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Speaker 1: So post pandemic is certainly the issue for employers and

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Speaker 1: employees to a certain degree work from home. We started

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Speaker 1: working from home and then of course the pandemic ended

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Speaker 1: and we kept on working from home. And some people

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Speaker 1: are really against that. Elon Musk is going to crack

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Speaker 1: down in America, and much to the dismay of public

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Speaker 1: servants in New Zealand, the Public Service Commissioner yesterday issued

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Speaker 1: new guidance on working from home.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: The new guidelines make it clear working from home isn't

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Speaker 1: an entitlement and all flexible work arrangements must be agreed

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Speaker 1: and managed to support a high performance culture. So Jennifer

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Speaker 1: Mills is an employment specialist at Jennifer Mills and Associates,

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Speaker 1: and she joins me, Now, morning.

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Speaker 2: Jennifer, Good morning, Andrew.

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Speaker 1: What do you think of the guidance. I think it's

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Speaker 1: pretty good.

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Speaker 2: Oh, well, you're right to identify that the guidelines don't

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Speaker 2: override any existing contectual arrangements or statutes, and it gives

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Speaker 2: the agencies guidance in terms of what they need to

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Speaker 2: do now. And the whole idea behind the guidelines is

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Speaker 2: just to ensure that there's an alignment between agencies, fexible

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Speaker 2: working policies and government's expectations. So they've made it very

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Speaker 2: clear that working from home in the public service isn't

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Speaker 2: an entitlement and there needs to be an express agreement

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Speaker 2: between the parties. Working from home arrangements can only be

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Speaker 2: agreed where they won't compromise performance of employees, teams and

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Speaker 2: the agencies as a whole. And as you've identified, agencies

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Speaker 2: are now required to monitor and report on these arrangements

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Speaker 2: that are in place.

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Speaker 1: And this is a good lesson for every employer and

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Speaker 1: every employee. I mean, too many people these days have gone, well,

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Speaker 1: I don't feel like going and I think I might

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Speaker 1: do a little bit of the WFH. And they do

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Speaker 1: it without telling their managers, without telling anybody, and so

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Speaker 1: it's a bit add hoc. You know, if you want

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Speaker 1: to do this, fine, do it, but make sure that

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Speaker 1: you are set up to do it properly, which means

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Speaker 1: agreement between your employer and yourself and everybody you're working

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Speaker 1: on projects with.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's exactly right, Andrew. So as long as there's transparency.

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Speaker 2: The idea is that these guidelines won't cut across those arrangements,

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Speaker 2: but there does need to be express agreement, transparency, and

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Speaker 2: just another check if you like that these ongoing arrangements

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Speaker 2: are suitable. And we've seen great employee resistance on the

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Speaker 2: return to office directive, although this guideline doesn't go that far,

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Speaker 2: and in the private space we've seen employees are reluctant

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Speaker 2: to return back to work full time. But it seems

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Speaker 2: that the hybrid model is one that is working well

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Speaker 2: and studies show that there is no productivity issue between

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Speaker 2: those in the office full time and hybrid workers. But

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Speaker 2: the productivity issues arise where employees work from home full time,

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Speaker 2: and I suspect the driver beIN this guidance is to

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Speaker 2: have better integration between employee and employer in the public

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Speaker 2: sector and perhaps to stamp out those one hundred percent

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Speaker 2: workers from home as opposed to the hybrid model.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff, good stuff. Thank you Jennifer Mills for taking

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Speaker 1: our time well us today it is five twenty six,

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Speaker 1: and I would suggest possibly, if you're an employer, just

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Speaker 1: part of copying what the public service has done and

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Speaker 1: perhaps thinking about instituting it in your workplace as well.

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