Annex A
MESSAGE TO ALL STAFF FROM ANDREW TURNBULL
LONG HOURS
IN THE
TREASURY
I know that one of the chief concerns about
planning to make a career in the Treasury is the belief that very
long hours are part of our culture and that those who do not work
them will not make progress here.
2. This is not my view. We all have a life
outside the Treasury and should have time to enjoy it, whether
to meet family commitments, contribute to our communities or simply
to pursue other interests. As far as work is concerned, people
should be rewarded for what they actually achieve, not for the
time they spend in the office. My colleagues on TMB feel the same.
3. This is why we inserted in our Public
Service Agreement a target of achieving a declining trend in excessive
hours worked over the years 1999, 2000 and 2001. PM have been
gathering information on hours worked in the Treasury three times
a year, as you know, and I attach the latest picture. The returns
we have received over the last year or so have revealed that hours
worked here have generally been falling but we know the data are
patchy and the rate of progress has not been fast enough. We must
achieve a sustained reduction in long hours worked at all levels
but I want us to make a particular effort in relation to those
who are working the longest hours of all and to those more junior
people who have less control over the amount of time they spend
in the office.
4. However, simply expressing a wish to
reduce working hours is not enough. We need to take some specific
action.
5. First of all, we have to employ sufficient
people to meet all the Treasury has to do. I have regarded securing
this as a personal priority. We have taken on new tasks over the
past year which have not been fully offset by declining workloads
elsewhere. Our CSR plans showed our staff numbers falling over
the three year period but it has become clear that with fewer
people, we could not meet the needs of the department. I put this
problem to the Chancellor and he has agreed that we should move
resources from elsewhere in the departmental expenditure limit
to enable us to keep the number of people we employ at roughly
their present level. During the recent budgeting exercise, TMB
provisionally directed extra resources to the places where more
people were required.
6. Second, we have to find people to fill
the vacancies we identify. I know this has often been more of
a problem than lack of money. TMB have therefore asked PM to consider
recruiting more people at various ranges in our own name to supplement
the civil service-wide recruitment we have now. We have already
experimented with the recruitment of generalists at Range E in
the context of the recent assessment centre.
7. Third, I should like line managers to
think creatively about adopting more flexible working patterns
in their teams, as they already have the freedom to do. That could
include more job shares, shorter working weeks, term-time or part-year
working in peak periods or rotas based on longer but fewer days.
(The ET team have, for example, been experimenting with the last.)
8. Line managers have the authority to approve
time off in lieu. It is important they make use of this after,
say, a major burst of activity associated with a Budget or a conference.
The arrangements can be quite informal. They also need to check
that those who work for them take their full entitlement to annual
leave and rest periods.
9. Above all, line managers should set a
good example in terms of the hours they themselves work.
10. In short, our focus should be on getting
the work done and maintaining the service we provide to others,
not on a particular pattern to the working day. When line managers
comment on the performance of other people, they should concentrate
on what has been delivered and how in the time allotted, rather
than on the willingness of individuals to spend extra hours in
the office. If we find someone who works for us is putting in
persistently long hours, we need to consider how the job—or
their working practices—can be changed.
11. Finally, we all need to ensure we manage
our time effectively—for example, by discussing with those
for whom we work what jobs we can eliminate entirely, because
they add little value; by observing the deadlines on Ministerial
boxes and by remembering that calling meetings before 9.30 am
or after 5 pm and continuing them after 6 pm, is unsociable and
can cause particular problems for people with families or trains
to catch.
12. TMB will continue to monitor the data
on hours worked which PM collect. The coverage is now fuller than
in the past and we look to you to give us the information we need
to check the trend. However, achieving a sustained reduction in
hours worked is not a task just for TMB, for line managers or
PM. It will clearly involve a determined push from us all.
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