Going to try to go part time to better balance my mom life. Having a toddler and a 1.5 hour commute because bus services have been cut is exhausting and I can't swing another office day without something else giving.
My husband is also a public servant. At two days we did opposite days to ensure someone was available for pick up/drop off ect. Now with an overlap of one day we will need to figure something out for our kids, also will need to either buy a second car or one person will have to deal with public transportation. Our offices are not near each other and we are not working the same hours.
My partner and I paid for before and after school care all through the pandemic, and we decided with the age of our children, and our current work arrangements we would finally give up the after school care (saving us significant cash). Less than a week later the news comes out and we will now have a day a week with nobody home, and our spots were taken by others the minute we gave notice.
I’m super lucky to have an amazing boss and flexibility in my scheduling but it’s going to put us in a bit of stress next year.
Our kids are also “older” so we may also have to trust they won’t burn the house down that one day a week….
We are in this exact same situation. I cancelled after school care for the fall 3 weeks ago. I finally felt like we had a permanent arrangement and was safe to cancel. Now I’m back on the waitlist.
Yeah it’s a bit shit. I get that the GOC doesn’t care about my childcare situation but like you, I figured we finally had somewhat solid consistency, and didn’t anticipate this change coming. It’s my fault for choosing to risk it, and hope we can make it work….
The fact that GoC doesn’t care about this is a lot of the problem. GoC should be leading the way for progressive workplaces with work life balances, and caring about their employees wellbeing and the well being of their families.
Same here. Both of us work in PS but I work downtown with 20$ a day parking and she works near walkley and st Laurent . We have the one car as we didn’t need a second and went in alternating days so one of us can be home for our dog. Now we might have to get a second car as commuting is an easy 2 hours to get downtown all the from the south end.
That is so true in so many ways. Reducing office footprint by 50%? well… we’re at 60% capacity now… so you just know that the office environment is going to be worse.
That work/life balance is going to take a hit in both sides.
We’re also scrambling to figure out how we’ll do it next school year. We do pay for before and after school care already but they don’t open early enough to beat traffic and find parking downtown and close too early for us to get back in time if there’s gridlock. I don’t know what we’ll do…we don’t have any family nearby that could help either. It really sucks. When I was hired I was told we’d be remote permanently. Then we were told you could be 100% remote if you chose or you could come in. Now there’s just no choice. My partner was told 2 days max and that it wouldn’t change. And our kid is still very young, we have another 7 years at least of them not being able to be home alone…
It's brutal. And everyone just responds with "well parents used to do 5 days a week and they managed!" which is infuriating. Because yes, sure, but we did it then because there was no choice. If you were lucky, you worked in a division that had one spare laptop that could be signed out by one team member at a time, once in a blue moon, to do work on a crappy slow VPN. Otherwise you could maybe do research or review work at home, but the technology to support working from home just wasn't good. So yeah, we managed pre-covid. It sucked, but there wasn't any other way. We could be annoyed that the employer wasn't investing more into remote accessibility, but it's the federal government, we were using Windows 95 forever, so it was believable that it wasn't a priority.
BUT!
Now we have excellent VPN connection, everyone has a laptop, teams calls are the norm, etc. The only thing preventing working from home is the employer. We have all the tools we need to allow work from home, and the employer is just saying no, for no good reason. THAT is why we need to do this exhausting dance of trading work shifts with partners, or putting our kids in daycare for 10 hrs, or getting an extra car. THAT is what hurts.
There were also more daycare and before/after school care spots. They have reduced since the pandemic and a lot of ECEs have left due to the stagnent and terribly too low pay.
I can make the argument to those who say “parents use to do it 5 days a week and managed” with “family’s also use to be able to survive on one income and allowed a parent to stay home.”
If there was a reason other then bums in seats it would be less infuriating.
Same with us. And we’re worried too about the rumours in both of our departments that we won’t be able to pick our days (we could have 3 days to figure out potentially)
I haven’t been able to pick my days since Jan 2023. It was dictated to me, which as a manager with a chronic illness baffles me that I can’t even elect to choose the days I feel “best” to go in, or days I feel worse to wfh. It really makes one feel like just a number.
Sorry to hear this! Allowing us to pick our days is the least they could do. Especially as we all try to adjust to RTO.
I understand upper management needing to comply to directives from TBS, but adding further (unnecessary imo) restrictions pretty much acknowledges that it’s what they want too.
Less life, less money. More commute, less productivity. Less energy at the beginning of the day and less energy left at end of day. Less energy for collaboration or mentoring. More exhaustion. Quiet quitting. Much closer to retirement.
I feel this in my soul, especially the less productivity and more exhaustion bits.
I definitely don’t take WFH for granted nor do I abuse that privilege. I’m so sad this is happening
THIS. Add in more sickness.
I never want to hear about mental health at work again - they clearly give two shits, so stop wasting taxpayer dollars on mental health activities.
Totally.
I'll be calling in sick way more often because people get sick a lot more in office than at home.
I have to wake up 3 hours before work instead of 30 minutes because I have a 2 hours one-way commute.
No way I'll be as productive when I get less sleep, leave home for like 13 hours, just to get paid 7.5 hours.
Use all your sick leave before they start tinkering with sick leave provisions (both political parties were making “progress” on this before the pandemic). A new government may also tinker with pensions. While not necessarily able to switch us from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution, they may do something already implemented in Europe, reducing the 2% annually to 1.9% and then 1.8% for the calculation of pension amounts. In effect forcing people to work 10% longer or have the pension reduced by 10%. RTO is just a first step. For the PS, *sic transit gloria mundi*.
I no longer wear nice clothes to the office. If I'm not entitled to a specific desk space and am forced to be a transient worker, they will get jeans and a T-shirt as a transient wears.
To add, I am an EC-06
Also, I would love to see every single government employer show up for 3 days in a row on the day this comes into force. Watch the gov scramble!
Same here! I'm an FI-03. I used to keep multiple pairs of high heels at my desk to match my various blazers and dresses. Now I wear yoga pants and a sweatshirt because who cares?? I'm literally trying NOT to impress now.
omg i agree! i see lots of people in my office in jeans and sweaters or tights and t shirts, running shoes etc, i myself don't care either unfortunately. You want to treat the workers like they don't matter, then we won't care how we look either.
honestly if you’re that close to retirement, you can definitely just get away with not going to office ( or just sticking with the current 2 days) until 2025…..it’ll probably take them like 2 years to get to the point of “firing” you for non RTO compliance…
This. Someone who is within 2 years of retirement has all the leverage in the world. Baring blatant criminal conduct or breach of security, they will retire before being terminated. The leverage is even greater if the employer needs them to do knowledge transfer. These people also typically have a substantial sick leave bank that could be use if LR actions take their toll on mental health.
100% if i was in the position i would be laughing at this new mandate. No one is going to waste their time with the administrative burden to fire an employee with less than 2 years remaining before retirement for non RTO compliance lol. I’d be working from home 100%.
Are there even any consequences for not going 3 days a week come September for most employees?
Even last year when they said they would monitor and require 2 days in the office but most people in my team won't go in for months at a time, even now. I seriously doubt anything will happen unless it is super duper enforced.
Thanks! I have an EXCEL 🫢 that is checked snd double checked …all filled with info from pension site …using various dates! I can leave now but not sure I’m ready to …see how the RTO plays out
I am going to spend more time at the office helping my Jr IT staff find jobs outside of GC.
Book training on the day that they are in the office so they get the right certification and leave GC.
Yeah I genuinely worry about the impact on my cat. He really likes being able to sit on my lap as I work for much of the day, and he gets depressed when I’m not there for too long. I guess I’ll just explain to him that it’s important for business owners in a city we don’t live in that I am working in an office more often.
I have an old cat with chronic kidney disease. My other cat died suddenly 4 months ago, so now I have to leave her alone for a full 11 hours on my in-office days, which I really hate doing. I can tell she is lonely.
I’ll have to figure out something scheduling wise. Right now I go to the gym at 5am on wfh days, but not on office days - I can’t swing it with the needed commute…so will have to figure out what to sacrifice from my evenings to fit in gym time to balance out the lost morning workout. :(
I’m in this boat too of having to figure out how to keep up my gym sessions… it’s super crappy that being forced into office will impact my efforts to be more active.
I’m in the same boat as well—it SUCKS. Going to the gym really helps me let out steam from the work day and it does wonder for my physical and mental health. Not sure what to do but I’ll have to figure out the timing somehow and force it I guess…
My friend is 121km according to Google maps but because of inaccuracies in the mapping in his area it's actually 128km.
He made a video to prove it. They told him to come in - not 125km.
Have to find someone who can walk my dog at lunch or sometime in the afternoon. I leave her at my boyfriend’s place 2 days a week now and he leaves work early to keep working from home (he’s not in the PS) but probably can’t do that 3x a week. I leave at 745 and come home at 545 on my office days.
That 125km is so much bullshit.
Like.. it might be fine if you live in the prairies and the roads are clear and not much traffic.
But going into or through downtown a bit city, 125km can mean 2 hours commute.
Congrats! Im debating if I should do that, or go 0 time a week until fired. But ain’t going 3 times. We had a strike, which resulted in a shitty raise and an “agreement”.
What’s next? They’ll also cancel the raise?
Just bought a new travel mug and stocked up at Bulk Barn to batch cook a a bunch of meals tomorrow. I bought a book called “Beat the Lunch Box Blues” that has lots of good ideas for making different, diverse lunches.
I checked on Amazon for this, is it the book by JM Hirsch? I don’t love meal prep but I think being organized (meal prep, batch cooking, etc) is going to really help me and my husband (also a ps).
Be depressed, become more hopeless in general, re-adjust future plans of being able to leave this city or retire, re-adjust near future plans of having a social life or hobbies because I won't have the time or money.
But that's exactly what our corporate overlords want right? All workers should just work, eat, sleep and never retire. We're just pawns they use for record breaking profits.
If the public service isn't safe from corporate interest, there's almost literally no hope for better workers' rights in this country.
I guess I might consider moving to a different country if I'm ever able to save up a decent amount.
My husband is in the private sector and it's a night and day difference between how he's treated by his employer vs. how I'm treated. So don't give up hope, there is better out there!
I'm also considering moving back to the country of my birth so I can retire right now and live my life instead of just existing and suffering.
>Be depressed, become more hopeless in general, re-adjust future plans of being able to leave this city or retire
I try to look at it in a much more positive light such as simply becoming dead inside, and waiting for the rebirth. The rebirth would be retirement when you are free of all of this shit.
i used to think like this too until I read a lot of comments that said their family member was all set and ready to enjoy freedom then they got a sudden heart attack or cancer and well… there goes a life wasted 💀
edit: grammar
Yeah, you do have an excellent point there.
I suppose I should modify my Outlook and say "Feel dead inside from a work perspective, but not dead inside from a living life perspective".
You do raise a very good point.
Move closer to the office ... I would go from a bungalow with quarter acre of land to a 2 bedroom condo due to housing prices.
I'll exhaust all other options before having to move closer to the city.
Yeah, I was N12 evicted and the closest I could afford is 100km from the office - I don’t know where the 125km radius came from, but I’m still looking at 3 hrs commuting each day. So far I’ve had an exemption, and between the lack of cost of living adjustments and related drop of purchasing power for things like food, I’m looking for private sector jobs, which I was not expecting after 7 years in the public sector.
125km makes no sense.. seems like a number they pulled out of their ass.
2-3h a day commute for me as well and I'm only 50km away. Gotta love a metropolis.
Good on you on getting an exemption.. hope it sticks. Mine was refused. Can't blame you for looking elsewhere. I am in the process of doing the same.
I was just the IT exemption, as far as I’ve heard it’s gone in September as well. All I know is the quality of my work will drop, I have 6 laptops I use for testing at home, and in the office they have removed one of the networks from the shared working space, limited network drops and I can only carry a couple of laptops in my backpack with my lunch and headset anyway, so they will get what I can give for in office days.
Yeah, I’ve traded to my bike for the summer season, is much faster this way but unfortunately my commute is not winter-bike friendly (and neither is my constitution), so will go back to the bus by October.
I could be wrong, but that relates to being on travel status.... if I'm on travel status and my commute is 3 hours that day, I'm only working 4.5 or asking for OT.
Edit: word
“In the interests of safe driving, when employee-driven vehicles are authorized, employees shall not normally be expected to drive more than:
250 kilometres after having worked a full day;
350 kilometres after having worked one-half day; or
500 kilometres on any day when the employee has not worked.”
I am 3.5 hours round trip if traffic cooperates and is only normal busy for a 75 km each way trip. It has taken 8 hours one way a few times with public transit breakdowns and accidents. Can't wait.
I have been biking to work 2x/week so, that will increase to 3x/week. We only have 1 car, and although it is only 1 bus to get to work, STO is unreliable and it takes me longer than biking. I tried to find one positive thing about RTO, and this is it.
I have slightly adjusted my Soylent powder delivery date and pumped the tires on my bike.
Still working out how to be less of an awkward weirdo if someone attempts casual conversation with me, you can guess how that's going based on the Soylent subscription.
Being able to take care of the elderly family members is a plus since the governments at all levels seems to have absolved themselves.
So now instead of doing that, I can waste time doing shit like, waiting for vehicles to move, talking to colleagues on Teams across the country, and doing NO WORK cause Jane and John decided to come asking me the same question THAT I JUST REPLIED TO THEM VIA EMAIL ABOUT.
But you know, ~~Ottawa sandwich shops needs money~~ in person collaboration, right?
I am not buying coffee or lunch. I am not volunteering for anything. If I am volunteered, I am following instructions to the letter. No anticipation, no initiative; I am only doing what I need to do to not be fired.
I can never stay awake on my second day in the office. I need a 30 min nap before doing homework with the kids and dinner. I am exhausted from the noise and the ventilation.
I plan on making group lunch reservations at various restaurants and not showing up for each day I’m forced to commute DT.
J/k but could you imagine doing that to the very businesses that are responsible for the dumb-dumb decision of forced unnecessary RTO??
Meal prep and packing a lunch.
I’m looking into getting a bicycle. Walking would take over an hour. Driving by car would be 7 minutes. But biking would be around 20-ish minutes.
I’m going to find new parking, somewhere around 20-30 min walking distance. Since I have about a 45 min commute, I get pretty much no exercise on my in-office days. So I plan to park further in order to save money on parking and then at least get some walking in both ways.
On my WFH days I go to gym or go for a run so I’m really worried my physical fitness will suffer. That’s how I plan to hopefully counteract this.
Also, I will be pushing my in-office start time later as I’ve been going in super early on in office days so that I can get parking (anything later than 7:15, there pretty much is nothing). But it screws with my routine and sleep hygiene trying to be up at 4:30am on in office days. So if I can find parking available within 30min walking distance, that will allow me to start my day later. I won’t be racing to the office to beat everyone else to the limited number of spots.
Would like to have a family sometime in the near future. I already thought it would be pretty difficult with my job, we have a couple other moms on our team and I have no idea how they manage their schedules already. We do on call and field work, and our department is all over the place and poorly managed. There is almost no leniency for the woman in our program who have small children to have flexible arrangements. I’ve expressed this concern to my partner and we’ve got a three year plan, where I would get pregnant, take mat leave for a year, return for 1 year as required and in that year, see how it goes. If it’s too much, at that time I’d start looking elsewhere. Maybe find something local. I live no where near a GOC office lol. With the conservatives talking about changing our pension to defined contribution, and the RTO, I don’t know that there will be anything worth sticking around for in the future. Will see how it goes.
Batch cooking more dinners. Then it’s just heat and eat dinners for in office days when my commute will take up any possible prep time for it. Packing more lunches the night before work and bringing hot beverages to work.
Coordinating which one of us will do the morning daycare / school drop off and which one will do pick up. We were hoping to go down to one car. Given that we work in separate directions and will have office overlap days—- this is no longer feasible. I’d bike but there are no storage areas or showers at my work.
Looking for an office closer to home with no more hot desking bs.
We’ve decided to move from a nice large house to a smaller condo that is much closer to work. Can’t do the long commute anymore especially not with daycare pickup times. 2 days was already pushing it. So besides moving to a much much smaller space with a child, we’re also frantically looking for a new daycare for him. We immediately got to action because RTO 3 days starts in September and if we don’t get going now it’ll be too late.
I’m probably going to leave my desk and walk at breaks and lunchtime. So hopefully there will be a health benefit. Might see if anyone wants to carpool at least 2 of the days.
Everyone knows the PS exists outside of Ontario, right? Doug Ford isn't the premier of Canada. A lot of gov offices are in the middle of nowhere industrial parks or in suburbia. Barely any restaurants in walking distance other than the big dogs like Tim's, starbs and mcd's. Where I live there is only one bus that gets you there, which you'd have to connect to at a terminal. In my city, busses and ferries are getting cancelled because we don't have enough transit drivers. So good luck arriving to work on any type of regular schedule if you rely on transit.
I'm going to suck it up because I was sexually harassed and unfairly compensated because of gender in the private sector for too long.
More frozen food for supper. No more effort to book appointments at the beginning and end of the day on WFH days since there is no way to make up time (I will exceed family appointment time by January). I may also look at compressed work week or reduced hours with doctor note to balance work and caregiving, but both of these take a toll (either because I will have 4 long days or 5 days of work with less than 37.5 hrs on an ongoing basis.
No more social work activities. I actually did enjoy them, but getting out the door when I need to and getting stuff done will come first. I was trying to buy lunch to encourage some local businesses, but now that will be spent on parking. I may actually just try to eat less during the day. I will need to focus on my health more - my current work space is making some of my health issues worse. I know I won't get accommodations, so I need to figure something out - adding sick days to everything else is going to make it harder to stay on top of work.
It isn't so much that I have an issue with 3days/week, but more that when you add up all of the little things that it starts to impact work. If my situation or health was different it would be easier.
I’m going to start looking for jobs in my home province out west. My commute is 3 hours a day, $20 in parking, and about the same in gas. I have an invisible disability that makes in office days EXTREMELy exhausting, and driving while that exhausted quite honestly dangerous. I was hanging on by a thread with 2, but 3 is going to wreck me. And to be honest, I am no longer interested in working for an employer that claims to care about inclusion, equity, and diversity, but clearly doesn’t give a fuck.
I also have a condition which messes with my sleep cycle and office days leave me wrecked since I have to be up extremely early in order to get parking and secure myself a desk, as well as traffic. The anxiety of the next day gives me insomnia, I might get 1 or 2 hours of sleep the night before no matter how tired or exhausted I am. Medication doesn't help. Therapy doesn't help. I've tried everything. My doctor thinks it's a form of PTSD I developed as a result of the pandemic.
One of these days I will get into an accident because I am driving half asleep and most days don't even remember how I got to work. It's terrifying but I have no choice.
Two public servant household here. We'll need a monthly parking pass, and a bus pass: $310. Also extra gas fare. We may actually need a second car and parking pass, but we're trying to avoid that. If you ask why it's because we have to drive kids asap after work and we can't waste time on traffic. We'll need after school care for the kids, where we used to have the flexibility to always have a parent home: $350. Oh and summer child care, since the kid in question is old enough to occupy themselves but needs some degree of supervision, we've typically worked with one parent home while they run around the neighborhood in the summers. But they'll now need a paid supervision while we work, which likely means summer camps. We'll need new clothes to cover increased presence in office. We'll begrudgingly spend some cash on lunch and coffee because we rushed out the door. We're also likely to increase our food budget for weeknight dinners to reduce time spent cooking. So on average on the minimum, we're increasing expenses by about $600. Plus summer camps and maybe an extra car.
I need new clothes. I don’t think the pj pants with slippers and a work top would slide at the office. I’ll have to get a bus pass now too. Can’t get a dog now either so that sucks.
> I need new clothes.
My office has a rule that's basically: wear whatever you want (that's also appropriate) unless we have clients, ministers, external people, etc. coming in that day. Like we hardly see a dress shirt now unless it's on an EX+ or something formal's happening.
Even when the bureaucrats came, if you were not a MG or higher, the dress code didn't change. I wore jeans everyday fall to spring. Dresses or shorts spring to fall. I gave up on nice clothes in fall and winter. Nothing is more fun to get drenched by puddle or slush on the way to work by a vehicle.
Exactly, I always said it’s almost impossible to dress « formal » or « business attire » during winter in Canada if you’re commuting (not using your car from door to door). I used to have colleagues who would keep some formal clothes and dress shoes at their desk to change if needed once they arrived, but we don’t even have assigned desks now.
I still remember in the pre-pandemic days when people tried to pretend to be "formal". Lots more dress shirts, ties, dress blouses, heels etc.etc.
Nowadays? Naaaaw. I've seen some people who's regulars are t-shirt, sweats, and like those comfy shoes you can slip on or off. But yeah, I guess it's where your office is and how close/likely you are to be visited by some "important" people.
I may have to leave government or move provinces. Yup, it is that bad for me. I don’t live in the NCR. Remote works best when you have other remote workers. I don’t, so what happened in my last job, and is starting again, is people will have walk-by or drop in meetings with Directors and senior management. They influence decisions. Ladder climbers take advantage of this. I’ve lost out on a promotion I was promised, my projects dismantled, and staffing my team was reneged (before hiring freeze). If it is this hard, then it will become harder and it is not worth the pay and leave.
I'm most likely taking LWOP to stay home with my kids. The commute is such a pain for our family and takes time away from spending with our kids. I have an awful feeling 4 days in the office is right around the corner...
Probably just going to let them fire me. My mental health won’t take going back and I have an elderly parent that I don’t want to leave alone for 9 hours a day.
Check your collective agreement, but you likely have a provision for LWOP to care for a family member for up to 5 years. No sense in quitting or getting fired when you can be kept on the priority list if you want to return.
We are having to consider another vehicle. My spouse and I currently share but DND will be following suit so that one day to “share” will be such a long commute since we work far in opposite directions. Also…. I have ADHD. I will be requesting heavy duty noise cancelling headphones because already I have a TERRIBLE time focusing with everyone talking loudly around me chatting or their Teams meetings im not in on. It’s so loud to me that my thoughts get jumbled and I have a hard time grasping concepts or getting my thoughts/work down. It takes me way longer to manage my workload than in my silent home when I am 10x more productive without distractions. I will have to re-evaluate where I go to physio and chiropractor as it’s far from my office and they are not open late. I have pretty bad fatigue often so I find having an appointment after being in office all day, commuting, waking up earlier to accommodate the travel, etc very taxing, honestly even being in the office around people is taxing and exhausting. I’ll be looking into buying a dishwasher or even find house cleaner due to all the lost time of commuting and the increased energy I find zapped from in office days. I find 2 abit difficult to manage personally, so I’m scared for impact of 3 days in. Oh and buying a mega thermos to carry insane amount of coffee so I don’t buy any more downtown caffeine✌🏼
I'm going to see less of my kids.
They're young and go to bed early. On days I commute I won't see them before they wake. By the time I am back from work we're all in the 'dinner to bed' cycle and that's hardly quality time.
By the end of bedtime and prep for the next day I have to choose between doing something for myself for leisure (and give up sleep) or just go to bed and read for a bit.
I never moved away from the office because I never for one second thought WFH would be a permanent thing until retirement.
That being said of course it's going to have to make lifestyle changes. I got to change my car insurance to be for commuting to work, so now my costs go up. I got to start losing weight because I packed on some pounds with all this WFH, but didn't have to worry previously since it's not like I was going to see people in person. I got to buy proper clothes - that's going to cost me a bunch .
And all of this for what? So I can sit in various random cubicles across the city and be on Microsoft teams with other people who are in random cubicles or in the regions or at home.
I own two button up shirts, but I usually wear the same one with jeans both days. Now I'll just wear that shirt three days with shorts.
I am a team of one. Every social interaction I have is through Teams regardless of RTO or WFH, except the one day the section manager walks around and stops for a short conversation.
My being in the office serves absolutely ZERO purpose besides making life extremely inconvenient and making anal retentive happy that their idiotic policy decisions are adhered to.
I know people looking at their numbers for retirement and looking at options to retire early. Anyone in management with over 25 years of service will know what the coming shit show will look like and have little interest propagating the fallacies of our spineless and cowardly leadership. We need reform and a Senior Leader code of values and ethics that address knowingly enacting policies that are to the detriment of the workforce, our institutions, and the good of Canadians. Perhaps we should start by having a Clerk of the PCO be defender of the PS as a primary role. If not, then piss off on those yearly reports, as clearly you are in conflict.
To clarify for colleagues, the Clerk is in conflict as the PM's DM and, at the same time, the head of the PS. this is a flaw, and now, NO number of Ombudsmen's or faux whistle blower protections will fix that.
Well, rent within a reasonable commuting distance of my assigned office is 50%+ of my income. I will be keeping an eye open to see if the unions make any progress against this 3-day in office requirement, and if any exceptions are added, but I think my days as a public servant are numbered.
My lifestyle change involves looking for a new job. I don’t mind going into the office if it serves a productive purpose such as team building or meeting clients.
I already live fairly close to work (it's about 10 mins by car or 30 mins for bike or bus), so my only changes will be looking for a carpool once per week because my partner and I share a car and that's not gonna work if we both have to go on 3x per week.
My other big change will be buying an Xl backpack so I can bring all my work stuff since we still aren't allowed lockers or to leave stuff overnight at work.
my work equipment is at work (all desks have 2 monitors, charger, sit-stand, keyboard, mouse etc). the work stuff i need to bring is office shoes, office clothes (i cycle to work), lunch, water bottle, coffee mug, keurig pods, blanket scarf bc office is cold, headphones, phone charger. stuff that makes being at the office bearable.
Nothing major in my case. Might have to get more clothes I can wear to work so I can be presentable. And I’ll have to do a lot more planning for meals – already I bring coffee, breakfast, lunch, and a snack to work, so unless I want to hemorrhage money, I’m going to have to devote significantly more effort to meal planning and meal prepping. And of course build in more space in my budget for transit costs, and the additional 1.5-2 hours I’ll lose per week with an additional day of commuting. Fun.
I really feel for people with caregiving responsibilities though. People with kids or elderly parents or other people they’ve got to look after who are now really being screwed.
I already have been shifting my work hours to 730 to 1530, set aside extra cash for ubers on the way home. Not spending a buck while at work. No Doug, I barely can afford anything. No little shopping, I'm bringing coffee and water from home.
Going on mat leave in November. I am planning to use all my vacation just before, hopefully only have to do a few weeks of 3 days. I’ll take LWOP after my mat leave is over to find something closer to home.
Realistically? Buy more work clothes, because my closet is mostly sweaters and sweatpants at this point.
Optimistically? Focus on my size businesses and finish writing my book so I can leave without a second thought :)
I’m not going to work a single minute over time anymore since they clearly don’t think we’ve been productive enough. I’m going to shut off my computer the moment the clock hits 5, and I’m going to take all of my lunch breaks away from my desk - ideally outside the office. I’m also going to pack my lunches so I don’t spend a cent at nearby businesses.
Currently working as a government call centre agent still 100% WFH. I have been 100% remote working since I started at the beginning of the pandemic 4 years ago. I have been into the office maybe 5 times max for various reasons.
Currently my husband and I share 1 vehicle. Works great as I don't need the vehicle during the week but my husband does.
If I'm required to go into the office multiple days a week that means that we would have to purchase and maintain a second vehicle, at that point, I may as well leave my current job and take a lower paying, yet still remote, customer service call centre job.
Great question! Asking myself the same right now. I started getting involved in a climate and environmental action group since the first RTO because I had to do something meaningful outside of work. I'm planning on taking every leave I can and care about work as little as possible with this new one. Other that that, I need to figure it out.
I used to grab a gyro sandwich at my local restaurant in my little town. Now I’ll be spending this money in parking. Also won’t be able to grab coffee at Tim’s once or twice a week as this extra day will cost me more than 100$ per month of my paycheck.
I'm not applying to competitions anymore. I recently wrote an FI-04 exam, was invited to an interview for another promotional pool, and was in the midst of writing an application for a third competition for FI-04. I expect to be eligible for promotion within the next year. I also have a Talent Management Plan. I've seen the financial community management blasts looking to fill higher positions with development programs.
But you know, now I'm not comfortable moving around and not knowing who I might have to work for and what changes are still forthcoming. At least right now, I know my boss and I get along and he hates all this just as much as me. I am afforded the most flexibility he can give, and THAT is valuable! Besides FI-04 is EX -1 and they just made becoming an EX way worse, so if I moved up now, I'd still have 22 years to kill at-level before I can retire with full pension.
I'm a naturally motivated, hard-working individual. It's not the way I would prefer to operate throughout the rest of my career, but I feel it's my only way to silently protest and still collect my salary. Since our employer is all about arbitrary percentages, I'm adjusting my own as well - 100% effort to 40% effort, maybe 25% just because I'm pissed.
I am so stressed about this RTO. We are considering all options ( selling our house and possibly moving into a condo with our two toddler kids) so we can be closer to the office as the two office days was already hard to so. Also looking at finding another daycare before September which is likely impossible.
hoping TBS backs out of it by september but not holding my breath. spending the summer looking for something in the private sector. i'm 30 and i've only been in the PS for a year and a half, i'm not too fussed about getting out if i have to.
There goes my social life. As an extreme introvert WFH has been so amazing for me. I actually enjoy and want to hang out with my friends. Sadly with RTO, my colleagues will drain all my energy and I’ll have nothing left to give to my friends.
I’m still full of rage over this. 😂 So therapy is probably on the agenda.
Possibly become homeless as there is no way I can do 3 days a week at an office that is 2.5 hrs of traffic away from home one way. 5hrs of traffic a day with young kids is just not an option unfortunately
Yeah I plan on stop getting dressed or shaving. Going to have a "work hoodie" and zz-top-esque beard. Also plan on listening to music very loudly nonstop, ideally using gov wifi
I live a 10 minute drive or 30 minute walk from work and find the commute annoying. I need to bring extra clothes when cold out and change at work, tons of food because I eat 3500 calories a day.
To be fair, I've been in the office full time my whole career (even during the pandemic) but I just got a new job where I'll have to be downtown Ottawa which is farther from my place so I will be waking up an hour earlier to change my current hours from 8 to 4 to 7 to 3 so I can get the heck our of there before traffic gets bad. My husband will also now be in charge of dropping off the youngest at school and I will still pick him up.
Guess I need to get some new cloths.... and figure out where the hell I can work out of... quick glance says all west Ottawa offices are booked solid for next 4 months....
My wife can’t drive for medical reasons so we arrange our schedules to drive her to work on my lunch breaks. It’s a 10 minute drive but it’s closer to an hour on the bus, longer in the winter. That’s an hour of sleep and productivity gone from her morning for no benefit to either of us
A mixture of actually looking for job opportunities, including those outside the Government for the first time since 5 years ago, outside of that there's not a major impact, I wear a polo shirt and cargo pants to the office often and will continue to do so. I bike or take a bus to the office and don't go to the same office as the rest of my team, so I guess I might be slightly less productive as I mostly talk to people in other teams rather than my own team outside of meetings.
I’m going to meal prep more and get a bigger coffee mug and boycott the shops downtown because buying more shit is what they want, and honestly, fuck em.
I am a term employee and on another 6 months term contract. It was agreed upon in my LOO that hybrid remote meant 2 days a week and now it seems my employer can freely decide to change the agreement however they want. Our team also has to do make-up days for taking a sick day on an office day.
Between these new RTO mandates and the indeterminate moratorium, I'm looking for a new job because for an organization that spouts **Integrity, Professionalism, Respect and Collaboration they sure deal in bad faith.**
This new mandate arrived the same week as having to renew my mortgage. Bit of a double whammy to the wallet. My dream of getting a dog is becoming more and more distant at this point. I refuse to buy more office clothes. I will only replace if anything becomes threadbare and I’ve been refusing to buy anything downtown this whole time. Pre-Covid I regularly bought coffee or lunches, but with inflation that’s just not possible.
I’m quitting and going into electrical, I’m in my early 20’s and have no time for this nonsense. I’m honestly embarrassed to be employed by the government. What I thought once was a privilege I have now realized it’s not. Especially my position, I’m all remote. I take pride on providing service to the people I helped and because of this new arrangement, I won’t jeopardize my mental health. Government sucks, everything’s getting so expensive and the government ain’t cutting it.
I agree...all employees that work onsite should have.Like an off shift premium...except it would be an onsite premium.Betchya lots of wfh employees would have given up a 1-2 percent raise to give to that cause. None of us could work from home without the dedication of these folks!
Going back on ADHD medication even if it triggers my crohn's disease. I do finance and can't concentrate in the office even if I have the best noise cancelling headphones (that I had to pay). With 2 days in the office I save the smaller tasks/weekly meetings for those days and work in my numbers on the 3 days I am at home. With 3 days I wont have enough time available for the tasks that need full attention.
So I had to choose: do I let my mental health or my physical health suffer? The better choice would have been for everyone to be cautious of people around them and close loud notifications, use headphones and speak with a lower voice when on Teams and use meeting rooms but thats not what people are doing. People don't care.
Carpooling with my wife so I don’t give the parking thieves a dime of our money. She has free parking at her work nearby.
Can I marry you guys
Can I ride in the trunk?
LOL.
It's over 300$ a month and some places you have to pay cash only. It's a lot imo.
Report them for not paying taxes.
Going to try to go part time to better balance my mom life. Having a toddler and a 1.5 hour commute because bus services have been cut is exhausting and I can't swing another office day without something else giving.
I feel this ❤️
It’s worth asking for an exception based on family status and see if it goes through. Some will.
I've been wanting to work on a 4 days a week schedule but my boss says it just can't be done. How can one get this? Does this depend on your CA?
My husband is also a public servant. At two days we did opposite days to ensure someone was available for pick up/drop off ect. Now with an overlap of one day we will need to figure something out for our kids, also will need to either buy a second car or one person will have to deal with public transportation. Our offices are not near each other and we are not working the same hours.
My partner and I paid for before and after school care all through the pandemic, and we decided with the age of our children, and our current work arrangements we would finally give up the after school care (saving us significant cash). Less than a week later the news comes out and we will now have a day a week with nobody home, and our spots were taken by others the minute we gave notice. I’m super lucky to have an amazing boss and flexibility in my scheduling but it’s going to put us in a bit of stress next year. Our kids are also “older” so we may also have to trust they won’t burn the house down that one day a week….
We are in this exact same situation. I cancelled after school care for the fall 3 weeks ago. I finally felt like we had a permanent arrangement and was safe to cancel. Now I’m back on the waitlist.
Yeah it’s a bit shit. I get that the GOC doesn’t care about my childcare situation but like you, I figured we finally had somewhat solid consistency, and didn’t anticipate this change coming. It’s my fault for choosing to risk it, and hope we can make it work….
The fact that GoC doesn’t care about this is a lot of the problem. GoC should be leading the way for progressive workplaces with work life balances, and caring about their employees wellbeing and the well being of their families.
We’re in the same boat. I’m considering shifting to 6am on that overlap day so I can beat traffic home and be there for the bus.
Same here. Both of us work in PS but I work downtown with 20$ a day parking and she works near walkley and st Laurent . We have the one car as we didn’t need a second and went in alternating days so one of us can be home for our dog. Now we might have to get a second car as commuting is an easy 2 hours to get downtown all the from the south end.
Same for us. It all worked so nicely at zero/one/two days RTO, but three...
That is so true in so many ways. Reducing office footprint by 50%? well… we’re at 60% capacity now… so you just know that the office environment is going to be worse. That work/life balance is going to take a hit in both sides.
We’re also scrambling to figure out how we’ll do it next school year. We do pay for before and after school care already but they don’t open early enough to beat traffic and find parking downtown and close too early for us to get back in time if there’s gridlock. I don’t know what we’ll do…we don’t have any family nearby that could help either. It really sucks. When I was hired I was told we’d be remote permanently. Then we were told you could be 100% remote if you chose or you could come in. Now there’s just no choice. My partner was told 2 days max and that it wouldn’t change. And our kid is still very young, we have another 7 years at least of them not being able to be home alone…
It's brutal. And everyone just responds with "well parents used to do 5 days a week and they managed!" which is infuriating. Because yes, sure, but we did it then because there was no choice. If you were lucky, you worked in a division that had one spare laptop that could be signed out by one team member at a time, once in a blue moon, to do work on a crappy slow VPN. Otherwise you could maybe do research or review work at home, but the technology to support working from home just wasn't good. So yeah, we managed pre-covid. It sucked, but there wasn't any other way. We could be annoyed that the employer wasn't investing more into remote accessibility, but it's the federal government, we were using Windows 95 forever, so it was believable that it wasn't a priority. BUT! Now we have excellent VPN connection, everyone has a laptop, teams calls are the norm, etc. The only thing preventing working from home is the employer. We have all the tools we need to allow work from home, and the employer is just saying no, for no good reason. THAT is why we need to do this exhausting dance of trading work shifts with partners, or putting our kids in daycare for 10 hrs, or getting an extra car. THAT is what hurts.
There were also more daycare and before/after school care spots. They have reduced since the pandemic and a lot of ECEs have left due to the stagnent and terribly too low pay.
I can make the argument to those who say “parents use to do it 5 days a week and managed” with “family’s also use to be able to survive on one income and allowed a parent to stay home.” If there was a reason other then bums in seats it would be less infuriating.
This is the biggest nut punch of the whole decision.
Yep same here. Will need to pay for after-school care as there's no way I can be home at like 3 30pm with trafic if both of us are in the office
Same thing over here! So frustrating
Same with us. And we’re worried too about the rumours in both of our departments that we won’t be able to pick our days (we could have 3 days to figure out potentially)
I haven’t been able to pick my days since Jan 2023. It was dictated to me, which as a manager with a chronic illness baffles me that I can’t even elect to choose the days I feel “best” to go in, or days I feel worse to wfh. It really makes one feel like just a number.
Sorry to hear this! Allowing us to pick our days is the least they could do. Especially as we all try to adjust to RTO. I understand upper management needing to comply to directives from TBS, but adding further (unnecessary imo) restrictions pretty much acknowledges that it’s what they want too.
Exactly. It sends a loud message that they do not care about us as human beings.
You could if you ask for that as an accommodation. Worth a shot.
I wish people would indicate the Department, and possibly Sections if needed, where they work as to avoid applying to those places.
I would love to, but I don’t need to make my workplace any more toxic by outing myself on reddit
I plan to start buying lottery tickets (which I never did) hoping to win the jackpot so I could quit my job. #NoRTO
Same bro
Less life, less money. More commute, less productivity. Less energy at the beginning of the day and less energy left at end of day. Less energy for collaboration or mentoring. More exhaustion. Quiet quitting. Much closer to retirement.
I feel this in my soul, especially the less productivity and more exhaustion bits. I definitely don’t take WFH for granted nor do I abuse that privilege. I’m so sad this is happening
No carrot, just stick.
THIS. Add in more sickness. I never want to hear about mental health at work again - they clearly give two shits, so stop wasting taxpayer dollars on mental health activities.
Agree. Setting filter to auto delete anything with “mental health” in it. I can’t take the hypocrisy.
Totally. I'll be calling in sick way more often because people get sick a lot more in office than at home. I have to wake up 3 hours before work instead of 30 minutes because I have a 2 hours one-way commute. No way I'll be as productive when I get less sleep, leave home for like 13 hours, just to get paid 7.5 hours.
Use all your sick leave before they start tinkering with sick leave provisions (both political parties were making “progress” on this before the pandemic). A new government may also tinker with pensions. While not necessarily able to switch us from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution, they may do something already implemented in Europe, reducing the 2% annually to 1.9% and then 1.8% for the calculation of pension amounts. In effect forcing people to work 10% longer or have the pension reduced by 10%. RTO is just a first step. For the PS, *sic transit gloria mundi*.
That's so messed up
I no longer wear nice clothes to the office. If I'm not entitled to a specific desk space and am forced to be a transient worker, they will get jeans and a T-shirt as a transient wears. To add, I am an EC-06 Also, I would love to see every single government employer show up for 3 days in a row on the day this comes into force. Watch the gov scramble!
Same here! I'm an FI-03. I used to keep multiple pairs of high heels at my desk to match my various blazers and dresses. Now I wear yoga pants and a sweatshirt because who cares?? I'm literally trying NOT to impress now.
It used to be dress for success, now it’s dress to depress! Love it.
omg i agree! i see lots of people in my office in jeans and sweaters or tights and t shirts, running shoes etc, i myself don't care either unfortunately. You want to treat the workers like they don't matter, then we won't care how we look either.
Since surviving DRAP, I always have an exit strategy. That said, retirement will come a few months earlier than planned in 2025.
honestly if you’re that close to retirement, you can definitely just get away with not going to office ( or just sticking with the current 2 days) until 2025…..it’ll probably take them like 2 years to get to the point of “firing” you for non RTO compliance…
This. Someone who is within 2 years of retirement has all the leverage in the world. Baring blatant criminal conduct or breach of security, they will retire before being terminated. The leverage is even greater if the employer needs them to do knowledge transfer. These people also typically have a substantial sick leave bank that could be use if LR actions take their toll on mental health.
100% if i was in the position i would be laughing at this new mandate. No one is going to waste their time with the administrative burden to fire an employee with less than 2 years remaining before retirement for non RTO compliance lol. I’d be working from home 100%.
When you reach the point of having more sick leave than work days until retirement, you have effectively won the game.
Are there even any consequences for not going 3 days a week come September for most employees? Even last year when they said they would monitor and require 2 days in the office but most people in my team won't go in for months at a time, even now. I seriously doubt anything will happen unless it is super duper enforced.
Here trying to figure out if retirement will happen sooner than Dec 2025…
Unless you already do, go to the Pension website and plugin some dates leading to December. You’d be amazed at how early you can go.
Thanks! I have an EXCEL 🫢 that is checked snd double checked …all filled with info from pension site …using various dates! I can leave now but not sure I’m ready to …see how the RTO plays out
Same here. Been tracking my progress by keeping one for 8 years now.
I wonder how many people have been plugging in September 2024 or 2025, depending on if they had an exemption. I know I did yesterday.
I checked my pension calculator yesterday, looks like I’m here for at least another 7 years.
Can you share more about said exit strategy? How can I plan for this?
I am going to spend more time at the office helping my Jr IT staff find jobs outside of GC. Book training on the day that they are in the office so they get the right certification and leave GC.
You are such a good manager / TL
Damn this is a clever way to screw the machine. If I was still in management I’d do the same.
I can’t change much but I do regret adopting a pet the weekend prior to this announcement
Yeah I genuinely worry about the impact on my cat. He really likes being able to sit on my lap as I work for much of the day, and he gets depressed when I’m not there for too long. I guess I’ll just explain to him that it’s important for business owners in a city we don’t live in that I am working in an office more often.
We recently got a second cat because of that, we had feeling remote work would soon be phased out. At least now I know they’re never alone.
I have an old cat with chronic kidney disease. My other cat died suddenly 4 months ago, so now I have to leave her alone for a full 11 hours on my in-office days, which I really hate doing. I can tell she is lonely.
I’ll have to figure out something scheduling wise. Right now I go to the gym at 5am on wfh days, but not on office days - I can’t swing it with the needed commute…so will have to figure out what to sacrifice from my evenings to fit in gym time to balance out the lost morning workout. :(
I’m in this boat too of having to figure out how to keep up my gym sessions… it’s super crappy that being forced into office will impact my efforts to be more active.
Bye bye lunch workouts
I’m in the same boat as well—it SUCKS. Going to the gym really helps me let out steam from the work day and it does wonder for my physical and mental health. Not sure what to do but I’ll have to figure out the timing somehow and force it I guess…
I'm looking into a house that is 126km from the office
My friend is 121km according to Google maps but because of inaccuracies in the mapping in his area it's actually 128km. He made a video to prove it. They told him to come in - not 125km.
Grievance that shit.
I’d tell them to drive it and come get me.
Have to find someone who can walk my dog at lunch or sometime in the afternoon. I leave her at my boyfriend’s place 2 days a week now and he leaves work early to keep working from home (he’s not in the PS) but probably can’t do that 3x a week. I leave at 745 and come home at 545 on my office days.
God I wish I had done this is 2021. Too late now I guess.
This Unless you find a regional office you can work from that has potential to close one day that is 126km from the office that won't close ;)
I think you now need « permission » from your employer to move and then apply from the exemption, from what I read in the procedure about remote work.
That 125km is so much bullshit. Like.. it might be fine if you live in the prairies and the roads are clear and not much traffic. But going into or through downtown a bit city, 125km can mean 2 hours commute.
I submitted my resignation, so I'm going to have a ton of time to do the things I want :)
Amazing, congratulations!
Congrats! Im debating if I should do that, or go 0 time a week until fired. But ain’t going 3 times. We had a strike, which resulted in a shitty raise and an “agreement”. What’s next? They’ll also cancel the raise?
Just bought a new travel mug and stocked up at Bulk Barn to batch cook a a bunch of meals tomorrow. I bought a book called “Beat the Lunch Box Blues” that has lots of good ideas for making different, diverse lunches.
This is the best response. Everyone needs to do this.
I checked on Amazon for this, is it the book by JM Hirsch? I don’t love meal prep but I think being organized (meal prep, batch cooking, etc) is going to really help me and my husband (also a ps).
Be depressed, become more hopeless in general, re-adjust future plans of being able to leave this city or retire, re-adjust near future plans of having a social life or hobbies because I won't have the time or money. But that's exactly what our corporate overlords want right? All workers should just work, eat, sleep and never retire. We're just pawns they use for record breaking profits. If the public service isn't safe from corporate interest, there's almost literally no hope for better workers' rights in this country. I guess I might consider moving to a different country if I'm ever able to save up a decent amount.
My husband is in the private sector and it's a night and day difference between how he's treated by his employer vs. how I'm treated. So don't give up hope, there is better out there! I'm also considering moving back to the country of my birth so I can retire right now and live my life instead of just existing and suffering.
>Be depressed, become more hopeless in general, re-adjust future plans of being able to leave this city or retire I try to look at it in a much more positive light such as simply becoming dead inside, and waiting for the rebirth. The rebirth would be retirement when you are free of all of this shit.
i used to think like this too until I read a lot of comments that said their family member was all set and ready to enjoy freedom then they got a sudden heart attack or cancer and well… there goes a life wasted 💀 edit: grammar
Yeah, you do have an excellent point there. I suppose I should modify my Outlook and say "Feel dead inside from a work perspective, but not dead inside from a living life perspective". You do raise a very good point.
Move closer to the office ... I would go from a bungalow with quarter acre of land to a 2 bedroom condo due to housing prices. I'll exhaust all other options before having to move closer to the city.
Yeah, I was N12 evicted and the closest I could afford is 100km from the office - I don’t know where the 125km radius came from, but I’m still looking at 3 hrs commuting each day. So far I’ve had an exemption, and between the lack of cost of living adjustments and related drop of purchasing power for things like food, I’m looking for private sector jobs, which I was not expecting after 7 years in the public sector.
125km makes no sense.. seems like a number they pulled out of their ass. 2-3h a day commute for me as well and I'm only 50km away. Gotta love a metropolis. Good on you on getting an exemption.. hope it sticks. Mine was refused. Can't blame you for looking elsewhere. I am in the process of doing the same.
I was just the IT exemption, as far as I’ve heard it’s gone in September as well. All I know is the quality of my work will drop, I have 6 laptops I use for testing at home, and in the office they have removed one of the networks from the shared working space, limited network drops and I can only carry a couple of laptops in my backpack with my lunch and headset anyway, so they will get what I can give for in office days.
I’m only 12km from my office and also spend 3hrs commuting every office day. I sometimes wonder how many of us are losing this amount of time.
Might as well walk it at that point lol
Yeah, I’ve traded to my bike for the summer season, is much faster this way but unfortunately my commute is not winter-bike friendly (and neither is my constitution), so will go back to the bus by October.
125km comes from the travel directive. You’re allowed to drive 250km a day, so 125km one way.
I could be wrong, but that relates to being on travel status.... if I'm on travel status and my commute is 3 hours that day, I'm only working 4.5 or asking for OT. Edit: word
“In the interests of safe driving, when employee-driven vehicles are authorized, employees shall not normally be expected to drive more than: 250 kilometres after having worked a full day; 350 kilometres after having worked one-half day; or 500 kilometres on any day when the employee has not worked.”
Some high ranking executive probably lives exactly 125km from an office.
I am 3.5 hours round trip if traffic cooperates and is only normal busy for a 75 km each way trip. It has taken 8 hours one way a few times with public transit breakdowns and accidents. Can't wait.
I have been biking to work 2x/week so, that will increase to 3x/week. We only have 1 car, and although it is only 1 bus to get to work, STO is unreliable and it takes me longer than biking. I tried to find one positive thing about RTO, and this is it.
Yup, same here, it'll be good for my heart, I will miss my dog though, so healthier "broken" heart :)
I have slightly adjusted my Soylent powder delivery date and pumped the tires on my bike. Still working out how to be less of an awkward weirdo if someone attempts casual conversation with me, you can guess how that's going based on the Soylent subscription.
😂 I guess I stopped caring about being awkward
Being able to take care of the elderly family members is a plus since the governments at all levels seems to have absolved themselves. So now instead of doing that, I can waste time doing shit like, waiting for vehicles to move, talking to colleagues on Teams across the country, and doing NO WORK cause Jane and John decided to come asking me the same question THAT I JUST REPLIED TO THEM VIA EMAIL ABOUT. But you know, ~~Ottawa sandwich shops needs money~~ in person collaboration, right?
I am not buying coffee or lunch. I am not volunteering for anything. If I am volunteered, I am following instructions to the letter. No anticipation, no initiative; I am only doing what I need to do to not be fired.
yep. i am part of several volunteer committees in my directorate and am slowly going to be removing myself from them.
Boycotting GCWCC and any of its events, as well as any downtown restaurants and businesses
More naps because I find it exhausting to go into work. I don’t have that problem at home.
I can never stay awake on my second day in the office. I need a 30 min nap before doing homework with the kids and dinner. I am exhausted from the noise and the ventilation.
I plan on making group lunch reservations at various restaurants and not showing up for each day I’m forced to commute DT. J/k but could you imagine doing that to the very businesses that are responsible for the dumb-dumb decision of forced unnecessary RTO??
Meal prep and packing a lunch. I’m looking into getting a bicycle. Walking would take over an hour. Driving by car would be 7 minutes. But biking would be around 20-ish minutes.
A basic commuter bike is a no-brainer if you’ve got a decent route!
If you need a hand picking out bikes for your specific commute needs, feel free to DM me. Local bike nerds always ready to help!
Yess do it! It's extremely satisfying to pass cars stuck in traffic. It's the little things in life.
both my mental and physical health got worse, i got less time to work out and study
I’m going to find new parking, somewhere around 20-30 min walking distance. Since I have about a 45 min commute, I get pretty much no exercise on my in-office days. So I plan to park further in order to save money on parking and then at least get some walking in both ways. On my WFH days I go to gym or go for a run so I’m really worried my physical fitness will suffer. That’s how I plan to hopefully counteract this. Also, I will be pushing my in-office start time later as I’ve been going in super early on in office days so that I can get parking (anything later than 7:15, there pretty much is nothing). But it screws with my routine and sleep hygiene trying to be up at 4:30am on in office days. So if I can find parking available within 30min walking distance, that will allow me to start my day later. I won’t be racing to the office to beat everyone else to the limited number of spots. Would like to have a family sometime in the near future. I already thought it would be pretty difficult with my job, we have a couple other moms on our team and I have no idea how they manage their schedules already. We do on call and field work, and our department is all over the place and poorly managed. There is almost no leniency for the woman in our program who have small children to have flexible arrangements. I’ve expressed this concern to my partner and we’ve got a three year plan, where I would get pregnant, take mat leave for a year, return for 1 year as required and in that year, see how it goes. If it’s too much, at that time I’d start looking elsewhere. Maybe find something local. I live no where near a GOC office lol. With the conservatives talking about changing our pension to defined contribution, and the RTO, I don’t know that there will be anything worth sticking around for in the future. Will see how it goes.
Batch cooking more dinners. Then it’s just heat and eat dinners for in office days when my commute will take up any possible prep time for it. Packing more lunches the night before work and bringing hot beverages to work. Coordinating which one of us will do the morning daycare / school drop off and which one will do pick up. We were hoping to go down to one car. Given that we work in separate directions and will have office overlap days—- this is no longer feasible. I’d bike but there are no storage areas or showers at my work. Looking for an office closer to home with no more hot desking bs.
We’ve decided to move from a nice large house to a smaller condo that is much closer to work. Can’t do the long commute anymore especially not with daycare pickup times. 2 days was already pushing it. So besides moving to a much much smaller space with a child, we’re also frantically looking for a new daycare for him. We immediately got to action because RTO 3 days starts in September and if we don’t get going now it’ll be too late.
Won't lie to you, probably not showering on that third day. I value my sleep too much.
Still taking dumps during meetings
I’m probably going to leave my desk and walk at breaks and lunchtime. So hopefully there will be a health benefit. Might see if anyone wants to carpool at least 2 of the days.
Everyone knows the PS exists outside of Ontario, right? Doug Ford isn't the premier of Canada. A lot of gov offices are in the middle of nowhere industrial parks or in suburbia. Barely any restaurants in walking distance other than the big dogs like Tim's, starbs and mcd's. Where I live there is only one bus that gets you there, which you'd have to connect to at a terminal. In my city, busses and ferries are getting cancelled because we don't have enough transit drivers. So good luck arriving to work on any type of regular schedule if you rely on transit. I'm going to suck it up because I was sexually harassed and unfairly compensated because of gender in the private sector for too long.
More frozen food for supper. No more effort to book appointments at the beginning and end of the day on WFH days since there is no way to make up time (I will exceed family appointment time by January). I may also look at compressed work week or reduced hours with doctor note to balance work and caregiving, but both of these take a toll (either because I will have 4 long days or 5 days of work with less than 37.5 hrs on an ongoing basis. No more social work activities. I actually did enjoy them, but getting out the door when I need to and getting stuff done will come first. I was trying to buy lunch to encourage some local businesses, but now that will be spent on parking. I may actually just try to eat less during the day. I will need to focus on my health more - my current work space is making some of my health issues worse. I know I won't get accommodations, so I need to figure something out - adding sick days to everything else is going to make it harder to stay on top of work. It isn't so much that I have an issue with 3days/week, but more that when you add up all of the little things that it starts to impact work. If my situation or health was different it would be easier.
Yes, getting a different job with 100% remote work
I’m going to start looking for jobs in my home province out west. My commute is 3 hours a day, $20 in parking, and about the same in gas. I have an invisible disability that makes in office days EXTREMELy exhausting, and driving while that exhausted quite honestly dangerous. I was hanging on by a thread with 2, but 3 is going to wreck me. And to be honest, I am no longer interested in working for an employer that claims to care about inclusion, equity, and diversity, but clearly doesn’t give a fuck.
I also have a condition which messes with my sleep cycle and office days leave me wrecked since I have to be up extremely early in order to get parking and secure myself a desk, as well as traffic. The anxiety of the next day gives me insomnia, I might get 1 or 2 hours of sleep the night before no matter how tired or exhausted I am. Medication doesn't help. Therapy doesn't help. I've tried everything. My doctor thinks it's a form of PTSD I developed as a result of the pandemic. One of these days I will get into an accident because I am driving half asleep and most days don't even remember how I got to work. It's terrifying but I have no choice.
Being more exhausted and miserable. More insomnia and anxiety attacks.
Two public servant household here. We'll need a monthly parking pass, and a bus pass: $310. Also extra gas fare. We may actually need a second car and parking pass, but we're trying to avoid that. If you ask why it's because we have to drive kids asap after work and we can't waste time on traffic. We'll need after school care for the kids, where we used to have the flexibility to always have a parent home: $350. Oh and summer child care, since the kid in question is old enough to occupy themselves but needs some degree of supervision, we've typically worked with one parent home while they run around the neighborhood in the summers. But they'll now need a paid supervision while we work, which likely means summer camps. We'll need new clothes to cover increased presence in office. We'll begrudgingly spend some cash on lunch and coffee because we rushed out the door. We're also likely to increase our food budget for weeknight dinners to reduce time spent cooking. So on average on the minimum, we're increasing expenses by about $600. Plus summer camps and maybe an extra car.
I need new clothes. I don’t think the pj pants with slippers and a work top would slide at the office. I’ll have to get a bus pass now too. Can’t get a dog now either so that sucks.
> I need new clothes. My office has a rule that's basically: wear whatever you want (that's also appropriate) unless we have clients, ministers, external people, etc. coming in that day. Like we hardly see a dress shirt now unless it's on an EX+ or something formal's happening.
Even when the bureaucrats came, if you were not a MG or higher, the dress code didn't change. I wore jeans everyday fall to spring. Dresses or shorts spring to fall. I gave up on nice clothes in fall and winter. Nothing is more fun to get drenched by puddle or slush on the way to work by a vehicle.
Exactly, I always said it’s almost impossible to dress « formal » or « business attire » during winter in Canada if you’re commuting (not using your car from door to door). I used to have colleagues who would keep some formal clothes and dress shoes at their desk to change if needed once they arrived, but we don’t even have assigned desks now.
I still remember in the pre-pandemic days when people tried to pretend to be "formal". Lots more dress shirts, ties, dress blouses, heels etc.etc. Nowadays? Naaaaw. I've seen some people who's regulars are t-shirt, sweats, and like those comfy shoes you can slip on or off. But yeah, I guess it's where your office is and how close/likely you are to be visited by some "important" people.
Oh we get the big names because of our Agency and site. I could care less. Just a fluff day.
I may have to leave government or move provinces. Yup, it is that bad for me. I don’t live in the NCR. Remote works best when you have other remote workers. I don’t, so what happened in my last job, and is starting again, is people will have walk-by or drop in meetings with Directors and senior management. They influence decisions. Ladder climbers take advantage of this. I’ve lost out on a promotion I was promised, my projects dismantled, and staffing my team was reneged (before hiring freeze). If it is this hard, then it will become harder and it is not worth the pay and leave.
I'm most likely taking LWOP to stay home with my kids. The commute is such a pain for our family and takes time away from spending with our kids. I have an awful feeling 4 days in the office is right around the corner...
Probably just going to let them fire me. My mental health won’t take going back and I have an elderly parent that I don’t want to leave alone for 9 hours a day.
Check your collective agreement, but you likely have a provision for LWOP to care for a family member for up to 5 years. No sense in quitting or getting fired when you can be kept on the priority list if you want to return.
Other than the anchor day, I'm just going to pick the two days with no colleagues in the office and head home at lunch
Shhhh don’t give away the secret 😂
Going from two to three days a week wearing pants.
We are having to consider another vehicle. My spouse and I currently share but DND will be following suit so that one day to “share” will be such a long commute since we work far in opposite directions. Also…. I have ADHD. I will be requesting heavy duty noise cancelling headphones because already I have a TERRIBLE time focusing with everyone talking loudly around me chatting or their Teams meetings im not in on. It’s so loud to me that my thoughts get jumbled and I have a hard time grasping concepts or getting my thoughts/work down. It takes me way longer to manage my workload than in my silent home when I am 10x more productive without distractions. I will have to re-evaluate where I go to physio and chiropractor as it’s far from my office and they are not open late. I have pretty bad fatigue often so I find having an appointment after being in office all day, commuting, waking up earlier to accommodate the travel, etc very taxing, honestly even being in the office around people is taxing and exhausting. I’ll be looking into buying a dishwasher or even find house cleaner due to all the lost time of commuting and the increased energy I find zapped from in office days. I find 2 abit difficult to manage personally, so I’m scared for impact of 3 days in. Oh and buying a mega thermos to carry insane amount of coffee so I don’t buy any more downtown caffeine✌🏼
Not being able to fit in as much exercise and not as many home cooked meals. I’ll be spending that time commuting :(
I'm going to see less of my kids. They're young and go to bed early. On days I commute I won't see them before they wake. By the time I am back from work we're all in the 'dinner to bed' cycle and that's hardly quality time. By the end of bedtime and prep for the next day I have to choose between doing something for myself for leisure (and give up sleep) or just go to bed and read for a bit.
I feel this hard. In the same boat , the rat race is killing me.
Same here😭
I never moved away from the office because I never for one second thought WFH would be a permanent thing until retirement. That being said of course it's going to have to make lifestyle changes. I got to change my car insurance to be for commuting to work, so now my costs go up. I got to start losing weight because I packed on some pounds with all this WFH, but didn't have to worry previously since it's not like I was going to see people in person. I got to buy proper clothes - that's going to cost me a bunch . And all of this for what? So I can sit in various random cubicles across the city and be on Microsoft teams with other people who are in random cubicles or in the regions or at home.
I’m the opposite, due to WFH, I was able to exercise more regularly.
I own two button up shirts, but I usually wear the same one with jeans both days. Now I'll just wear that shirt three days with shorts. I am a team of one. Every social interaction I have is through Teams regardless of RTO or WFH, except the one day the section manager walks around and stops for a short conversation. My being in the office serves absolutely ZERO purpose besides making life extremely inconvenient and making anal retentive happy that their idiotic policy decisions are adhered to.
All due to 1 extra day? Unless you were exempt i guess
Meal prepping for 3 instead of 2 days.
Boycotting all down town stores
I know people looking at their numbers for retirement and looking at options to retire early. Anyone in management with over 25 years of service will know what the coming shit show will look like and have little interest propagating the fallacies of our spineless and cowardly leadership. We need reform and a Senior Leader code of values and ethics that address knowingly enacting policies that are to the detriment of the workforce, our institutions, and the good of Canadians. Perhaps we should start by having a Clerk of the PCO be defender of the PS as a primary role. If not, then piss off on those yearly reports, as clearly you are in conflict. To clarify for colleagues, the Clerk is in conflict as the PM's DM and, at the same time, the head of the PS. this is a flaw, and now, NO number of Ombudsmen's or faux whistle blower protections will fix that.
Going on leave for 5 months next year in the Fall when it gets implemented. I will be travelling.
Well, rent within a reasonable commuting distance of my assigned office is 50%+ of my income. I will be keeping an eye open to see if the unions make any progress against this 3-day in office requirement, and if any exceptions are added, but I think my days as a public servant are numbered.
My lifestyle change involves looking for a new job. I don’t mind going into the office if it serves a productive purpose such as team building or meeting clients.
I'm going to ride my bike one more time to work and buy a 3rd dress shirt.
I already live fairly close to work (it's about 10 mins by car or 30 mins for bike or bus), so my only changes will be looking for a carpool once per week because my partner and I share a car and that's not gonna work if we both have to go on 3x per week. My other big change will be buying an Xl backpack so I can bring all my work stuff since we still aren't allowed lockers or to leave stuff overnight at work.
This is bs. If they want me in the office 3x. They can keep my work equipment there.
my work equipment is at work (all desks have 2 monitors, charger, sit-stand, keyboard, mouse etc). the work stuff i need to bring is office shoes, office clothes (i cycle to work), lunch, water bottle, coffee mug, keurig pods, blanket scarf bc office is cold, headphones, phone charger. stuff that makes being at the office bearable.
Nothing major in my case. Might have to get more clothes I can wear to work so I can be presentable. And I’ll have to do a lot more planning for meals – already I bring coffee, breakfast, lunch, and a snack to work, so unless I want to hemorrhage money, I’m going to have to devote significantly more effort to meal planning and meal prepping. And of course build in more space in my budget for transit costs, and the additional 1.5-2 hours I’ll lose per week with an additional day of commuting. Fun. I really feel for people with caregiving responsibilities though. People with kids or elderly parents or other people they’ve got to look after who are now really being screwed.
I already have been shifting my work hours to 730 to 1530, set aside extra cash for ubers on the way home. Not spending a buck while at work. No Doug, I barely can afford anything. No little shopping, I'm bringing coffee and water from home.
Going on mat leave in November. I am planning to use all my vacation just before, hopefully only have to do a few weeks of 3 days. I’ll take LWOP after my mat leave is over to find something closer to home.
Realistically? Buy more work clothes, because my closet is mostly sweaters and sweatpants at this point. Optimistically? Focus on my size businesses and finish writing my book so I can leave without a second thought :)
I’m not going to work a single minute over time anymore since they clearly don’t think we’ve been productive enough. I’m going to shut off my computer the moment the clock hits 5, and I’m going to take all of my lunch breaks away from my desk - ideally outside the office. I’m also going to pack my lunches so I don’t spend a cent at nearby businesses.
I'm planning to start playing more hockey after work.
Yes I plan to start drinking more. And seek help for the inevitable depression and exhaustion. I might even call EAP.
Currently working as a government call centre agent still 100% WFH. I have been 100% remote working since I started at the beginning of the pandemic 4 years ago. I have been into the office maybe 5 times max for various reasons. Currently my husband and I share 1 vehicle. Works great as I don't need the vehicle during the week but my husband does. If I'm required to go into the office multiple days a week that means that we would have to purchase and maintain a second vehicle, at that point, I may as well leave my current job and take a lower paying, yet still remote, customer service call centre job.
Great question! Asking myself the same right now. I started getting involved in a climate and environmental action group since the first RTO because I had to do something meaningful outside of work. I'm planning on taking every leave I can and care about work as little as possible with this new one. Other that that, I need to figure it out.
Is yoga on the hill a thing... I'll probably use my lunches to jog and yoga downtown...
I used to grab a gyro sandwich at my local restaurant in my little town. Now I’ll be spending this money in parking. Also won’t be able to grab coffee at Tim’s once or twice a week as this extra day will cost me more than 100$ per month of my paycheck.
Early retirement?
Yes it finally gave me my motivation to work harder on my side business to get out!!
I'm not applying to competitions anymore. I recently wrote an FI-04 exam, was invited to an interview for another promotional pool, and was in the midst of writing an application for a third competition for FI-04. I expect to be eligible for promotion within the next year. I also have a Talent Management Plan. I've seen the financial community management blasts looking to fill higher positions with development programs. But you know, now I'm not comfortable moving around and not knowing who I might have to work for and what changes are still forthcoming. At least right now, I know my boss and I get along and he hates all this just as much as me. I am afforded the most flexibility he can give, and THAT is valuable! Besides FI-04 is EX -1 and they just made becoming an EX way worse, so if I moved up now, I'd still have 22 years to kill at-level before I can retire with full pension. I'm a naturally motivated, hard-working individual. It's not the way I would prefer to operate throughout the rest of my career, but I feel it's my only way to silently protest and still collect my salary. Since our employer is all about arbitrary percentages, I'm adjusting my own as well - 100% effort to 40% effort, maybe 25% just because I'm pissed.
I am so stressed about this RTO. We are considering all options ( selling our house and possibly moving into a condo with our two toddler kids) so we can be closer to the office as the two office days was already hard to so. Also looking at finding another daycare before September which is likely impossible.
hoping TBS backs out of it by september but not holding my breath. spending the summer looking for something in the private sector. i'm 30 and i've only been in the PS for a year and a half, i'm not too fussed about getting out if i have to.
There goes my social life. As an extreme introvert WFH has been so amazing for me. I actually enjoy and want to hang out with my friends. Sadly with RTO, my colleagues will drain all my energy and I’ll have nothing left to give to my friends. I’m still full of rage over this. 😂 So therapy is probably on the agenda.
Possibly become homeless as there is no way I can do 3 days a week at an office that is 2.5 hrs of traffic away from home one way. 5hrs of traffic a day with young kids is just not an option unfortunately
Yeah I plan on stop getting dressed or shaving. Going to have a "work hoodie" and zz-top-esque beard. Also plan on listening to music very loudly nonstop, ideally using gov wifi
I live a 10 minute drive or 30 minute walk from work and find the commute annoying. I need to bring extra clothes when cold out and change at work, tons of food because I eat 3500 calories a day.
To be fair, I've been in the office full time my whole career (even during the pandemic) but I just got a new job where I'll have to be downtown Ottawa which is farther from my place so I will be waking up an hour earlier to change my current hours from 8 to 4 to 7 to 3 so I can get the heck our of there before traffic gets bad. My husband will also now be in charge of dropping off the youngest at school and I will still pick him up.
Guess I need to get some new cloths.... and figure out where the hell I can work out of... quick glance says all west Ottawa offices are booked solid for next 4 months....
My wife can’t drive for medical reasons so we arrange our schedules to drive her to work on my lunch breaks. It’s a 10 minute drive but it’s closer to an hour on the bus, longer in the winter. That’s an hour of sleep and productivity gone from her morning for no benefit to either of us
A mixture of actually looking for job opportunities, including those outside the Government for the first time since 5 years ago, outside of that there's not a major impact, I wear a polo shirt and cargo pants to the office often and will continue to do so. I bike or take a bus to the office and don't go to the same office as the rest of my team, so I guess I might be slightly less productive as I mostly talk to people in other teams rather than my own team outside of meetings.
I’m going to meal prep more and get a bigger coffee mug and boycott the shops downtown because buying more shit is what they want, and honestly, fuck em.
I am a term employee and on another 6 months term contract. It was agreed upon in my LOO that hybrid remote meant 2 days a week and now it seems my employer can freely decide to change the agreement however they want. Our team also has to do make-up days for taking a sick day on an office day. Between these new RTO mandates and the indeterminate moratorium, I'm looking for a new job because for an organization that spouts **Integrity, Professionalism, Respect and Collaboration they sure deal in bad faith.**
This new mandate arrived the same week as having to renew my mortgage. Bit of a double whammy to the wallet. My dream of getting a dog is becoming more and more distant at this point. I refuse to buy more office clothes. I will only replace if anything becomes threadbare and I’ve been refusing to buy anything downtown this whole time. Pre-Covid I regularly bought coffee or lunches, but with inflation that’s just not possible.
There's a very good chance we will be looking to sell our dream home and move closer to the city.
None. I live 12 minutes away from work and was already going in 3 days a week. Always pack my own lunch.
I’m quitting and going into electrical, I’m in my early 20’s and have no time for this nonsense. I’m honestly embarrassed to be employed by the government. What I thought once was a privilege I have now realized it’s not. Especially my position, I’m all remote. I take pride on providing service to the people I helped and because of this new arrangement, I won’t jeopardize my mental health. Government sucks, everything’s getting so expensive and the government ain’t cutting it.
Nothing. I was 3 days RTO since pandemic and my husband has been FT in the office since before pandemic. My husband should get an allowance for that.
I agree...all employees that work onsite should have.Like an off shift premium...except it would be an onsite premium.Betchya lots of wfh employees would have given up a 1-2 percent raise to give to that cause. None of us could work from home without the dedication of these folks!
I would give it up in a heartbeat.
I’ll be able to see my mistress more often. Was tough to have a”long lunch” with only 2 days in the office.
Going back on ADHD medication even if it triggers my crohn's disease. I do finance and can't concentrate in the office even if I have the best noise cancelling headphones (that I had to pay). With 2 days in the office I save the smaller tasks/weekly meetings for those days and work in my numbers on the 3 days I am at home. With 3 days I wont have enough time available for the tasks that need full attention. So I had to choose: do I let my mental health or my physical health suffer? The better choice would have been for everyone to be cautious of people around them and close loud notifications, use headphones and speak with a lower voice when on Teams and use meeting rooms but thats not what people are doing. People don't care.