r/CanadaPublicServants

Hello everyone !

I am sorry if I sound whiny or annoyed in advance.

I am grateful for my job and the ability to serve the Canadian people.

However, this past month has been challenging. I genuinely enjoy being able to go into the office and connect with people in person, and when I was working from home two days a week, I felt like I had a much better work-life balance.

For example, I’m a morning gym person, so going to the gym before work was easy when I had more flexibility. Now, with a 9–5 in-office schedule, I have to leave early enough to get to work on time, and I usually don’t get home until around 6 PM. By then, it’s much harder to fit in the things that help me feel balanced.

When we were in the office three days a week, I was able to mentally prepare for those days. But with four days in the office, the commute has become much more challenging. Ottawa also has very limited convenient park-and-ride options depending on where you’re coming from, which makes combining the gym, driving, parking, and taking the train feel almost impossible.

I’m not saying any of this from a place of being ungrateful. Especially with the current job market and so many layoffs, I know I’m fortunate to have a job that I enjoy and value.

I’m genuinely curious: how do you all maintain a healthy work-life balance with a demanding commute and an in-office schedule? I’d love to hear practical tips, routines, or things that have actually worked for you.
Thank you!

Update: thank you guys! It makes me feel less alone that we’re all trying to re adjust. For context I’ve been working a 9-5 or full time for 4 years now. Mostly at 2 or 3 days at home which significantly helped me reduce stress. You have no idea what people go through so be kind. Everyone has different thresholds or responsibilities. For example someone is dealing with stress of kids some are caring for senior sick parents. Be kind, we’ll get through this.

I’m curious what other public servants would choose if they had to pick between these two situations:

A) You genuinely dislike/hate the work, but you have a great team, good relationships with your colleagues, a supportive manager, and generally enjoy the people you work with.

B) You genuinely enjoy the work itself and find it interesting/fulfilling, but you have a difficult team/manager and don’t particularly enjoy the work environment.

Which would you choose, and why?
I’m asking because I’m currently in situation A. I really enjoy the people I work with and have built some great connections with my colleagues. I have no real complaints about the people or the team itself.
The problem is that I hate the actual work. I dislike it so much that I’m finding myself at the point where I don’t even want to do the work anymore and honestly don’t care about the work I’m producing. And that’s making me question whether having a great team is enough to make me stay in a job that I find so unfulfilling.
For those who have been in either situation, what mattered more to you in the long run, the work itself or the people you work with? Did you ever leave a great team because you hated the work, or stay in a job you disliked because the team was worth it?

Hi! Wondering if anyone on here has had success getting peanut allergy treatment (peanut powder) covered by Canada Life PSHCP? There's only one pharmacy in town that fills this prescription and they refuse to take my insurance info to run it through. When I try to submit the claims online it rejects the DIN number. I called Canada Life customer support and they were not helpful. The claim they walked me through submitting seemed very incorrect - had me select miscellaneous when it is a drug - problem is when you select drug it asks for a din number and then says the din isn't valid.. this claim has had no response for over a month. Before that I tried I filled out the pdf claim form and emailed it to the insurance company and they messaged me back saying it has to be submitted online...

Hi all, Mzwandile Poncana with The Hill Times here. I'm currently looking into a specific issue related to RTO: whether onsite-attendance requirements are being incorporated into employees' performance agreements, PMAs or performance assessments.

PIPSC has historically said it has received reports of some managers including onsite-attendance targets in performance reviews. I'm trying to establish how widespread the practice is, which departments or agencies are using it, and how far RTO compliance can affect an employee's performance rating.

If this has happened in your workplace (or former workplace), please DM me or email me at mponcana@hilltimes.com. In particular, I'm interested in:

• the department or agency
• when the requirement appeared
• the wording used in the PMA/performance agreement
• whether it appears to be a standard departmental requirement or something added by an individual manager
• whether employees were told that failing to meet the onsite requirement could affect their performance rating.

Redacted screenshots or copies of the relevant wording would be especially helpful.

There's no need to post identifying details publicly. Anyone considering speaking for the story can also discuss anonymity with me before anything is attributed or published.

Thank you.

Hello!

I’ll be commencing my 7th year with the public service this September. Up until August 1 2026, I was part of the PSAC PA group, and I’m now part of the CP group.

Under the CP agreement, the service requirement to receive the additional 12.5 hours of vacation leave (one additional week) appears to have changed from the 8th year to the 7th year.

Would I receive the additional week this year, since I’m entering my 7th year, or would it not take effect until next year?

Also, I took 18 months of maternity leave beginning in 2022. Would that affect my anniversary/service date for the purpose of calculating vacation leave credits?

Thanks in advance!

I was playing with the pension calculator and was wondering about this sentence in brackets:

"If you begin to participate in the plan on or after January 1, 2013, you are eligible to draw an unreduced pension benefit at age 65 with at least two years of pensionable service (or age 60 with 30 years of pensionable service)."

Does this mean in theory if I retire at age 52 (started at age 22) with 30 years of service, I can get unreduced pension at age 60? This would mean from age 52 to 60 when I leave the workplace and I would just have to fund myself for 8 years. Then at age 60 pension kicks in since I'm now age 60 with the 30 years of service?

Also at age 60 when pension kicks in, can I pay for/apply for the retirement health care/dental care? My understanding for retirement health care is you need at least 6 years of service and be recieving GoC pension payments. I'm not sure about rules for dental care side.

The pension calculator when I put in 30 years of service leaving at age 52, it says the deferred no penalty pension starts at age 65 not age 60. But if I put 33 years of service leaving at age 55, it now says the deferred no penalty pension starts at age 60. Is there something with leaving the workplace at age 55?

Trying to figure out the earliest I can leave the GoC as someone who started at age 22, fund myself for a few years until age 60 for the unreduced pension as a Group 2 member. I want to have at least 30 year of service to get the unreduced pension at age 60.

Thank you!

Relevant to us, could mean a new salary deduction or employer-paid benefit, or combination thereof, to meatbags employed in the NCR. Implementation would have to have the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau, the Feds, and the Unions on board.

Hi everyone, I’m currently going through a medical diagnosis process that has been very stressful, on top of burnout. I’ve already had to take quite a bit of time off and was denied WFH during this process, so I’m considering going on leave and applying for LTD

I’m financially independent, so I’m trying to understand how the transition works. I know Sun Life DI has a 13-week waiting period. I have about 2 weeks of vacation left , if I use that first while medically off work, would it count toward the 13 weeks? I’d then apply for EI sickness. Would using vacation affect or delay my EI application? I read EI can take up to 28 days to process.

Also, is it mandatory to provide a manager/supervisor statement as part of the DI application, or would documentation from my doctor be enough? I would prefer to keep my medical details between myself, my doctor and the insurance.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has gone through this process.

Thanks in advance!

Would bereavement leave be available in the event of the passing of an aunt or uncle? If not, can other leave be utilized?

If my last day of work is November 29, so my first day of retirement is November 30, do I receive a full pension payment for November? Or is it pro-rated? Or does it not kick in until December?

(Not referring to processing times or actual deposit dates, just the entitlement to the payment itself.)

ETA: Thanks to HoG for answering my question!

I know it wouldn't make logical sense to collect pension payments for the portion of the month when I was actually working, but I also know that sometimes the public service defies logic. 😂

I checked the TBS page for what's covered under the dental plan and it does say "oral surgery and general anaesthesia" but I just wanted to see if anyone can confirm this covers the nitrous.

My kid is getting a filling tomorrow and we elected to get the nitrous because she'd lose her shit at getting a needle and someone told me today it might not be covered but I'm guessing they meant under the provincial program here. She needs to get the filling so she'll be getting the nitrous regardless but if it isn't covered, I just wanted to prepare myself a bit. TIA!

I recently had to have surgery and exhausted all of my sick leave. As a result, I apply for LTD and there is one outstanding form that has to be completed by a comp advisor. I have called the call centre twice, my boss has escalated it, HR is looking into it and the union didn’t think that they could help me.

Has anybody had any luck in getting something escalated at the pay centre? If so, I am wide open for suggestions.

Just took a look at the latest ERI stats.

10,006 applied

8,161 approved

42 denied . I read that 13 of these were because they did not meet the requirements.

Does anyone have any info on what the clerk told departments to do....I.e approve is the default?

Just an observation ive made but based on my experience, at least two of the union Facebook groups have went from moderately active to ghost towns.

Additionally, I never hear anyone talking about unions anymore. Even before the last strike, it seems like more people had unions related teams backgrounds, there was more noise and buzz around their activities, etc.

Am i the only one thats gotten this vibe? I

Has anyone gotten glasses from pair eyewear covered by Canada life? I checked and their not in the list of unapproved providers. But I'm not sure about claiming this, given how difficult it's been making claims recently.

Thanks!

As part of the SP (Applied Science Patent), our contract expires September 30, 2026.

I’ve heard that unions can take quite a while to negotiate new contracts, even after the current one has expired. When can we realistically expect this process to be completed? Also, do different subgroups (BI vs. PC vs. MT) generally receive the same updates to pay increases, or are they negotiated separately?

I’m new to the PS, but I haven’t seen any relevant updates on the status of negotiations, and we’re now a little over a month away from the contract expiry date. That seems a bit bizarre to me. Why wouldn’t negotiations happen well ahead of the expiry date so that the new contract could be in effect immediately when the current one expires?

Please enlighten a newbie on how things work in the PS.

The Employer, the Canadian government, is trying to rein in the costs of the public service. They‘re cutting up to 40,000 jobs and plan on using AI to make us more efficient.

For the purposes of this discussion, let’s set aside RTO and all the money spent on renting space.

And, let’s try to be constructive.

With that said, if the Government engaged with us, with front-line workers, and said ‘how can we make our employees more productive and efficient,’ what would you say?

Hello,

My spouse is a PM and I’ve been looking to the collective agreement, he does not have many sick days or vacation leave banked (under 3 years of PS employment).

Our baby will be born stillbirth at 23 weeks and I understand as the birthing parent I am eligible for EI maternity leave plus top ups. But I’m wondering if other parents (father/dads) can share what type of leave they used in these circumstances? Has anyone applied for EI sickness benefits?

Thank you in advance!