Speaking during an appearance on Channel 5’s Storm & Alexis programme, Penman said: “The Telegraph run these stories every so often. If you take that figure… about the number of people who haven’t been in the office, 6% of staff in HMRC are on home working contracts. That’s mainly because those are people who… are disabled and would not be able to work were they not able to work from home, and the evidence has shown that they can work as productively from home as they can in the office. So are we really saying that those people shouldn’t have a job and shouldn’t be employed?
“Most government departments now will probably have a desk ratio of about 50% or below. We actually have more problems with members who say that when they come into office, they can’t find a desk or they can’t sit with their work colleagues that they want to work with the rest of their team, because of the hot desk arrangements.”
Penman also appeared on Jeremy Kyle’s TalkTV morning programme to discuss the criticism of hybrid working in the civil service, saying:
“Evidence has been given to parliament to show that there’s no difference in productivity whether you’re working from home or whether you are working in an office because you’re working.
“We have to think about how we organise work when people come in, building team days, anchor days, and I think lots of organisations that experiment with this and try to work out what makes sense, lots of private sector companies are doing this. This would not make sense to them if it didn’t help their bottom line.
“So it can be productive, it can be efficient, it can help both the taxpayer and private employers, but it needs thought, it needs management, it needs time.”
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