There are calls from some Wellington businesses for the Government to follow the lead of one of the world’s biggest companies – Amazon – and order workers to stop working from home.
It could be “the number one” fix for an economy that bankers in a recent Kiwibank report described as so low it was “icy”.
I know WFH has contributed to the problems some Wellington shops have. But banning WFH for the public service would be wrong. The role of the public service is to provide effective and efficient public services. It is not to create shoppers in Wellington.
If a public agency decides that they can best achieve their mission by allowing staff to work partially from home, then they should be able to do so. It also reduces congestion, transport costs and emissions.
I note the Government has said:
I know WFH has contributed to the problems some Wellington shops have. But banning WFH for the public service would be wrong. The role of the public service is to provide effective and efficient public services. It is not to create shoppers in Wellington.
If a public agency decides that they can best achieve their mission by allowing staff to work partially from home, then they should be able to do so. It also reduces congestion, transport costs and emissions.
I note the Government has said:
The Government wants to see more public servants come into their place of work each day and is taking steps to make this expectation clear to chief executives, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says.
“Updated guidance for the public service will make clear that working from home is not an entitlement and must be agreed and monitored,” Nicola Willis says.
“While carefully defined working from home arrangements can benefit workers and employers, if the pendulum swings too far in favour of working from home, there are downsides for employers and employees. That’s even before we consider the effects for the CBD retailers, restaurants and cafes.
I think it is far enough that WFH is not regarded as an entitlement, and should be monitored. But public service employers should be focused on whether WFH arrangements are good for them achieving their mission, not the impact on CBD shops.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
3 comments:
Indeed. I think Willis is picking off an easy target to feed the constituency who thinks public servants are inherently lazy and useless. Also wants to suck up to hospo businesses by pretending that their woes are unconnected to public service cuts or cost-of-living pressures. Wfh had to be accepted when there was a shortage of employees, and now there are a lot of people out of work, the Govt can target those still in work to get them they''re deficient, so should watch out!
100% correct. If the productivity is the same WFH or Office then the advantage of no travel or travel cost should not be dumped in the hope that they spend money downtown Wgtn
The make everyone go to Wellington to buy coffee and lunch ignores that people are now spending locally.
And the inconvenient truth that transport in and out has been rendered unreliable, overpriced and impossible by the WCC while Ministries have downsized their office space to cater for WFH and save cost.
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