Jacob Rees-Mogg has been criticized for leaving “rude, humiliating” notes on vacant government offices, urging them to return to the office.
The government’s efficiency minister recently called for a “quick return” of government officials to their Whitehall offices, and now COVID’s restrictions are over.
In a note left for government officials, he wrote: “I’m sorry you were out when I visited.
“I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon.”
Sky News understands that Mr. Rees-Mogg’s office was completely empty when he left the notes.
He said he thought it was important for taxpayers to see that the government was working properly and that the Whitehall mansion was being used well.
Dave Penman, head of the FDA’s civil service union, said Mr Rees-Mogh had “signaled the virtue of his political base” and thus damaged the morale of civil servants.
Mr Penman told Sky News: “The fact that a minister would consider it appropriate to leave such harsh, humiliating remarks to government officials is proof of how detached Jacob Rees-Mogg is from government business.
“With each such statement and demonstration, he demonstrates that he has no idea how the modern workplace works and does not care much about the effective provision of vital public services.
“Instead, he aims to signal virtue on his political base and either forgets or is simply not interested in the damage he does to the morale of civil servants and the reputation of the civil service as an employer.”
Mr Penman added: “Ministers need to be interested in what is provided by the civil service, not where someone is sitting at a particular time of day.
“It is time for Reese-Mogh’s cabinet colleagues to stand up for their staff and put an end to the harmful cultural war waged against the people themselves charged with carrying out the government’s agenda.
Deputy Labor leader Angela Raynor wrote on Twitter: “Wouldn’t Jacob Rees-Mogg do more important things than spinning around, leaving scary notes for government officials? We are not in the 18th century now. “
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Earlier this month, Mr Rees-Mogg wrote to all secretaries of state, arguing that stopping work from home now that COVID’s restrictions have been lifted will bring the benefits of face-to-face collaboration.
He also sent ministers a league table showing which departments sent the most staff to the office, with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (DTI) at the top and the Ministry of Education at the bottom.
The league table shows how many employees from each department enter the office on average per day in the week beginning April 4.
25% entered the Ministry of Education on average, while the rest work remotely, with 27% in the Ministry of Labor and Pensions and 31% in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
DTI had 73% in the office, followed by the Ministry of Health with 72% and the department of Mr. Rees-Mogg, the Cabinet, with 69%.
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