Public service employment has grown by 31 per cent

[daftandbarmy]

To the contrary, shifting national HQ functions to incorporate folks from outside Ottawa is a huge positive to bringing in talent and escaping groupthink. Shrinking real property costs is just a bonus.

BC tried that, they still are.

But senior leaders need to attend at the Victoria office/HQ on a regular basis, and no one from Williams Lake wants to move to Victoria and have to pay an extra million bucks for an average house.

More often than not, those who live in - or close to - Victoria continue to have the career progression edge.

 

[Furniture]

I am going to suggest that WFH has done nothing for skills transfer, succession planning or innovation to other stove pipes.

Those are not problems caused by WFH, those are problems caused by a culture that encourages withholding information, because information is power.

I worked in offices just a few feet away from people who didn't pass on a single thing, because as long as they were the only one who could fix problems, they had job security.

 

[Kirkhill]

Those are not problems caused by WFH, those are problems caused by a culture that encourages withholding information, because information is power.

I worked in offices just a few feet away from people who didn't pass on a single thing, because as long as they were the only one who could fix problems, they had job security.

Doesn't sound like any office I ever worked in. Projects were communal affairs even when one person was the designated lead.

Of course I am a relic of smoking in the office and a beer with my Swiss Chalet at lunch. As well as 54 hour shifts when commissioning plants.

 

[PuckChaser]

To the contrary, shifting national HQ functions to incorporate folks from outside Ottawa is a huge positive to bringing in talent and escaping groupthink. Shrinking real property costs is just a bonus.

We can reduce the bloat in the NCR and still require 5 days a week in the office. Many of the institutions in Ottawa don't need to be there but the black hole has a powerful gravity.

 

[CountDC]

To the contrary, shifting national HQ functions to incorporate folks from outside Ottawa is a huge positive to bringing in talent and escaping groupthink. Shrinking real property costs is just a bonus.

That is a whole other matter and doesn't change that they took what was a temporary situation, treated it as permanent and thus did things they shouldn't have. No one ever said we were not all returning to offices full time, it was always put out as temporary action during covid restrictions.

Doesn't sound like any office I ever worked in. Projects were communal affairs even when one person was the designated lead.

Of course I am a relic of smoking in the office and a beer with my Swiss Chalet at lunch. As well as 54 hour shifts when commissioning plants.

The good old days when people that worked together worked together. Now it is largely about job protection and empire building.

We can reduce the bloat in the NCR and still require 5 days a week in the office. Many of the institutions in Ottawa don't need to be there but the black hole has a powerful gravity.

But we need to support Ottawa and Gatineau.

 

[Brad Sallows]

It's surely possible to fuck up WFH very, very, badly, especially if problems caused by every other workplace dysfunction are laid at the feet of WFH.

 

[Remius]

Anyone taking bets that there will be a WFH announcement somewhere around 1500hrs telling PS workers to return to office 5 days a week?

 

[daftandbarmy]

Meanwhile, 'building in wiring for execution...'

A major projects blueprint​

The first signal in that shift came with Bill C-5 – also known as the “One Canadian Economy Act” – which passed just before the House rose for summer. The legislation, voted on in two parts, is designed to break down interprovincial trade barriers and set out how a shortlist of nation-building projects will be chosen and fast-tracked. (Think: highways, railways, ports, airports, oil pipelines, critical minerals, mines, nuclear facilities or power grids.)

The legislation lays out a blueprint for doing government differently. It aims to build in new wiring for execution, forcing bureaucrats to focus on delivery, not just compliance.

The goal is to force departments out of their silos with internal trade review; speed up project reviews, cutting decision timelines from five years to two, and introduce a “one project, one review” model to streamline assessments. Projects deemed in the national interest would be fast-tracked – marking a clear shift from box-ticking compliance to faster delivery and economic growth.

It also creates a major projects office, a single federal point of contact to help priority projects through assessment and permitting.
The government is also starting to get the people in place to implement that plan. On the same day the bill passed, Carney shuffled his senior ranks — a first wave of appointments seen as an early step in retooling the leadership to drive his top priorities. With Michael Sabia set to become Clerk of the Privy Council on July 7, more moves are widely expected.

Carney’s quiet public service revolution

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney isn’t pitching a sweeping public service overhaul — but his government is nudging changes to how Ottawa works. The passage of his signature major projects bill, a wave of senior leadership moves, and a new risk policy all point to a system being quietly...

policyoptions.irpp.org

 

[PPCLI Guy]

The good old days before e-mail and desktops when people that worked together worked together. Now it is largely about job protection and empire building.

FTFY

 

[daftandbarmy]

FTFY

I was amused to discover that some of my clients continue to use fax machines, ostensibly because they are ‘more secure when transmitting confidential information.’

Then I get to tell my war story about the Lynx that got shot down, possibly because that unit was faxing their Helquests the Bn HQ

 

[daftandbarmy]

Feet and knees together...

Sutherland: Public service cuts are coming — Here’s how to handle them​

The federal government must be both compassionate and smart in how it handles spending reduction.

Critics of the federal government tend to come in two forms. One group says that the government lacks a brain; the other that it lacks a heart.

Spending cuts test both.

This summer, deputy ministers and agency heads across most of the federal government received a challenging and potentially career defining task to reduce their operating budgets by 15 per cent over three years. While these executives have handed in their homework, the results will not be known until the budget is released this fall.

The “what” of spending reduction determines if government has a brain. Across the board cuts in which everyone does a little more with a little less, is a single-minded approach that misses a bigger opportunity. The target is attained, but little else changes.

Smart spending reduction re-imagines business practices and the policy underpinning it and focuses on what is core. It also looks to unravel the notorious “web of rules” hobbling public sector innovation, productivity and citizen-centred service.

Senior leaders recognize that while their first job is to reach their targets, the larger test of their leadership is to guide their organizations in a way that ensures organizational effectiveness and even improvement at lower funding levels. This is the challenge over a full mandate not merely a few months. It means building the public service of tomorrow, even as reductions occur.

Sutherland: Public service cuts are coming — Here’s how to handle them

The federal government must be both compassionate and smart in how it handles spending cuts.

ottawacitizen.com

 

[OldSolduer]

Lacks a brain, a heart and courage