Public service job cuts: is it time to do this differently?

Public service job cuts: is it time to do this differently?

If not, then let’s keep having the same narrow conversation we always have.

There’s duplication, frustration, too much complexity and a lack of joined‑up delivery. The answer is always the same: ask the public service to do better, adopt AI alongside continuous waves of structural change, while managing job cuts through endless recruitment freezes so no‑one can ever plan ahead for where the holes will appear in their teams. It damages productivity and it isn't working.

Instead, we could follow the evidence and adopt a shorter work fortnight and truly transform our public service’s focus on value back to New Zealand.

I recently concluded a successful shorter work fortnight pilot, where teams worked a nine‑day fortnight (with a paid recharge day) in exchange for intentional productivity gains. I have never seen a behaviour shift quite like it: quality collaboration, clearer focus on client value, better wellbeing and service delivery.

If we’re serious about modernising the public service, we can’t just change the tech and the org charts. We need to change how work itself is designed and the incentives aligned.

Imagine if, instead of defaulting to cuts and freezes, we made a shorter work fortnight with structured recharge time part of the mainstream productivity conversation in Aotearoa. That’s a different kind of modernisation that lines up incentives for better outcomes, healthier people and a stronger economy.

Or we could just do what we've always done and hope for a better outcome...