Jack Tame: The Working from Home directive seems reasonable to me

My take on working from home versus working in the office is you can’t really say any one model is perfect for everyone in every business or workplace and every sector or industry. There are workplaces where working from home might be better than working from the office. There are workplaces where the traditional model holds true. And there are workplaces that’ll find themselves somewhere in between. 

I work six days a week, and typically do five in the office and one at home. Newsrooms are noisy, distracting, slightly chaotic, open-plan environments. That’s why I love them! But I have to read a lot, and I have to process detail. Once a week, it is so good to escape the office and bury myself in detail at home, without the risk of being distracted every two minutes. 

Maybe I’m giving the productivity argument too much credit. If the primary reason to get public servants to go into the office in-person is actually just to prop up Wellington businesses, it’s a pretty lousy reason. But I actually think the reaction to the government’s directive this week was a bit overblown. They didn’t say all public servants HAVE to work from the office every day. They just said working from home was not an automatic entitlement, and that arrangements would have to be agreed between employers and employees. Working from home arrangements should only be agreed when they don’t impact agency objectives. Am I missing something? That seems pretty reasonable to me. I don’t see anything about mandating. My read is it still allows for flexibility, so long as it doesn’t compromise the quality of an agency’s work.  

And actually, this government is making a bit of a habit of issuing directives that don’t cost it a thing, but will be met with a similar reaction from a big slab of the public. 

A prime example is the cellphone ban in schools. I’ve always supported it. I just think it’s common sense, and now even the opposition education spokesperson supports it, too.  

And teacher-only days! Unions and schools might rightly be frustrated at any implication they’re wasting time or doing something that isn’t worthwhile. Many schools time their teacher-only-days for long weekends, and regardless, schools still have to be open for a specific number of days a year. Also, I think it’s a bit rich to suggest that teacher-only-days have a major impact on truancy.  

But I for one was surprised to learn that under the current rules, teacher-only-days are only supposed to be held outside of term time. Is there really a compelling reason that shouldn’t be the case?  

It’ll be a blow to morale for many teachers and schools. But that directive was all about parents. And I can tell you now, a vast majority of them are not going to marching in the streets to demand a return of mid-term teacher-only days. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
So my take on working from home versus working in
the office is you can't really say that any one
model is perfect for everyone in every business or workplace
and every sector or industry. You know what I mean,
There's no one size fits all. There are workplaces where
working from home might be better than working from the office,

(00:34):
and there are workplaces where the traditional model holds true,
and there are also workplaces that will find themselves somewhere
in between. I work six days a week, right, and
typically I do five in the office and one at home.
And the thing about newsrooms is that newsrooms are noisy
and distracting and slightly chaotic, open plan environments. Honestly, that's

(00:57):
why I love them. But in my job, I have
a lot to read, and I have a lot of
detail that I really need to understand process, and so
once a week it is just so good to escape
the office and too bearing myself in detail at home
without the risk of being distracted every two minutes. And look,

(01:19):
maybe I'm giving the whole productivity argument too much credit here.
If the primary reason to get public servants to go
back into the office in person is actually just to
prop up Wellington businesses, then, yeah, that's a pretty lousy reason.
But I actually think the reaction to the government's directive

(01:39):
this week was honestly a bit overblown. They didn't say
that all public servants have to work from the office
every single day. They just said that working from home
was not an automatic entitlement and that arrangements would have
to be agreed between employers and employees. So working from
home arrangements should only be agreed when they don't impact

(02:03):
agency objectives and productivity. Am I missing something? I mean,
that seems pretty reasonable to me. I don't see anything
about mandating. My read at least is that it still
allows for flexibility so long as the flexibility doesn't compromise
the quality of an employee or an agency's work. And actually,

(02:27):
this government is making a bit of a habit of
issuing directives that don't cost it any money but will
probably be met with a similar reaction from a big
slab of the public. I mean a prime example would
be the new cell phone ban in schools.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
I have always supported it. I just think it's I
just think it's total consense. I think we'll look back
at it in years to come and be like, oh,
my gosh, can you believe that once upon a time
we let kids have phones in schools? And now even
the opposition education spokesperson supports it too. And perhaps another
example is teacher only days. Unions and schools might rightly

(03:06):
frustrated at any implication that they are wasting time or
doing something that isn't worthwhile goodness knows, they have incredibly
difficult and undervalued jobs. And look, many schools time their
teacher only days for long weekends, and obviously schools have
to be open for a specific number of days every year.

(03:26):
And personally, I think it's a bit rich to suggest
that teacher only days have a major impact on truancy.
But I for one was honestly surprised to learn that
under the current rules, teacher only days are actually only
supposed to be held outside of term time. Is there
really a compelling reason that shouldn't be the case. Look,

(03:50):
it'll be a blow to morale for teachers and for
many schools, But that directive was all about parents, and
I can tell you now a vast majority of parents
are not going to be marching in the streets to
demand a return of midterm teacher only days.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live
to News Talks EDB from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio