City Staff Ideas Challenge

I think that this is a good idea but must be done in a way to save the city money. We should consolidate offices and have workers share desk such as hoteling. This will help with the city's goal to reduce emission gas (carbon footprint) and save the city money. Many of the admin buildings are not owned by the city, so this can help reduce rent and utilities. In the summer time we work 4 days a week to have he building shutdown all together to save on AC and reduce the carbon footprint. This would save the city millions of dollars a year in rent leases. This would also help the city share resources from different agencies. Help run the city like a business and not a government agency that doesn't look to reduce cost. A lot of people are retiring we can use this to help the city grow better and use the resources to better the city for the people.

Agreed. We need to rethink the modern workplace - the hours, days and physical places. This is true especially for those of us who commute and sit in a windowless office for 8-9 hours a day. The old way of doing things is nonsensical and most importantly not sustainable.

Municipal employees already showed during the height of the pandemic that we can work successfully from home. Mayor Adam's supported this concept when he was seeking our Union votes 🗳 during the Democratic primary.

When we work at home 🏡 we support our local economies. We have to pivot as we are losing talent from all city agencies to the private sector. We can reduce our office footprint and repurpose those buildings to deal with the homeless crisis we have in NYC. We can consolidate field offices and make those offices we use in a neighborhood style office space where you come in only when we have to gather for certain office tasks. We need the outer borough Mayor to remember his promises to Union members and our families that he would support an alternative work schedule 📅. Promises Made in this area have NOT been kept!! We need a Mayor who is going to make the public sector competitive and flexible for those who choose to serve NYC.

We were just as productive at home as we are in the office, if not more. Considering the huge uptick in crime, many of us are afraid to commute and feel unsafe. Many people are leaving City government to go into the private sector due to those companies being more flexible with wfh options. We need to stay competitive and modernize our way of thinking. There is no need to have workers in office 5 days a week unless it is a job that can't be done remotely. We keep getting emails from the Mayor's Office about reducing our carbon foot print, yet we have to commute in to work everyday. Let us at least have two days at home

Why is there double standard for city workers? Why is FISA or Cyber is able to WFH or Hybrid as of today (2022)! Why?
https://www.thecity.nyc/health/2021/12/23/22852537/city-employees-call-for-remote-work-option-as-omicron-spreads

Also there is no point of looking for "equality" everywhere. Last we checked, we all had different paychecks.

Agree. We City Employees have demonstrated that we can work effectively and efficiently while working from home. In my own personal opinion, people are more likely to show up while working from home. That means no more calling out because you have a sick kid, unavailable childcare or a home repair that needs your immediate attention. The idea of a shared workspace to reduce the carbon footprint isn't bad when you have fewer people coming into the office. The anxiety of taking the trains is overwhelming. Not just because of the crime but also because of the excessive crowds. Covid and this Pandemic has taught us that it can be done. I'm asking (hoping) the Mayor to stand on his word and allow WFH.

Finding a way to offer flexibility to "non-essential" city employees is critical. On our teams of highly-skilled staff, we have been hemorrhaging people to external jobs with higher pay and more flexibility. Mostly, people want to stay as they are drawn to the mission and committed to serving New Yorkers, but without some offer of flexibility, the external offers start to look more attractive. Those of us with long commutes learned the value of that time during the pandemic and we'd be both greener and happier with some flexibility.

I strongly agree that we need flexible telework options for city employees whose roles allow for it. COVID aside, giving back the commute time is a huge quality of life upgrade that would cost the city nothing. It would also allow greater flexibility for those with chronic illness, family/pet care needs, and just general life - how many times have people needed to take a day just to let a landlord in to fix something, when they could have just as easily been working at home during that time?

Aside from those benefits, we should also realize that many city offices are small, crowded, outdated, and do not actually have space to host regular meetings. Many office workers still take their meetings on Zoom because of this issue, which makes it even more confusing that we are asked to be at our desks each and every day to 'collaborate' when that mostly happens online.

The new issue that we are now facing is continuing to have virtual meetings from our desks in the office. We now have to contend with noisy coworkers who completely disregard the fact that we are in meetings. People will park up in front of your desk, start a conversation, and now you have to signal to them that you are in a meeting for everyone on your zoom call to see. Why are we doing this? If we are still meeting online, why not have us home where we could have more control of the noise level?

For 2 years we've proven we can do it. Allowing telework for non-essential, but competitive, jobs means we can widen our search pool for talented staff.

Many city employees perform nearly all of their work via computer or phone. Having these employees commute to the office every single day is a waste of space, resources, carbon emissions, and stress.

Sitting at a desk is not a proxy for productivity, as anyone who has worked in an office can attest. If an employee is not productive enough that is issue between them and their manager, irrespective of whether the work was done at home or in office, and managers should be able to ascertain if all necessary tasks are getting done - if not, that manager is not doing their job.

Productivity was much higher when we had an opportunity to work from home. People would stay much healthier and happier.

The current administration repeatedly states that they want to prioritize results and efficiency. So why aren't we reevaluating city employee working arrangements to accommodate a hybrid model? A recent NY Times article shows that only 8% work full-time on-site. NYC has employed the most extraordinary public-sector workforce globally, and we should innovate contemporary solutions instead of propping up the current working model since its status quo.