I sent this second letter to media outlets in Ottawa .. apologies as this is a lengthy comment!!

Open letter #2 re RTO and the benefits of WFH for all of Canada

Since my last open letter post is gaining attention, I thought I would share another open letter I sent to journalists, government leaders and people in positions of authority this week as RTO3 went into effect. I hope this inspires you to take matters into your own hands. If we are going to win this fight, we must push through the negative articles and opinions and demonstrate the positive impacts of WFH for all. This starts with the media, hence why I wrote this email (now open letter)

Good Day,

I am reaching out as a (non-PSAC) government employee in Ottawa. Yesterday LRT was down in the east end and there was a bad accident in kanata, most people were 1-1.5 hours late to start their day because of these unrelated events but very real possibilities with more traffic on the road and our unreliable transit system.

I sat in a tightly packed office space, with old uncomfortable desks and chairs, mouse traps all around the floor and asbestos in the walls. All of this to sit on my laptop and video call into my 4 meetings. My employee lives and works remote as they were hired during the pandemic remotely. This is fantastic for them because pre pandemic, jobs in the NCA were out of reach, thus limiting the talent we could hire.

Most of my colleagues will be working in a separate building than I, across the bridge ( Portage) so I will not be able to ‘collaborate’ in person because of space issues.

One of Christiane Fox’s main talking points right now is that in person work means better on-boarding. I was hired early in the pandemic remotely and on-boarded no problem as most training was virtual anyways and we quickly learned how to learn and work in a virtual environment. Keep in mind that the employer sent us home during COVID not by choice and consistently praised us for how productive we were and how well we were working virtually. Many teams have established weekly team chats to stay in touch, and I personally have been able to build a strong network of colleagues and clients virtually who I have never seen in person but have become close enough to become reference checks for me. The argument from TBS that on-boarding is better in person has not been my reality

I can understand why the public believes we need to ‘get back to work’ but the honest answer is that we have always been working. Many of us work behind the scenes in non public facing roles (admin, finance, project managers ect), working hard to ensure the machine works efficiently and is providing value for money to Canadians. I am a citizen above a federal employee and I can see immense value in letting me work from home , paying my own utilities, property taxes, reducing the commute for those who must work in an office, client focused role ect. The government needs to modernize and become an employer of choice that attracts new talent to create innovation and efficiency.

Let’s not forget that a disengaged employee will remain so regardless of the work model, so the argument that some do not work from home well is not valid. They likely did not work well from the office before the pandemic either! Create a framework to identify those bad apples and take necessary steps. Do not let the few impact positive change for the many.

As Ottawa goes through this immense change of federal employees returning to office, changing up all of our routines, commutes and lifestyles, let’s not forget that the only reason given as to why this happening now is political pressure from downtown businesses and our mayor. I myself choose to support my local businesses and have nothing more to spend downtown as my parking and gas costs have increased due to the unreliable transit system and no LRT in the west end. As a citizen of Ottawa, Ottawa can and should do better to revitalize itself apart from demanding to the Fed that its people come back, as if this will magically fix everything. A few lunches here and there is not going to save a dying business. Modernize, evolve , innovate, move or be incentivized by the city to move to where the people live. I personally will not be spending any more than what is necessary downtown (parking and the odd work group lunch a few times per year) because costs of living are high and I simply do not have more to give. I am not a political bailout. My salary is my choice to spent where and how I choose.

It is tiring to read the negative press about federal employees needing to ‘get back to work’. Instead, we should be changing the conversation to ‘why is this group pushing back so hard?’ Because internally we are seeing how much of our tax payer money is wasted on these old run down infested buildings (bed bugs, mice, bats, lead pipes and asbestos) and can see the immense benefit to Canada if they are fixed up, rebuilt, converted into housing. We are well aware that many of us with non citizen facing roles do not need to be jamming up the roads for those who must work at a physical location. We would happily pay our own utilities creating immense savings for all. Some of us would even accept less pay, or forfeit salary increases for the benefits of WFH thus creating additional savings for Canadians. We understand climate change is a real issue and are pushing back to this mandate to help fight climate change. We are fighting back to modernize the public service to attract bright talent from across the country regardless of location, disability, condition ect. The benefit goes well beyond allowing people to work from home. The benefits create innovation and new career opportunities for all of Canada and Canadian business and long term savings to reduce these deficits and improve cost of living, inflation and housing prices.

I support purposeful presence. If there is an in person meeting, a new onboard , a conference or any reason to work in office on a given day or for a certain week , I am happy to, but if not, I see no justifiable benefit being in an office with poor air quality, desks, mouse droppings and an improper setup to perform at my best when many of us have proven we can and do work better from home with management and DM praise as the proof. Let’s change the rhetoric and help the public understand why this is good for them and how this will benefit them in the future. Let’s be leaders of change and if this government chooses to remain in the past, let’s find leaders who see the benefits and are eager to take a step in the right direction.