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The debate over working from home reminds me of the old Ogden Nash line that progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long.
The government has called time on the virtual office and wants public servants back in the physical office. Ministers are seriously grumpy about the three-letter word (WFH) saying it is “not an entitlement” and may be responsible for tanking the hospitality and retail trades, especially in Wellington.
There’s a lot to unpack here; let’s start with the hypocrisy.
The call for bureaucrats to return to the office is, itself, bureaucratic. Public Service Minister Nicola Willis has asked public sector bosses to “actively monitor the prevalence and impact of working from home agreements” and “regularly report to the Public Service Commission”.
Nanny State should be interested in results. But no, it wants to know where you are achieving the results from and make sure that someone, somewhere, is scribbling down the data and squirrelling it away.
It’s funny that, because I’ve lost count of the times a minister has ducked responsibility for some stuff-up in their department, with the terse reply that, “It’s an operational issue.” Sometimes it’s a legitimate defence, the minister’s point being: “I’m floating up here making the big, broad decisions, not down in the weeds of the detail.”
So how did the issue of where someone is working from become core ministerial business?
Then there is the “do as I say, not as I do” principle, which often afflicts politicians.
Parliament sits 84 days a year. It doesn’t sit on a Monday or a Friday (except on the rare occasions of Parliamentary urgency). And have you noticed that the House never sits during school holidays? In a school system that still keeps hours designed for the domestic arrangements of the 1950s, WFH can be a lifesaver – and another big cost saver.
It’s hardly as though these public servants are living large and making sourdough as if the lockdown never ended. Many of them will be in two-parent working families or one-parent households bringing up kids alone. In fact, many of them are “the squeezed middle”, a group for whom National campaigned to make life easier.
Middle-income earners, as a result of the housing affordability crisis, often live in the more affordable neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city, meaning significant travel distances to work and high petrol costs.
Public transport, not even really an option in much of Auckland, is more expensive after the government scrapped the free travel for 5-12-year-olds and half-price fares for those aged 13-24. Then there’s parking. In just about any company you can shake a moral compass at, the car parks are reserved for the highest-paid employees at the top of the tree. The kaimahi – the staff – in Auckland at least, pay about $20 a day for the privilege of coming to work.
Given all this, it’s pretty laughable to think public servants will return to city centres to flick the wrist on Paywave and spend up large on hospo and retail.
Are we really saying that the daily traffic jam should trump the Teams meetings...?
Wellington is dying largely because the government sacked nearly 7000 public servants and isn’t done yet. Those who still have jobs won’t be spending up but hunkering down, waiting to see where the axe lands next.
Sometimes you have to be in the office to get the job done. Sometimes you want to be in the office for the social and team-building benefits. Other times, you get more work done at home or it makes the work-life juggle easier. Most workers who can WFH want a hybrid work environment.
Technology has reached the stage where it is possible to do that with ease. This is a government that is gung-ho about embracing technology, spruiking the space industry and adopting AI.
Are we really saying that the daily traffic jam should trump the Teams meetings, just so we can eyeball those public servants and make sure they’re earning their taxpayer-funded salaries?
Covid changed us; it changed the way we work and live. The virus forced us to lock down and adopt the technology that had reached a point of usefulness. We, at the far-flung corner of the globe, should celebrate this. Many successful New Zealanders work for international companies and clients, based in Aotearoa.
Yes, it’s rough for some retail and hospo with fewer people in the central city, but when culture and lifestyle changes, business does too.
In Auckland, some suburban villages are buzzing as people take a break from work nearby or hole up in their local cafe to make a dent in their to-do list.
Demanding that workers return to the office won’t guarantee productivity or even economic activity. It’s a win for presentism not for progress.
Guyon Espiner is an investigative journalist and presenter at RNZ, who hosts TV and radio interview show 30 with Guyon Espiner. He writes a fortnightly column for listener.co.nz
