Admittedly, taking a moral lead doesn’t work too well for the Civil Service as a rule. Austerity saw us receive a series of nil or negative real terms pay “increases” which saw our pay fall by about 15% in real terms over a decade, whilst median pay rises across the workforce at least kept pace with inflation for the most part. And it’s been many a year since any government made changes to Civil Service pay and benefits that led the way in terms of enhancements.
But, in truth, we’re an easy target. Nobody much cares whether or not the Civil Service can recruit or retain staff, there’s a general assumption that we do nothing but drink tea and shuffle paper all day, that we receive gold-plated pensions and act as a restraint on progress and innovation. Of course, the fact that we exist because Government, and you the people, require someone to apply the laws and rules that you both insist upon introducing, appears to be a never-ending surprise to you all. Twas ever thus.
Sending us back to our city centre offices won’t make a lot of difference to the economy - many of my colleagues prefer to bring their own lunch, or can’t afford the price of a Pret sandwich, anyway, and given the organisational difficulties of escaping a ten storey building which has only three lifts in order to take a lunch break, I wouldn’t expect town centres to see a huge difference in footfall when we do return.
And, of course, we’ll be adding to the pressure on the restricted public transport services that now operate. HMRC, for example, having closed its network of local offices over the past three decades, now operates out of a small number of large office blocks which have, quite deliberately, little or no parking space - part of a policy of reducing traffic congestion in our major cities.
In addition, as part of a strategy to reduce costs, there now isn’t a dedicated desk for each staff member - we hotdesk instead, with desk provision based on a ratio of six or seven desks for every ten “full time equivalent” staff (i.e. part-timers are counted as the relevant fraction of a full-time staff member), and tablets instead of fixed computer stations. And that’s one of the reasons why we adapted so well, and so quickly, to working from home. Many of the people I speak to have no idea where I am, and care even less.
But, if it is insisted that I return, I will. And yes, there will be issues about social distancing and face mask wearing, there will be issues about how and when you can leave the building given restricted lift capacity, but if that’s what they want, that’s what the Government will get. Morale will probably fall amongst those who have adapted well to home working, but that’s a problem for management, I’d suggest. Will we be more efficient? In some ways, yes, in others, no.
Ironically, it will make not a whit of difference to the private sector. After all, their success depends on doing whatever increases efficiency and profitability the most, not on displaying some vaguely defined sense of morality without advantage. And the Government, especially this one, is hardly going to make them.
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