Reform UK's chronicles

[Russ]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

That's not what i said.

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Actually i spent 25 years of my working life on call so i know what it's like not to be able to have a home life, callout was not optional

So you’ve never worked from home then. You should have just said that in the first place. At 5pm I switch off and my employer wouldn’t expect anything less unless I agreed to optional overtime.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

That's not what i said.

So what is your argument? Is it that you don't trust council workers to work from home, but you're happy for everyone else to work flexibly as you're more inclined to trust them? Or something else?

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

So what is your argument? Is it that you don't trust council workers to work from home, but you're happy for everyone else to work flexibly as you're more inclined to trust them? Or something else?

I pay for council workers through my taxes and i expect them to turn up at the office for work, i don't pay Russ's wages so i don't care what his boss gets back in return

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

I pay for council workers through my taxes and i expect them to turn up at the office for work, i don't pay Russ's wages so i don't care what his boss gets back in return

You pay your ISP's wages, do you expect them to be based in an office?

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

You pay your ISP's wages, do you expect them to be based in an office?

Are they running my local council?

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

Are they running my local council?

You're in a better position to answer that question than me.

Why do you want one rule for council workers and another for everyone else?

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

They should take all steps possible to ensure it does not go over budget. Not all do, we just tend to hear of the ones that go significantly over budget.

I assume they've worked out who wants to work remotely and who wants/has to work on site and this is included in their calculations. It's not possible for everyone to work from home as they may not be fortunate enough to have appropriate space to do so.

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That's because of poor management or underfunding. Plenty of telephone contact services overseas or managed by people from their homes in the UK that operate in all seasons.

Government institutions such as HMRC need to maintain data security. So, for example, the theft of the corporate PC/Laptop would be a data breach. In local government too, confidential data needs to be protected and I doubt that many councils have that properly in hand.


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@Andrew
You also mentioned about people who want to work from home. What happens if/when they change their mind?

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Government institutions such as HMRC need to maintain data security. So, for example, the theft of the corporate PC/Laptop would be a data breach. In local government too, confidential data needs to be protected and I doubt that many councils have that properly in hand.


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@Andrew
You also mentioned about people who want to work from home. What happens if/when they change their mind?

Your doubt may be misplaced - I know people in Private Industry, Local Government, and the University Sector who are hybrid working, and they all seem to follow the same methodology and technology - they use the same laptop (with an encrypted drive) in both places (home and office), and the same security standards, except they use a work-supplied VPN to access a Virtual Desktop to enable them to work from home.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Your doubt may be misplaced - I know people in Private Industry, Local Government, and the University Sector who are hybrid working, and they all seem to follow the same methodology and technology - they use the same laptop (with an encrypted drive) in both places (home and office), and the same security standards, except they use a work-supplied VPN to access a Virtual Desktop to enable them to work from home.

I don't disagree. But the "properly in hand" includes, for example tying access to an IP address, or multi-factor authentication using a corporate mobile device. It's confidential information that concerns me.

Originally Posted by papa smurf

I pay for council workers through my taxes and i expect them to turn up at the office for work, i don't pay Russ's wages so i don't care what his boss gets back in return

1. Your council’s entire council tax income is between one quarter and one half of its total income. Your personal contribution to your council’s income is in the region of 0.0006%. So no, you do not pay the wages of any officer of your council in any meaningful way.

2. Even if you were paying the piper and in a position to call the tune, you’ve still given no reason why you think they should be in an office particularly.

Any chance of a straight answer, or is glib one-liners as far as you can go?

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Chris

1. Your council’s entire council tax income is between one quarter and one half of its total income. Your personal contribution to your council’s income is in the region of 0.0006%. So no, you do not pay the wages of any officer of your council in any meaningful way.

2. Even if you were paying the piper and in a position to call the tune, you’ve still given no reason why you think they should be in an office particularly.

Any chance of a straight answer, or is glib one-liners as far as you can go?

I've answered many times you're not listening

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

[COLOR="Blue"]
@Andrew
You also mentioned about people who want to work from home. What happens if/when they change their mind?

Then you have an individual conversation with them as they would be requesting a change to their employment contract. This would require the agreement of both parties via a new contract.

If a few staff moved from 100% remote to 100% in person, I'm sure most organisations could accommodate it. Good employers are always keen to hold onto good staff. If everyone decided en masse to then I think for many organisations, that could be problematical but it's very unlikely to happen.

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Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Government institutions such as HMRC need to maintain data security. So, for example, the theft of the corporate PC/Laptop would be a data breach. In local government too, confidential data needs to be protected and I doubt that many councils have that properly in hand.

"I doubt that" is doing a lot of heavy lifting for you.

[Russ]

I’m on a hybrid contract as are the 2000 other employees. It gives us the flexibility to work from home or the office as needed. I have to go in twice a week but if I wanted to go in each day I could.

It’s very straightforward and done by the overwhelming number of employers who offer hybrid working.

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Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Government institutions such as HMRC need to maintain data security. So, for example, the theft of the corporate PC/Laptop would be a data breach. In local government too, confidential data needs to be protected and I doubt that many councils have that properly in hand.

I work for a Law firm. I deal with highly sensitive legal and court papers each day. I have this data on my work laptop that I keep at home whilst working here and when I take it in to the office.

The HD is highly encrypted. It’s no big issue. We’ve never had a data breach.

I spent about 18 months as a government contractor in the late noughties. I had a civil service laptop and remote access to the civil service extranet. Nobody ever thought it was a problem (and in fact the second contract I was on, was for a department that lacked desk space and actively discouraged me from being in the office unless it was absolutely necessary, which was usually around once a month).

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I don't disagree. But the "properly in hand" includes, for example tying access to an IP address, or multi-factor authentication using a corporate mobile device. It's confidential information that concerns me.

Encryption & MFA are two small components. device trust/posture and conditional access are even more important. Steal a laptop ? Check. Got the password ? Check. Got the MFA device ? Check. Coming from an unknown or unapproved IP? Denied.

There’s so much going on behind the scenes you’re not even aware of.

I did some work for Selby council many years ago and they had all of that in place then…… as did many other councils in yorkshire /Lancashire