairs - the efficiencies you are se desperately looking for can easily be obtained in reducing office space. The City of Ottawa needs to diversify its economy & not rely on one employer. You've had 3 yrs to work toward that but nothing. My commute is over 1 hr each way, just to get to the closest Park'n'Ride. If I'm forced to come to an office, I'll be resigning as of Apr 1.
I also didn’t know that supporting the downtown core was part of my job description, So they want to go back to work to that we can feed Tim’s and Subway, when we can barely feed our self and make gas station more rich with the 2 hour commutes? Also I have been in the government for 20 years no one wants to build in person collaboration we are collaborating just fine from home on team video and in fact it is faster and easier ... She has no clue what she is talking about. I get more work done at home than I ever did in the office and that's the truth

[MrStivi]

Bring in carbon tax to punish polluters.
Then mandate that 165, 000 people to begin commuting daily.

But hey, getting people to focus on hating public servants when an election is coming up is a good way to get attention away from an ineffectual leader.

[angekfire]

I'm in the private sector. For the time being, we still have the option to work from home, or hybrid, or in office as we choose. Our productivity increased throughout the pandemic. Our company managed to grow throughout. Now, new employees are being brought in who are mandated to work a hybrid situation. But my team has people in Edmonton, Toronto, Barrie, Windsor, London, Montreal, Fredericton. But some of those places, we may only have 1 employee, are they going to have to move now? Are they going to have to go to an office and sit alone when the rest of their team is located elsewhere? What's the point in going into an office when you just have to video chat with everyone else anyway?

So, as a private sector employee, I 100% support what the union is pushing for. If the workers were able to be productive working from home and there was no measurable loss, then there is no need to force people back to an office where you increase their risk of getting sick and burdening and already overwhelmed health care system. Or people who moved further from work now having an extended commute, or having to move back closer to the office now that rental prices are at an all time high? More people in cars with inflation on gas prices going up. It encourages more people to eat out more while we're trying to encourage people to save their money and not spend as much. What benefit is there fore the employees in this? Now that they've had a taste of what work-life balance could be, and there is no real justification to do otherwise, this just feels like an arbitrary decision that negatively impacts thousands of people for the benefit of a handful.

[nilanperera]

2 or 3 days a week to support municipal infrastructure and restaurants, bars etc.

[jyprevost]

A lot of vacant (federal)job were filled by working from home positions .a lot of people won't be able to come in the office.

People will quit .

[thebowandbullet]

I haven't seen such an openly biased journalist in a while. Fact is, the pandemic allowed workers to improve their work conditions, especially with the worker shortage. Companies will now (predictably) use the recession to claw back some power away from workers.

[purplevilet]

They want people to spend more money on using transit, paying for parking, buying lunches and coffees, buying unnecessary stuff while going to, or at the office building. It’s all about the $$. Across many sectors, we have seen that employees have been working just fine remotely. Probably even better with less chit chat and drama when seeing people in person at the office.

[gplaydee]

3 billion dollars in savings just on remote work just left on the table... Why aren't they reallocating that to suffering small businesses that are looking to change their business model and struggling citizens with precarious work arrangements? My workplace has given up so much real-estate and reinvested that into more products for clients, better working infrastructure, etc. Why isn't TBS converting empty office spaces into affordable housing for all the homeless or at-risk populations?

Furthermore, businesses in downtown are suffering, but what about the small businesses in the suburbs of Ottawa? You drag everyone back downtown and suburban businesses suffer. Why does our mayor only care about downtown businesses?

[incogneato]

Embrace remote work and you save big bucks on costly office space upkeep, property taxes, in-office perks etc. You cut carbon emissions and traffic accidents/deaths by vastly reducing commuting and those that still do have to commute save time and burn less gas. Office space that is no longer needed can be converted to apartments to help with the housing crisis. Employee moral goes up, and you will likely have more productive employees.

[kevinye]

Everyone prefers WFM, it actually is not a bad idea for all tax payers cauz it does save money for the government. The issue coming from senior management they just want to make themselves look good by enforcing office working, but in reality they are the lion share of consuming tax money with big bonuses and high pensions.

[chachalaca]

Save us taxpayers money and sell the office space!

[Stephy]

Some jobs demand and require in office/in person work. Office work doesn’t demand this.

[The-real-Alex]

Mona needs to stop talking if she can’t answer questions

[grantc]

Go out on strike, nobody will notice.

[CalCalCal]

What no is talking about is that for many workers have no NEED to return to the office. There is no need to go back, it costs more money to taxpayers and makes people commute and spend less time with their families.

[abdiyousuf]

I am paying about $3500 taxes monthly and when I called revenue they gave me soo many excuses to not help with even a single question
Now I understand why Albertans are so disappointed with Trudeau government

[pierremichaud]

They still wont get any work done even if they go to the office.

[solos]

Must be nice to be so entitled heyottawa