"Working from home" does not

work for everybody. It does not work for most people. If you are "public servant" then damn well get back to the office. Get back to the place where the files you need will be available. Don't tell me your "internet connection" is down...again.

I really have had this "working from home" lark by some of our so-called "public servants". It really hit home yesterday. 

I had to have my annual 'flu vaccination yesterday (on top of the second half of the shingles jab last Monday). It meant a morning away from the desk by the time I had ridden down to the clinic, rushed in and bought some very necessary underwear at the local chain store, and then waited for my turn (appointment necessary but they were, naturally, running late). The nurse was quick and efficient. The doctor asked how Middle Cat was as the jab was going in and I was out before waiting the obligatory ten minutes.

In order to save time I went to the Post Office and the chemist on my way home. There was no point in making an extra trip. It was at that point I was accosted with a cheerful "Hello Cat." There was someone I knew. She was sitting having a coffee with her cousin. It is late Friday morning and the two of them look relaxed and happy. "Join us for a coffee?"

"Thanks but I have to get back. I have to get some work done before a couple of people fly out."

I left it at that. The excuse was true but nothing would have induced me to have coffee with those two. Both of them are "public servants" who "work from home". They should both have been home - and working. Instead they were sitting having coffee and looking at photos on their phones.

This is not the first time I have seen or heard of such things happening. There are two people I know, brother and sister, who both WFH but every Tuesday morning they have a long breakfast together in the shopping centre. There is another man who takes his lap top along and says he is "working" but he chats to people he knows too. I am also aware of WFH people at the library. They have their laptops with them. The screens are up but are computer games, chess games and other entertaining items really "work". These are people who tell me they work for "X" or "Y" of "Z" department. They are almost certainly getting good salaries.

The election campaign is being fought around issues like this. The present government, thinking it is a vote winner, is saying people should have the "right" to WFH. The current opposition policy is to send people back to the office. WFH was a Covid issue. It was not intended to be a long term policy or a right of any sort. It was most definitely not intended to be a means of having breakfast with your brother or coffee with your cousin. It should not be about rushing out to bring the clothes in before it rains or picking up the kids from school and not being available because you are doing those things.

The internet does not go "down" as often as some of these people suggest. Yes, a few of them work harder and accomplish more but I suggest they are in the minority. There are the very few for whom it is the only way they can work.  I know of one man who is so severely disabled that getting him to work would take up more time than he could spend there. He puts in a full day at home and is infuriated by some of his colleagues who do not. I came into contact with him only recently but when I explained what I needed to help someone else he responded with a cheerful, "I can probably get to it this afternoon - is four o'clock too late?" His boss says he is the only WFHer who actually is efficient. He wants the rest of the staff back in the office.

"I know all the arguments Cat but the only argument for me is where they actually do the most work and that is in the office."

I have no choice about where I work and, oddly, the internet has only had one unplanned outage in the last twelve months. I have moved my place of abode and had a number of other issues to deal with but I have kept my commitments. I wanted to retire and it has not happened the way I hoped it would. I don't suppose it really matters. It is good to feel that I can still contribute something but it really does infuriate me that there are still expectations of me - and others like me. Why should we pay for people to "have coffee" with their WFH colleagues while we get on with the job?