The federal government says there may not be enough room in some offices for all workers as the public service prepares to return to the office four days a week starting July 6.
Civil servants currently only have to come into the office three days a week — a rule that was put in place in September 2024 as government employees were for the most part working remotely in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, the federal government announced it expects employees who haven’t done so already to return to in-office work for a minimum of four days a week starting this July. Government executives will be expected in the office five days.
In a French-language statement emailed this week to Radio-Canada, the Treasury Board of Canada said that Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) will work closely with organizations to ensure “adequate office space” is available for staff.
In addition to the other reply it means no longer putting in extra effort, and making the problems they face by following the rules managements problem.
For example, an employee might come to the office and find no open desks. They might have considered going back home and putting in a whole days work there, but work to rule could could mean alerting their supervisor that there are no available desks and ask how they should proceed. Refuse to work in conditions that don’t meet ergonomic guidelines, take your time to set up work spaces to meet the guidelines if this is possible, spend the last bit of the day booking the next days in office locations, etc. Turn off your phone when the work day is over and don’t look at your laptop after hours. If most of your day is spent dealing with hotelling, well that sure does suck - maybe they could make it easier for you to get your job done by removing these barriers?
If following the rules is a giant pain in the ass, you can make it your employers problem pretty fast. This works best if in a union and if organized as a union action.