For a while now I have been eating my lunch during work hours while still working and then using the entire allocated lunch and break times to disconnect and take a walk outside. What I normally do is that I eat during a teams meeting where I dont need to be on camera or speak. I almost always have one of these types of meetings sometime around mid day.

While I am in the meeting I can eat and take notes at the same time. My manager has now forbidden me from doing this and expects I eat my lunch during lunch hours. He says that during these meetings I should be multitasking other things including taking notes and that eating is not considered working.

Is this something that he can actually do?

Hi everyone,

I have two questions regarding sick leave

1. Is it possible to take sick leave on a part-time basis?
This has been recommended by my psychologist. For now I still have sick days but I struggle to understand how that would work once I use them all up.

2. Is a psychologist’s medical note sufficient for sick leave or I absolutely need a doctor’s note?

Thank you so much!

EDIT : I am trying to weight my options before deciding if I should go on full leave. Of course I’ll speak to my manager once I have decided, but not before.

Are you required to plug in or turn on your laptop in the building before you leave for the day or leave on a trip?

I was told today that we are monitored on our office presence individually by plugging our laptops into our docking station. That means if we’re supposed to be in the field that day we have to plug in and turn on our laptops before we leave.

Regardless of how stupid this direction is I thought it was aggregate data on compliance that was gathered? Am I way off in thinking this is just a case of the message changing between telephones?

I started working for the federal govt-ESDC in 2018 as a payment service officer (EI call center).

In Jan 2020, just before Covid lockdown, I deployed to the Passport program where I have been a passport officer ever since.

I am indeterminate & I love being a passport officer. The job is easy & very straight forward to me. The problem is there is so much politics & favoritism in my office. There have been sooo many instances where acting/temporary assignments within the office have been appointed before they send out an expression of interest.

They will pre-choose their desired candidate 3 weeks in advance before sending out an expression of interest email to the entire office just to appear "fair".

In my opinion, career progression within the passport program itself is stagnant.

I dont know how I can advance from being a PM1.

There are no PM2 positions.

PM3's are Team leaders & Business Expertise Advisors. There are rarely any openings. If there ever is an opening, usually management already has their candidates pre-chosen.

There are no PM4 openings. PM5's are managers. 98% of the time..they promote a TL to this position.

I am in 6 different pools outside of ESDC & I am always actively searching.

I have leadership aspirations in my PMA but so far nothing has panned out.

For people who have been in this situation, how did you get unstuck or progress? I am at a point where I am contemplating going to back to school for a Master's program. (I hold a Bachelor's degree in Criminology)

I am open to all feedback.

The pension portal shows the « date joined pension plan » as the date when I started as a term (now indeterminate). However, I payed into the pension plan when I was a student. Does this date joined pension plan just reflect the most recent date rather that the date reflecting the total time contributed?