I want to start off by saying I’m grateful for my job. I know a lot of Canadians would love the stability I have, and I don’t think I’m above going into an office just because it’s inconvenient. But the reality of RTO as a regional employee has been… honestly vile.

Starting with the classic public servant “special package”: asbestos and bed bugs. If a landlord can be taken to court over pests and forced to fix the problem and house tenants in the meantime, why is it different for the Government of Canada? Why is my right to a safe, clean workspace violated because of RTO?

Here’s what life post-RTO3 looks like for me. I drive an hour into work, pay $26 a day for parking, and go up to an office where I have no colleagues. I spend the day desk-hopping because the rules say no meetings in open space, and the closed rooms are capped at 30 minutes. My job is basically all meetings. Add on that I deal with sensitive information, PRI and SIN numbers, but don’t even have a secure desk to do it at.

The part that’s soul-crushing is the sheer lack of collaboration. Every Christmas party, award ceremony, all-staff meeting, I sit alone on Teams, watching colleagues in NCR chat and laugh and eat snacks together while I’m just the invisible person on the screen. And for this privilege, I spend about $4,000 a year just to park. I’m paying for isolation.

As a result, I don’t have disposable income to get hobbies or go out, so making friends is almost impossible. RTO3 also makes it disproportionately harder to hire in the regions, which means the odds of ever getting a colleague near me are slim.

I’m not asking the public to rally for us to all work from home. But I do wish people could see the humanity in the public service. I am human. I deserve better than to be treated like the dog who shit on the floor at the family reunion.

I need to vent. Not sure if this will be deleted or not. But at least I will have vented somewhere.

This RTO3, is terrible, Phase 4 just started, the building is so busy its hard to concentrate on your work, i do wear headsets when I can but of course everyone is stopping by, saying HI, which i dont mind but they are complaining about the RTO3, and honestly I am just trying to cope with it myself. It is the most redundant thing they have ever done. i work the best from home, in quiet and comfort. No parking, hardly anywhere to sit.

In my building if we choose to go in 5 days, we cant have our own spot, if we do get our own spot for bathroom accommodation's, we still cant leave any of our personal items there. Sometimes i wish go back to the way it was 5 days in with our own seat and personal items.

I have friends who are Ex's and Pm 5/6 who are complaining, that they cant find private seats and they basically leave most of their work for when they are home, and they are getting burnt out. Team Leaders are complaining about how much work they have to put in with these new trackers, tracking if we are int he building when we are suppose to and if we are not but it was authorized they need to explain in great detail.

Now they implemented hoteling, some sections of the building are considered interactive, quiet, or in it great detail transitional. A few managers have decided to start policing these sections.

A few managers keep voicing their concerns, their department is paper, and the employees need to sit next to archives, but they are not allowed to book these spots for their staff permanently, they are hoping we go back to departmental locations.

Our department twisted the pulse survey results to suit their narrative. And I'm sure they will say next that prior to covid when everyone was in 5 days the results were so much better. Than the pulse survey will be another 2 years away.

I think what finally got to me is after reading the Auditor General questioning some of TBS's decision, and knowing nothing will come from that. She likely knows it as much as we do , she is only a figure head.

It is really sad, our employer had a chance to modernize and save tax payer money, while keep staffing levels to support citizens.

Instead they decided to go with butt in seats. The public felt we were not working, while this was not true, our employer did not defend us once again . They asked us to come back, to save down town ottawa, to spend money on subway lunchs. These should not be ours to save.

I understand some jobs are logically required in the building, but it should not be a one size fit all scenario.

Sorry so long... and dont get me wrong, I love my job, i feel i am helping clients, when they need it the most. and will continue, but it is just getting harder. and HOTTER.

I went to get a haircut over lunch at the same spot I always go for the past 4 years in the Byward Market in Ottawa and I still can't believe the interaction I had.

I go in and start chatting with the owner , she says I look tired. I agree and say the new RTO is hard on the routine.

When I mentioned working back at the office 3 times a week, she flipped and furiously says the following :

• You guys had it way to good for way too long, I can't wait for the Conservatives to come in and force you back in the office full time and fire 40% of you. We suffered during COVID and it's time for public servants to pay us back.

She then went on....

-I am so happy that your union didn't get telework into your contract so they can force you back downtown and spend some money. If you work from home, you should get minimum wage, simple as that.

The entitlement is beyond insane and I'm looking for a new barbershop 😔

Taken from one of the GC Facebook groups:

“For anyone who isn't aware the new Secretary at TBS as been in the office for a total of 3 days since accepting the job. She does not live in Ottawa (Halifax). She doesn't even bother to make efforts to attend Treasury Board. She won't be briefed or allow anyone to attend meetings with her under a DM3 (I.e. two TBS deputies are excluded from meetings with the Secretary). She is disrespectful of all staff. She has assigned an EC7 COS to command TBS on her behalf. She wants you in the office 4 days a week!”

Edit: Posting this for awareness as I am sick of the hypocrisy and lack of leadership by example, this is not intended to be an attack to any person or individual, but rather to spread the news on how unfairly we are being treated.

This morning I spent 50 minutes commuting to Tunny’s Pasture in bad traffic. I arrived at 8am, and had to circle the whole complex looking for parking. After 10 minutes, i found one of the last parking spots, a 10 minute walk from my building. I walked to the building and was told all the desks were full and I should drive back home and work from there. I drove home (35 minutes, cause traffic going out of the city is better). All in all, over an hour of my work day was wasted. Is this how the tax payers want their money spent? I’m being paid to drive back across the city and circle a parking lot? The government doesn’t care about the people my department serves and how because of RTO3, myself and my colleagues are getting less work done because we’re spending portions of our work day driving around the city.

Boycotting downtown businesses has been viewed in the news as mean or petty. The union backed down after suggesting it.

I feel sick to my stomach giving my money to business owners who lobby for my well-being to be destroyed.

I don't understand why people think it's "mean" to boycott downtown businesses and not "mean" for those businesses to be lobbying for actions that are bad for the environment, bad for women and caregivers, bad for people with disabilities and bad for the future of the public service, just for personal gain.

Are you boycotting? Why or why not?

For those who are against anyone boycotting these businesses, why?

I’ve been fortunate to have interesting roles and supportive managers, but a lot has changed since the PSAC strike, and I’m struggling to see a future here. I know some will say I’m entitled or that we don’t have it so bad—fine. But I still feel entitled to voice my frustration.

Hybrid Work and RTO: The happiest I’ve ever been in my career was when we worked 1–2 days a week in the office. I had a great work-life balance, a solid routine, and felt genuinely rested. I love my team and my manager, but RTO 3 changed everything for me—not just because of the extra day, but how it was implemented. It was a top-down “because we said so” decision, completely dismissing how successfully we teleworked during COVID.

I understand other industries have it worse, but it’s frustrating to see our employer deliberately make life harder when they could have chosen a path that benefited everyone, with no proven cost to them.

PSAC Strike: The strike was another turning point for me. After weeks on strike, we settled. It left me questioning both the employer and the union. I don’t believe my employer has employees’ well-being in mind, and I no longer trust the union to be effective. They didn’t stop RTO 3 or even push back meaningfully, despite how much employees cared about it. So, I’m left wondering—what are we doing here?

Workforce Adjustment (WFA): The recent WFA announcements at Immigration were the final straw. Instead of cutting unnecessary office space, we’re cutting jobs and livelihoods. It’s hard to feel like this is an employer that values its people. My heart seriously goes out to all of those at immigration

A Shift in Perspective: For years, I enjoyed my work. I thought COVID gave the PS an opportunity to modernize, to embrace remote and hybrid work as the future. I was naïve. We’re hurtling back to the dark ages, and while I’m not overly worried about losing my job, I am worried about what happens to those who remain. Will we see RTO 4 or 5? I can’t stomach the idea of returning to the pre-COVID “normal.” I was miserable then—I just didn’t know it yet.

Feeling Hopeless: Between the strike, RTO, and looming WFA, I feel like I’ve lost control of my career, my life, and my well-being. It’s disheartening to know that politicians and executives—who have no insight into where or how I do my job—control so much of my future.

Maybe other sectors aren’t perfect, but at least they don’t come with the same pay issues, language requirements, bureaucratic hurdles, and lack of trust in leadership. I’m not sure where to go from here, but I know I can’t keep going like this. I am seriously considering taking some kind of leave to try the private sector. Maybe then I will appreciate how good we have it here.

Signed - entitled millennial

Another recent thread has popped up about people doing OT with no compensation. It is never acceptable to work for free. It makes it seem your work can be done in 37.5 hours, making management believe no extra staff needs to be hired, creates unrealistic expectations if someone takes over your job and most importantly, it takes a toll on your well being. I’ve done a thread in the past about this and I’m doing it again. If you don’t get paid, you don’t work.

Throwaway account cause i am sure this is not the norm. I work in the regions. When Phase 3 started, my office got bumped down from 3 days per week in-office to 2 days to make room for Phase 3 employees - EI Processing and Call Centre agents. I just got the email today from my manager stating that with the return of Phase 4 employees - Pension Processing (OAS/CPP/CPPD), Pensions Call Centre, HRSB - Compensation, Apprenticeship Grants - that there is not enough space to allow for everyone to work at our office to work 2 days in-office so we are getting bumped down to One Day per week, effective June 23. What a wonderful start to the summer! So glad that Common-Hybrid is blowing up in their faces! Anyone else experience this?

Edit for those asking: It's ATL region, from what i hear, there are dozens of small offices throughout the 4 Atlantic provinces that just don't have the space for even 2 days. Hopefully this becomes a thing for more of us.

It’s 2025. We have the technology that would allow for a truly distributed public service. Why do we have to be concentrated in Ottawa? It’s my hometown but it needs to be said: OC Transpo is awful, traffic is awful, housing costs are absurd, urban sprawl is unquestioned, and the city continues to suffer from an inability to reimagine its downtown core (and the city seems to feel entitled to the public service). Imagine a restructuring of the public service so that we had a substantial presence out west. Imagine how effective that would be in countering western alienation/separatism (ditto for Quebec). Imagine the talent we could access? Imagine a truly forward-looking Canada-wife public service…

We always see comments or posts about people working over their 7.5/8 hours of paid time PLEASE STOP DOING THIS.

Does RTO mean you get less work done? Most likely, and that is a consequence for the employer. By doing free overtime beyond your scheduled hours you are giving the false impression that RTO is working. This can also make the employer think unreasonable/unrealistic deadlines are good/working if you are meeting them with the free overtime you’re doing. There is no benefit to working free overtime. If the employer is wanting you to work overtime make sure you are getting compensated for it. If they want you to work free overtime, get it in writing and reach out to your union.

Also setting up your work station daily is part of company time and part of RTO.

Please also make sure you are taking ALL of your breaks. Taking ALL of your breaks is good for your mental health.

My manager has told me that my team doesn’t not think I’ve attended the office based on card swipes.

They sent a document showing that I’ve gone half of what I’ve had. I’m super confused.

They told me I have the option to have a union rep with me. I’ve contacted my union immediately.

I don’t know why my swipes didn’t count? There are some machines where the card reader doesn’t work and maybe that is it? Also, I log in back home before the night ends to see my schedule.

I’m so stressed. I just got back from sick leave and now I’m dealing with this.

Anyone else been in this position? Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

And I feel like not enough people are talking about what we lost as far as working conditions go.

In 2019 I had my own cubicle. I had dual dedicated monitors with risers, ergonomic chair, a locker with personal items, and plants on my desk. I had pictures of my kids pinned to the cubicle walls. I chatted regularly with the people around me and got to know them better as time went on, with some I still call friends to this day.

COVID came and I transported all of my equipment to what is now my home office. It works for me and I am comfortable and productive.

Now im told to return to the office but my old desk and setup is gone. I have a single sub-1080p laptop screen to work on. I have a crappy chair that I share with who knows. I sit in a sterile empty hotelling station with empty walls and nobody around that I know because everyone else is hotelling random days too.

Everything that made my workplace comfortable before COVID is gone, and I'm tired of being called entitled or selfish when management and the media won't acknowledge what they took from us to get here. This is why we're reluctant to go back.

I don't think I'm the only neurodivergent PS who is having issues with this new directive. I was off on mat leave in 2023, returned to the office for the first time since 2020. This has been a huge adjustment to make since my previous team no longer exists, I'm in a new building, new director, new team. I've been shuffled around and am feeling disposable. I'm having a hard time adjusting to the office again after being able to control my home work environment; music on my speakers when I need it, temp control, no one typing angrily, no one interrupting me needlessly for annoying chit-chat, no unexpected perfume smells that give me migraines, no constant buzzing of fluorescent lights, and lpud humming of the ventilation system... I mentioned to my manager that I'm not adjusting well to the RTO, and said that the sudden announcement of the 3 days in September is really stressing me out. She told me if I was asking for in-office accommodations, that would be a different conversation. I don't feel like "asking for accommodations", because I've had colleagues be told to "wear sunglasses and wear noise-cancelling headphones". Those aren't accommodations, it's just telling the employee to just deal with it. I don't feel like jumping through their neurotypical hoops to prove the stress this is causing me, for them to dismiss my concerns and make me chase after my accommodations. I'm well-aware that the system is based on how NT people function, but it all seems ableist AF.

How are ND public servants coping with this? Thanks

I've been working in the public service close to twenty years. I've held around nine different admin/program positions, all in public health or primary healthcare. Throughout everything I've been pretty good at just putting my head down and doing my work. Especially during the craziness of Covid-19 response working in PH. I've heard all of the complaints and insults and derogatory comments for years. But truly I'm not sure why year after year NPS continue to despise us. Most don't have a clue what we do. Is it because of our sick leave and vacation? Most of us went into the office every day before the pandemic so it wasn't that. Are people still thinking the public service work environment is the same as it was at the eighties? Maybe people are just miserable in their own lives and they are looking gor someone else to blame.

Does anyone have any idea what it’s for? I got a pin and a keychain too but this piece of metal is odd? There’s nothing on the back to make it a magnet and it’s a very thin piece of metal.

Thanks!

As an indigenous person who's family was part of residential schools, I cringe every time I hear someone read the land acknowledgement verbatim.. or at all. It feels forced, not empathetic and just makes me cringe, knowing it's not likely that the person reading it knows much, if anything, about indigenous peoples, practices or lands, the true impact of residential schools, the trauma and loss. It just feels like a forced part of government now to satisfy the minds of non-indigenous s people so they feel like they're "doing something" and taking accountability.

Wondering how people's first day back in the office as part of RTO has been. Mine started with my boss calling in sick and wondering why I`m here for a meeting with them that now isn't happening.

Now, I've known since forever that public servants are not the most loved group of people in Canada. We're often political scapegoats or at the very least the butt of any "lazy worker" jokes. I thought I had seen it all in my 20+ years in the service, but it feels like the vitriol towards us is particularly high at this moment.

There could be many reasons for this: RTO mandates, old prejudices being riled up, recency bias. But, nonetheless, I know it's been a it rough on me to constantly see people complaining about us while I'm still doing what I can to do my job to the best of my ability.

So I figured it was worth asking: How are you all doing? And what are you doing to help out yourself or others who might be feeling a bit down about the whole situation? I know a lot of people, including myself, could definitely use some advice in that regard.

At the very least, I figured this could be a place where we could talk about such things instead of keeping it to ourselves.

Of all the current issues, this is probably low on the irritant scale…

Something that occasionally bothers me is when I feel like doing something after work, downtown (NCR) and realize I can’t because I have my work computer with me.

I find it ridiculous that we can’t leave it at the office because of this new “activity based working” model. I figure the countdown is on for RTO5 and I know they don’t plan on giving people their own offices again, but surely they can set up some kind of locked room for all of them.

If once nobody is teleworking, can they really compel us to continue to carry the hardware back and forth? It’s certainly not mentioned in my CA or LOO. lol

Edit for additional context: an example for me is I have CityFolk tickets and would have liked to head straight there after work. I can’t bring the laptop to a concert. I even bring a portable external monitor (my own purchase) just in case I can’t land a workstation with a monitor that day. They are very limited, first come, first served and all the staff who work at 7am take them. That’s a whole other rant…

Pre-pandemic, I would have left everything in my cubicle, bag and all.

I live an hour away in the opposite direction. So I have to travel home to drop it off and then go back again.

Our branch is not permitted to use lockers overnight (making them relatively pointless).

I would like to ask that everyone inventory their struggles here in a calm, systematic manner for those senior managers and reporters monitoring Reddit. Please clarify in a professional, logical manner the extent of the damage that this new mandate will inflict.

I have read a lot of complaints and protests but they are scattered everywhere and read as angry reactions. Lets make it easier for them to find the hard truths of this.