NSW public servants’ anger at bosses about being ordered back to the office by Chris Minns government revealed in leaked online meeting
Civil servants turned on their bosses for pulling them back into the office, with one manager even having to admit that the decision was made without any consultation with staff.
Leaked screenshots of an online meeting posted to The Aussie Corporate’s Instagram account show New South Wales government employees furious after being told to stop working from home after Premier Chris Minns issued a decree clamping down on the practice.
One participant in a recent Teams online “town hall” meeting said, “I feel like the conversation is not really responsive to the majority sentiments in the audience.”
“They don’t care. They just said it was normal for people to come in and out of public service,” a colleague replied.
“That is probably because the majority of non-managerial staff were not consulted before the decision was made,” was another response.
A department secretary was repeatedly asked whether younger staff were consulted about the sudden change, with the idea that a ‘key’ justification for more work in the office was to support younger staff and enhance their career opportunities.
In the end, the secretary had to admit that there had been no consultation with the staff at all, even though the decision to work from home had supposedly been made in their favour.
Another screenshot summarizes the arguments against returning to the office.
Civil servants turned on their bosses for dragging them back to the office. One manager was forced to admit during an online meeting that the decision was made without consulting staff (below: a leaked screenshot of the meeting)
It was stated that the public sector in New South Wales is ‘not competitive on salaries and now not competitive on flexibility’.
“Younger generations will not find this attractive,” the meeting participant argued.
It was also said that government workers who cannot work from home “get a lot of benefits that we don’t get.”
It gave the example of extorting pocket money, which the participant said they received in ‘circumstances where we have to eat’ [at] ‘Our desks and our work during unpaid lunch breaks’.
An allowance is a paid break to support one’s livelihood when someone is forced to work overtime.
The participant also argued that Mr Minns’ circular merely ‘strongly encouraged’ the public sector to reconsider their work-from-home policies.
“Never thought the public sector would ever be less flexible,” the Instagram account captioned the screenshots.
A Reddit discussion by The Aussie Corporate revealed that some private sector employees were also concerned about what was happening in the public sector.
“It’s scary to imagine a world where I have to travel 3+ hours unpaid to get to work, to go to the office and interact with people in real life again,” one person wrote.
The public sector uprising was amusing for The Aussie Corporate’s Instagram account, but a Reddit post revealed some private sector workers were keeping a close eye on the situation
“Do you think the nonsense about returning to the office will affect private companies?”
‘Working from home has given me much more time 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 sitting in an office in the CBD for five days.’
Others agreed.
“100 percent. I left the public service 2 months ago where I could work 80 minutes remotely and ended up in a 100 percent office role,” read one response.
“It crushes my soul.”
However, some suggested to think twice before deciding to leave.
“Where are you going?” I ask myself,” said one Reddit user.
“A lot of people express their outrage online, but in the end they just put their heads down and go to the office.”
A moderator of the discussion thought the problem was exaggerated.
One of the reasons given for the order to return to the office for NSW civil servants is that it will provide more workplace support and better career development for younger employees; however, one secretary was forced to admit that there had been no consultation with staff at all
“The press has blown the NSW RTO’s mandate out of proportion,” the spokesperson said.
‘It is not a mandatory requirement to work in the office five days a week, it is an instruction that the primary workplace should be the office.
‘That will be interpreted as 2-3 days a week, once it sinks in with the people who will be affected.
‘That is completely in line with what many companies are already doing (CBA, Optus, etc.).
“I don’t think that will change much in the short to medium term.”
Daily Mail Australia reported on Thursday that the public services union has openly rebelled against the decision to force 43,000 public sector workers to return to the office.
The Public Service Association (PSA) said in an email to members on Monday that it had been inundated with questions about the Prime Minister’s directive, and said it believed staff would “never” return to the old arrangements.
“Your union firmly believes that there will always be flexibility in the workplace and that we will never return to pre-Covid working arrangements,” the email said.
Some Reddit users indicated that being forced to go to work every day was “soul destroying”
As evidence of this, the PSA indicated that it had been in contact with a number of secretaries of New South Wales government departments.
“They have informed us that many office locations cannot accommodate all of the staff working on site and that current arrangements will not change,” the email said.
The union said it was also mobilising delegates to gather members’ concerns.
“The more information we have from our members to provide to the government, the better,” the email reads, adding that the PSA promises to pass on “further developments” to members.