CIVIL SERVANTS ON A GREAT WICKET

DURING the past two to three months, several articles and letters have been written about the public servants who work at City Hall, their increased salaries, eg between $200,000 and $500,000, the increased amount of them, socalled “necessary” flexible work arrangements and now our councillors are reconsidering the actual need for the new $102m civic headquarters due to be completed later this year, which is being built to provide a state-ofthe-art working environment for those hundreds of public servants who are working from home half of the time anyway.

Who decided the public servants of CoGG needed this grand building to work in, in the first place? Councillors or chief executive Martin Cutter and bureaucratic sub-committees?

Flexible work arrangements – sitting in airconditioned offices, morning and afternoon tea, full lunch breaks all on time and uninterrupted, but they can work from home some of the time because it’s better for their mental health.

These people don’t know what a stressful workplace is – nurses, doctors, all hospital staff, all emergency services personnel will tell you what a stressful working environment feels like, but they don’t have the luxury of working from home. They often barely have time for meal breaks.

Cafes, restaurants and retail businesses in our struggling CBD need all the patronage they can get. Office workers contribute to this when they are working. A simple practical way for employees of CoGG to support local business.

When is Mr Cutter going to be a responsible leader and show some consideration for the real workers, the people, the ratepayers of Geelong?

Jan Loveday, Mt Duneed