Normally, it's allowed one day a week, but not at all for new employees, and not without advance approval. One answer to why it's this way would be that's what

Normally, it's allowed one day a week, but not at all for new employees, and not without advance approval. One answer to why it's this way would be that's what the union contract was negotiated to be. My inference is that government employees are considered to be lazy and/or like children, that you can't trust them in general to work on their own. But I really wished people to understand it's neither a perk nor an entitlement now. It can't be an individual decision, because whether one person goes in depends on what other people do. Telling people they can stay home if they want makes it into a prisoner's dilemma situation. People (leadership and rank and file) are trapped by their individualistic thought patterns when the only solution is to both do what you are told and be told to do what is in the collective interest. People sometimes talk about how other cultures don't prioritize the individual as much but they never sound like it actually makes sense, it's just kind of patronizing. Right now, it's making sense to me, but a lot of people (e.g. on my Facebook feed) seem to just be writhing in misery over trying to choose the best thing for themselves and guilt over other people not necessarily being able to do the same thing.