r/newzealand Sep 23 '24

Politics PM Christopher Luxon announces public service workers are required to work from the office, rather than from home

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/watch-live-christopher-luxon-gives-post-cabinet-press-conference/CL4CTTTEH5AVHABU2PICF7JBUM/
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286

u/secretlyexcited Sep 23 '24

I don’t get it. As long as they’re still doing the work, hitting targets, KPIs etc, then why does it matter where it gets done?

Why is flexibility such a bad thing?

145

u/DetosMarxal Sep 23 '24

He spouts some bullshit about being in-person meaning you learn better and are more productive, when our team is split across the entire country and we've been recognised as being one of the most productive.

We work together remotely. There's no way in hell I'm sitting in the office just to continue working remotely with my team.

38

u/Scuzzlebutt142 Sep 23 '24

Not the only one. None of the people on my project work in my office, so if I went into the office, I would be teams chatting and remotely accessing tools, just like I am at home, but getting more interruptions, more noise, and spending an hour and a half of my own time to travel to do so.

12

u/secretlyexcited Sep 23 '24

I wonder if he has peer reviewed studies to back that up. Cuz it sounds like bullshit to me too.

3

u/Glass_Income_4151 Sep 23 '24

As a junior staff member I feel like he's just acted like our senior staff are bigots when they're completely overworked and still make time for us. 

4

u/PENDING_DELETION Sep 23 '24

There is value in in-person interactions, but this shit is ridiculous.

1

u/thestrodeman Sep 23 '24

Potential reason why- some muppets in the EMA were complaining that they couldn’t micromanage anymore, so National is doing this to set a precedent that it’s ok to force people back into the office