‘Use it or lose it’ warning to staff snubbing offices
JACOB Rees-Mogg has warned civil servants to “use it or lose it” as he revealed how one costly London office continues to lie empty while they work from home.
Brandishing a photo on his phone of a deserted section of the Cabinet Office building, the Government Efficiencies Minister said: “It looked as if it hadn’t been used in two years.The notices were still from 2020.
“So I left three notes saying, ‘Please come back into work’. And I wrote on the whiteboard saying, ‘Can we reallocate this space because you clearly don’t need it’.”
Pricey
Mr Rees-Mogg is urging staff to get back to work and says money is being wasted on pricey desk space. He said: “Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being spent.
“Either they need to be there, or they don’t. If they don’t, we should reallocate and put somebody into this property.”
His push to get civil servants back into the office has caused splits with some colleagues. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has branded it “Dickensian”.
But Mr Rees-Mogg seemed unmoved by the criticism, saying: “Nadine is wonderful. Nadine and I get on like a house on fire.” He insisted there was a “lot of support” in the
Cabinet for his return-to-the-office drive and revealed Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has told his staff “they must be back in four days a week”.
Mr Rees-Mogg believes being at work enhances “creativity” among staff. He said: “The thinking process is less effective if people aren’t in the office.”
He recently published a league table showing the percentage of civil servants at their desks.
While around three-quarters of International Trade officials were back in the office, only a quarter of education staff were in the week starting April 4.
His own Cabinet Office department had a 69 per cent staffing level. The figure for Ms Dorries’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport was 43 per cent.
Mr Rees-Mogg has been carrying out spot checks across Whitehall and leaving notes with the message: “I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon.”
Union leaders have objected to his approach and warn it is damaging morale.
FDA general secretary Dave Penman said: “Good people will leave. And the civil service brand will be trashed in a highly competitive employment market.”