Return-to-office war stories from the bureaucracy

Plus: Fresh polling from Scarborough Southwest

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OFFICE SPACE (OR NOT) — The Ford government’s return-to-office mandate for the Ontario Public Service has been messy, colliding with the reality of limited space and uneven planning across the civil service.

Unions say some workers have been turned away from offices with no available desks and redirected to other locations — including windowsills and even a McDonald’s — just to stay connected during the workday.

Here are some of the anecdotes floating around among employees…

At 21 College Street, which houses the justice departments including the Solicitor General Ministry, “there are more staff than cubicles.”

“That means on any given day, staff who weren’t able to reserve a cubicle sit in boardrooms, have to steal other people’s cubicles, work in the lobby, have meetings in the kitchen, or whatever they can find.” Further complicating the matter: Some employees claim staff are simultaneously being called out for not sitting in their reserved cubicles, while also being e…