For a change l agree with him !
They are about to strike against a government directive, and claim they will refuse to implement it ??
Seems working from home has been laying heavy on their hands ??
You know what the saying is, ’ the devil makes work for idle hands’ !!
Donkeyman! 
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Methinks he’s just another out of touch old fogey who resents the idea of people working from home without understanding how it works and how it benefits the employer in practice.
If government buildings are empty, they can be sold or sub let, saving money
The work from home culture was already coming in before Covid, the pandemic just speeded it up
Take HMRC for example. The pay deal they negotiated before Covid included their employees giving up some contractual benefits and conditions in return for a pay rise AND being able to work from home two days a week.
That is now in their contract and in force now they have returned to the office and has meant that HMRC has been able to close small offices and sublet parts of their buildings to other government departments, letting those depts economise and close buildings as well
All of which is a saving to us taxpayers!
Civil Servants “Working”?
There’s an oxymoron, if ever I saw one!
“How many people work in the civil service in the UK?
8. Civil Service employment increases in England and Wales On 31 March 2018, there were 343,150 Civil Service employees in England, 43,120 in Scotland, 32,830 in Wales, 3,540 in Northern Ireland and 4,570 located overseas. The number of civil servants increased in Wales by 1.2% and the number of civil servants employed overseas increased by 7.0%.”
@Maree Do you really believe all that motivational BS ,
Or have you an axe to grind ?
Donkeyman! 
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@Tedc , What are we talking here Ted, do those figures include all the NHS
employees, , police, council workers etc, etc ?? Or are they just for the
Whitehall types ?that are the real cause of our problems !!
Donkeyman! 
No axe to grind, but I think Moggsy has and that a lot of people who object to working from home are either jealous and spiteful or out of touch and don’t understand how it works
Plus civil servants are an easy target, easy for politicians to have a pop at them and boost their popularity
And blame those nasty civil servants for the state of the country rather than the government and our lying PM
Attacking civil servants is just another dead cat strategy to distract from partygate
Sending migrants to Rwanda, visiting Kiev, wearing a silly hat in India, all just ploys to try to distract
The vast majority of civil servants in the lower grades work long hours for very low pay, often not much above minimum wage and in essential jobs with little appreciation or reward
Their pension schemes have been reduced and are based on salary, so if they’re paid peanuts, their pension will be peanuts
And it does annoy me to see them used as whipping boys by the likes of Rees Moggs
Yes, senior civil servants and their whopping pensions they still get after screwing up and moving on wants looking at. As do the pensions of PMs, MPs and MEPs. I’ll object far more to Johnson and Farage trousering their pension
@Maree , Yeahbut,You must agree that something is wrong with the civil
service when they start telling the boss what to do ?
Their sole purpose is to obey,( without question preferably) ??
That’s why we have elections surely ??
Donkeyman!
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I don’t know. I don’t think anybody should do anything they think is morally wrong, whoever tells them to do it
So if they think that of the Rwanda thing, they should definitely speak up and refuse, or they really are just like the Nazis following orders
But they may have to accept they’ll lose their job because of it There’s often a price to pay for sticking to your principles
(Before you start, I’m not necessarily against the Rwanda idea myself . Surprise! 
)
A civil servant should do as they are TOLD. If they don’t want to then resign. The clue is the word servant. To bring in the “following orders” argument is at best fallacious because the majority of ww2 armed forces knew fine well if they had not they would have been severely punished and in any case were putting the wellbeing of their families first and who could blame them. Not me and I have a dog in this fight.
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No one should do as they are told if they think it’s morally wrong
Following orders is no excuse
If they think what they are being told to to is morally wrong, then obviously they shouldn’t do it
This may well lead to them being sacked or having to resign
But that’s the price you pay for standing up for your principles
And at least they will have made their protest and made their feelings known
Doing what you are told is no virtue if you believe what you are being told to do is a crime against humanity
In fact, it’s cowardice
If a CS takes the pay and rations they must march to the beat. That or get off the pot.
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Yes, as I’ve said, they’ll probably lose their job over it if they refuse. You can’t expect to be paid if you won’t do what your employer pays you for
But they still should be brave enough to refuse if they think what they are being asked to do is morally wrong
And they have every right to speak out and give their opinion
And if any of them do, I’d admire them for their courage, not condemn them
They have NO RIGHT to speak out about anything untill after they have left the job. A CS MUST be apolitical in all things.
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Yes, I think that is in their contract, isn’t it
I can understand it if it means they aren’t seen to be impartial
But I also think it’s appalling to try to legislate against anyone’s right to free speech
And that if they feel strongly about something they should ignore the contact, speak out and be damned
Trying to restrict another human beings right to free speech, whether by contacts and law, or punishment and violence is the tool of dictatorships
@Maree , You appear to have no concept of what it takes to be in the army
Maree, how could you fight a war if the general had to hold a committee
meeting every time he issued an order !!
Human rights ?? pfft !!
Donkeyman!
Civil servants aren’t in the army
And soldiers who are still shouldn’t follow orders if told to do something they consider to be morally wrong, like attacking innocent civilians
Although I appreciate the consequences for them will be dire if they don’t, you still get incidents where they refuse
@Maree ,And nobody is asking them to kill anybody either are they ??
just obey the boss when ordered, they have been asked nicely to return to the
office to work at least twice now with little response so far !What is it that they
find so difficult in that ?? It seems they are out to make the government fail ??
Imo the heads of the relevant departments should be fired immediately with
immediate loss of benefits,and their jobs offered to the next one in line !!
Donkeyman!