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Monday 9 August 2021

Minister says staff should turn up every now and then



COVID-19: Minister wants staff in 'at least' two or three days a week with 'cautious approach' to civil servants returning to desks

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng says ministers will not "dictate" to businesses when it comes to working arrangements, after an unnamed colleague was quoted by one newspaper as saying officials should have their pay reduced if they refuse to come back to the office.

We haven't noticed the effect of local council staff not being at their desks. Almost as if it makes no great difference whether they turn up or not.

6 comments:

Sam Vega said...

Those officials whose job it is to come up with new regulations and government propaganda about covid seem to have been working tirelessly for months, though.

Unless it's all been done on Zoom for a couple of hours each week.

Yes, that might explain it, actually.

Andy5759 said...

My recycling wasn't collected last week. I cannot get through to the council unless I call in to their office in person. New regulations require that I sign up and pay for garden waste collection. No answer on their dedicated phone line. I suspect the pingdemic has something to do with this. The above is all rather tiresome but not a great inconvenience. It's all been meticulously planned of course.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Sod that, it's the digital hermit's life for me.

A K Haart said...

Sam - all done on Zoom where glazed expressions and eye rolling can't easily be seen perhaps.

Andy - our garden waste collection has ceased and collecting from the other bins is erratic. It is collected but usually a day or two late.

Mark - it's what I'd have opted for if given the chance.

Nessimmersion said...

AFAIK, most local councils are putting barriersup to prevent people using the normal dumps or collections for waste, so that fly tipping increases.
Predictable surprise and all that.
They can then screech for an increase in their dept budget to control fly tipping.
That the easiest option is to remove barriers to normal waste disposal is assiduously ignored.

A K Haart said...

Nessimmersion - our site is back to normal although the garden waste service has been suspended indefinitely. Some of it will probably end up in the landfill bins so we are bound to have some kind of investigation.