Sick Days and Happiness

Published on 2026-04-15 by Stuart Spence

I've had this on my mind for years. What if you made a graph of sickness versus happiness with respect to paid sick days? Here's my first good attempt. Your graph may be different than mine because:

  1. I have paid sick days.
  2. I feel some duty to my work.
  3. I …

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How-To Government

Published on 2026-02-10 by Stuart Spence

I'm a senior computer scientist for the government of Canada, there since 2018. Sometimes reality doesn't reflect the official messaging in government. So this page lists some of my own guidelines, truths, and tools that have most helped my career in government and guard my sanity. I hope this page …

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Empowering public servant managers with displacements

Published on 2024-09-22 by Stuart Spence

Sometimes my friends, family, colleagues, or online communities ask me this question:

"If you could wave a magic wand to make one change in public service, what would it be?"

I'd create a new tool for managers in government called "displacement". Here's how it works.

Disclaimer

The opinions here are …

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My three months vacation this summer

Published on 2024-08-02 by Stuart Spence

After some big disappointments at Environment Canada, I decided to take three months off in May, June, and July of 2024. Now that my time off is coming to a close I thought it would be nice to jot down all the nice ways I got to spend my time …

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A Proposed Point System for Government WFH

Published on 2024-05-01 by Stuart Spence

This page describes a point system where public servants and their managers can autonomously identify what their minimum work-from-home (WFH) day count should be.

Why RTO

Some politicans are more transparent than others about why return-to-office (RTO) is so important to them:

"Three days is a good start," Ford said …

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New Role at ECCC

Published on 2023-10-23 by Stuart Spence

Today I'm excited to say I'm moving to a new team! They build AI prototypes in the cloud for Environment Canada (ECCC). On paper this is like a dream job! On this page I'll go over key details, the job description, and highlights.

Key Details

  • One year assignment starting November …

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Better Hiring in Government

Published on 2023-07-07 by Stuart Spence

When I help with government hiring I often give the same suggestions to hiring teams. So I wrote this page as a starting point. I focus on IT hiring but this also applies generally. If these points resonate with you, I'd love to help you with your hiring.

Important note …

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