Tag Archives: civil service

Articles I Like: Five Changes Facing Public Employees When They Return to the Office – If They Do

PolyWogg.ca
May 22 2020

As a public servant, and similar to every other industry, there is a lot of speculation about what post-Covid workplaces will look like. Many of our operations can be done well-enough from home, and the challenges we have now are mostly about IT infrastructure, home office solutions, and privacy. Much of our work is digital and email-enabled, so it’s not a giant leap to work from home. We just traditionally haven’t done that transition for all the usual pressures related to remote workers and supervision/monitoring, and some unique pressures related to privacy, taxpayer dollars, and supporting Ministers in person.

Paul Taylor over at Governing.com wrote an article about five changes he sees coming to the public service post-Covid. Here’s an excerpt:

Your Cubicle. Our Conference Room. Where Did They Go? Your space may get bigger as facilities staff reconfigure space to conform with the 6-foot separation requirements. Coupled with limits on group size, that is likely to grow cubicle row into what were once conference rooms.

…

Beyond the Point of No Return. Social distancing is bound to spread employees across more square footage than agencies have to reconfigure to handle everybody at work. What’s more, as governments confront the need for budget cuts in the tens and hundreds of millions, the public-sector layoffs announced to date are likely to rise exponentially as the tax base shrinks.

… Read the rest

Admitting I was wrong – Workplace 2.0

PolyWogg.ca
May 28 2018

I work in a government office complex, and for the most part, our offices tend to look like they were designed and approved by accountants. Actuarial accountants. And auditors. We don’t have 50 shades of gray, we tend to have three. Light gray, dark gray, and something in between that is probably “light gray that got dirty and will never get cleaned”. Don’t get me started on the carpets. But before I talk about Workplace 2.0, let me talk for a moment about my last 20+ years of office accommodations.

Government accommodations

From 1993 to 1997, I was with Foreign Affairs. Generally, everyone had a closed office, boring off-white metal-like walls, brown doors, small window next to the door (usually, but not always), desk plus computer table, chair, guest chair, bookshelf and filing cabinet. With enough room that you could often have two people squeeze in front of the desk as guests, and have a quick meeting. Meeting rooms tended to be few and far between, a boardroom generally per floor of about 100+ people, but Directors had slightly larger offices with small tables for 4, DGs had tables for about 6, and ADMs had room for about 8 as part of their actual office, so between your own offices and meetings with executives, you rarely ran out of meeting space.… Read the rest

The Phoenix audit we could have had – Part 3

PolyWogg.ca
December 14 2017

This is my last post on the Phoenix audit by the Office of the Auditor-General. In the first of three parts (The Phoenix audit we could have had – Part 1), I talked about governance and oversight. Part two (The Phoenix audit we could have had – Part 2) dealt with the level of details provided in terms of the state of pay. In both areas, there were missed opportunities galore.

Today I want to talk about the way forward.

What were the criteria?

There really weren’t any forward-looking ones, at least not upfront. They had some generic elements under governance, but that was it.

What the REAL criterion should have had

It is pretty simple — is there a plan in place going forward that addresses major issues, is risk-based, and is written down. There are lots of bells and whistles beyond that, things like cost and timelines, but the most basic element is “Do they have a plan?”

What did the audit find?

The audit found that

  • Departments and agencies had significant difficulties in providing timely and accurate pay information and in supporting employees in resolving pay problems
  • A sustainable solution will take years and cost much more than the $540 million the government expected to spend to resolve pay problems

What COULD the audit have found?

… Read the rest

The Phoenix audit we could have had – Part 2

PolyWogg.ca
December 14 2017

Earlier, I ranted about the actual audit of Phoenix that was done by the Office of the Auditor General (A disappointing audit of the Phoenix problems). And in my post yesterday (The Phoenix audit we could have had – Part 1), I talked about what I expected to see or at least thought we could have seen, regarding governance and oversight. 

Today I want to talk about the current state of pay requests outstanding.

What were the criteria?

There were two elements to the state of pay, and the first one was:

Problems related to paying public service employees are identified, and the nature and impact of these problems are understood.

To understand the first problem, the auditors relied upon the following documents.

  • Pay Disbursement Administrative Services Order, 2011
  • Directive on Financial Management of Pay Administration, Treasury Board
  • Policy on Results, Treasury Board
  • Directive on Results, Treasury Board
  • Supporting Effective Evaluations: A Guide to Developing Performance Measurement Strategies, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
  • COBIT 5: Enabling Processes, Information Systems Audit and Control Association, ISACA

As with the review yesterday, the policy on results, directive on results, guide to PM strategies, and COBIT 5 are virtually worthless to the exercise.… Read the rest

The Phoenix audit we could have had – Part 1

PolyWogg.ca
December 12 2017

When I read the Office of the Auditor General’s audit of Phoenix, I was beyond disappointed (A disappointing audit of the Phoenix problems). In part, I think it is because I am too familiar with audits from my previous job where I read just about every audit done by my department in the last nine years, plus some of the broader OAG ones. Yep, I’m a public admin geek. I was even somewhat amused when I saw the news coverage about how aggressive the report was in its condemnation. And, if you weren’t a regular reviewer of audits, you might just go with the press conference and some of the findings and think, “Okay, they’re being appropriately harsh”.

Except the OAG knows how to be harsh when something isn’t working, and the language they would use for that kind of screw-up wasn’t present in the report. So let’s look at the report and see what they COULD (or even should?) have said, but didn’t.

What were the criteria?

Let’s go in reverse order, and start with the third criterion that the auditors set up in their audit. They based that criterion on a bunch of documents, including:

  1. Financial Administration Act
  2. Public Service Employment Act
  3. Department of Public Works and Government Services Act
  4. Shared Services Canada Act
  5. Pay Disbursement Administrative Services Order, 2011
  6. Policy on Internal Control, Treasury Board
  7. Directive on Financial Management of Pay Administration, Treasury Board
  8. Policy on Terms and Conditions of Employment and the Directive on Terms and Conditions of Employment, Treasury Board
  9. Policy Framework for People Management, Treasury Board
  10. Policy Framework for the Management of Compensation, Treasury Board
  11. COBIT 5: Enabling Processes, ISACA

Now, here’s the thing.… Read the rest

A disappointing audit of the Phoenix problems

PolyWogg.ca
November 23 2017

As a civil servant, I was incredibly disappointed with the recent Phoenix audit, although maybe I just expected too much of it. Things that should have been clearly there, I would have thought, were in fact absent. Wording that I expected to be extremely harsh was toned down. Recommendations that would seem to be obvious ways forward were missing in action.

A friend asked me earlier this week where my indignant anger was at the fiasco and I think part of my passivity was because I knew the audit was coming. And I expected it to be a bombshell…a true blockbuster for its impact. Based on the actual wording, it seems more like they were going for a children’s firecracker that fizzled.

I expect three things from an audit:

  • A clear articulation of the project’s goal and what they were trying to do;
  • A clear indication of assessment/analysis of performance based on evaluation against an objective standard; and,
  • Clear indications of recommendations for a way forward and response by the organization how they’re going to address the recommendations.

This audit doesn’t do any of those three things.

Understanding what an audit actually does

Most people hear the word audit and they immediately think of audits like what happens to taxpayers when they get audited by Revenue Canada or the Internal Revenue Service.… Read the rest

My cold, crass heart and Phoenix victims

PolyWogg.ca
November 21 2017

I wrote earlier on Phoenix and attempted to deconstruct the mess that it has become, although perhaps it is more apt to say the mess it was from the beginning and remains so even now. My focus was on the process, and some people asked me about an apparent lack of sensitivity or where my anger was for the disaster on the victims’ behalf. I’ll defer my anger to my next post, as it goes in a slightly different direction than most.

But let’s address a couple of those sympathy concerns.

First, am I cold, heartless, unsympathetic? Not really, but I am capable of writing about it in a dispassionate tone. Partly because it’s public administration and anything less dissolves into rhetoric. And partly as I view public issues like this almost like a battlefield of wounded. And you have to triage the victims somehow, see who you need to stabilize quickly while prioritizing the serious cases to the head of the line.

Sure, I said upfront that everyone should be paid in full, on time and without reservation. Saying it is easy. It’s a fundamental principle.

But they weren’t paid in full, or in some cases, at all. Nor were they paid on time, or in some cases, at all.… Read the rest

Deconstructing the disaster that is Phoenix

PolyWogg.ca
November 19 2017

It would seem, almost without saying, that if you work for an organization, you should get paid promptly and properly. In international organizations, there is a refrain that is heard for paying of dues — in full, on time, and without reservation. The only time that people should be having problems getting paid is if there is a glitch in paperwork or computers, or maybe when they’re first starting (longer lead time), or perhaps if the company is having cash-flow problems. None of them are acceptable, but the reasons make sense.

On the surface, an organization like the federal government with more than 250K workers should expect at any one time, perhaps an issue rate of 1-3%. Particularly when the people have been working for the organization for a while, most are on salary rather than shifts and hourly totals that change (i.e. requiring the submission of detailed timesheets), and nothing has changed. So when people see the disaster that is Phoenix, it’s hard to fathom “what went wrong?” other than complete incompetence, even if the numbers are not as bad as they first appear.

Initial context

While lots of people erroneously point to the old system as “working just fine”, the government had a problem.… Read the rest

Because that’s the job

PolyWogg.ca
November 1 2015

I’d really like to call this post something else, but it’s time I stopped holding back on what some people think is their God-given right to complain about how they think the public servant’s job should be done, and that all public servants will “obviously” agree. What triggered my lack of inhibition? Johanna Read’s incredibly biased and non-factual article in today’s Ottawa Citizen (Read: Trudeau is ready but the public service isn’t).

Let’s break her argument down, because there are very few points I can agree with as a career civil servant.

  1. Public service has been cut too far;
  2. Public service is gagged and under-utilized i.e. “scientists”;
  3. Public service is demoralized by previous government;
  4. Accountability measures created by civil servants pushed decision-making upward;
  5. Core business is fearless policy advice;
  6. Challenges in loyally implementing decisions;
  7. Public service values in treating each other are lower;
  8. No market for advice under previous Prime Minister;
  9. Public service policy is now about power games, cliques, and close-mindedness due to empire-building;
  10. Therefore public service is not ready as capacity has been weakened and need management agenda for culture change, including new values, new attitudes, new behaviours.

Not all scientists are created equal

Let’s start with the second one first — scientists are gagged.… Read the rest

An uneasy relationship with politics

PolyWogg.ca
October 20 2015

I have an uneasy relationship with politics. Some people are uneasy because they think all of politics is about sleaze — legalized lying to the voters in order to gain office. Others are uneasy with things like representation by population (or not), special interest groups, the need for compromise, the mudslinging, the promises, the need for more compromises, and the almighty need to sometimes do things that are unpopular but still the “right thing to do” to stop the majority from exploiting the minority. Those aren’t my issues. I’m uneasy because of my job. I’m a civil servant.

Note that I said civil servant, which in and of itself is a clue to my unrest. I didn’t say, public servant, which is the popular term these days. That is used ubiquitously for both bureaucrats and elected officials, which is partly why I don’t use it. I am not elected. I am hired to do a job, or to be precise, appointed under the power of legislation that delegates authority to make appointments to the Deputy Heads of organizations who then in turn delegate to underlings for regular staff appointments, overseen by the Public Service Commission to make sure processes are fair, transparent, etc, not to ensure the “right” person or even the “best” person got the job but that they were qualified.… Read the rest