At a time when many private companies have begun to request people return to the office and imposed limits on working from home, remote work remains common for staff at Estonian government ministries.

Ahti Kuningas, secretary general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (MKM) told ERR that he thinks a lot about the efficiency of remote working.

"I used to go to the office myself during the Coronavirus pandemic and I see many advantages of working in the office. Our management is present practically all the time," he said.

Kuningas also said that it is not only the major global start-ups that have begun clamping down on remote work, but similar signals are also coming from the financial world. In his view, being in the office has an impact on collaboration, the spirit of innovation and the mentoring of employees.

This is why,the MKM encourages office presence as part of its organizational culture, Kuningas explained. All the more so because a new unit was added to the ministry last year, and, with another unit from the Ministry of Regional Affairs also set to be added next year, Kuningas says it would not be possible to integrate new people from a distance.

"There's a ten percent turnover rate, so how do you get new people to settle in? It's hard to do that from home," he said. "Plus there's another side to this. It's one thing to run an institution, but mental health is another. People are social animals, they need other people."

Kuningas said that there are kick off meetings in the office at the MKM at the beginning of a week, on Monday and Tuesday. Meanwhile, Friday has been trialed as a day when no regular meetings are scheduled. Anything that is left over from earlier in the week or needs to be dealt with in more depth can be tackled on Friday and can be done from home.

At the start of the week, the average occupancy rate at the MKM is around 90 percent, while the weekly average is just over 70 percent. Kuningas added that the organization of work scheduling and IT systems is currently being reviewed in order to improve cooperation. The need for office space is also an issue which constantly needs to be addressed, as different departments are regularly being reallocated, and this side of the equation has to be considered when making cuts.

At the same time,  Kuningas acknowledged that the view on the need for office space varies from one extreme to the other across different ministries.

Hartman: For those who are dedicated to what they do, it does not matter

The Estonian Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture has not considered restricting remote working. Minister Piret Hartman (SDE), said that while she was not responsible for the working arrangements of staff – that was a matter for the secretary general – the ministry has recruited experts in their fields and taken a flexible approach to the way those people worked.

"Of my own close team of advisers, four out of five people are from outside Tallinn – Saaremaa, Läänemaa, Tartu and Harju County. We haven't imposed restrictions whereby they can only come to work if they do the job from Tallinn," Hartman said.

According to Hartman, they are certain days and times when staff come together physically to discuss things and solve urgent problems.

"We try to be flexible. Because I work with a lot of different teams, I can't say that people who work from home are any worse or do any less. For those who are motivated and dedicated to what they do, it certainly doesn't matter. It's more the case that it affects team spirit and team building when you are away from the office," she added.

Even in the current economic situation, Hartman says there has never been a reason to make a decision regarding staff working from home when looking to make savings. There is rather an assumption that even if an office does close somewhere, staff will stay on site in order to travel to clients where necessary.

"We are trying to make sure that if we have to take [funds] from somewhere, it will be from the central office, not from the regions," the minister said.

Hartman added that different ministries have been moving into the joint so-called "Superministry" building but not everyone has their own desk. The aim, Hartman said, is for people to meet up every now and then and for the departments to be there for people, but officials could also visit companies on certain days of the month to keep up to date.

Last week, Estonian daily news outlet Postimees raised the issue of many government ministries' shared offices being mostly empty, as illustrated by the abundance of dark windows at dusk before the regular working day is over.

Kaie Karniol, head of the Ministry of Finance's shared services department, noted that the total leased area in the Superministry building is 16,000 square meters and is fully utilized, with no vacant spaces or rooms. However, there are not enough desks for all employees: there are a total of 1,356 staff members and 980 workstations, of which 27 are reserved for the police, the state's IT center, the state's support services center and the innovation team of the Government Office.

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