The Public Service Minister has put the hard word on Government departments and urged them to call their staff back to the office.

She says there are performance downsides to working-from-home arrangements - and harmful impacts on local businesses.

Willis says these changes will begin with public service departments updating their remote working rules.

"Then we can compare one agency with another - that's when we can really take a close look at whether this is working the way people would expect. Because if everyone's taking Fridays off, we're going to have some questions."

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