Since March 2020, many businesses have seen a radical change in how work is done, and many employees have been riding that wave. In fact, the covid-19 restrictions and closures meant many workers rethought how they wanted to work and where. The two years, going on three, of people working from home and remotely prompted many to move away from city centers, demand remote work access from employers, and of course, start looking for new work that better satisfied the work-life balance that the pandemic forced on many, particularly those with children who needed care.
But the restrictions are now lifting across Canada and once that genie is out of the bottle, it will be very hard to stuff it back in. People are now able to attend events, go to shows, and have gatherings in larger numbers. As for work, is the dream of working remotely or at least a hybrid model, now dying off? Do loosened (And eventually relinquished) covid-19 restrictions mean that most people are going to be forced to return to the office to work? And what will that mean for people who refuse?
I Suppose We Need to Define ‘Normal’…
Throughout the pandemic, there has been a cry from many angles for a ‘return to normal’, and just as many people saying that the ‘normal’ was broken for decades and this is a cry that we need a new normal. For many, working from home (or a hybrid of going in the office part time and working remotely the rest) became the new normal. In Canada, it’s been almost three years since the pandemic swept through and in three years, many people got used to a new way of working. It also had ripple effects on everything from housing prices to inflation and environmentalism. So, before looking at whether businesses are going to put on the iron gloves or the silk ones, we have to look at where employees are in terms of their workplace.
- 77% of telecommuters report being more productive working from home. They are more comfortable at home, they can build a schedule that works for them, and they are happier not being micromanaged or interrupted by coworkers.
- 30% of telecommuters save up to $5,000 per year since they don’t have to pay for gas, transportation, meals out, and so on. And companies save $11,000 per year annually per worker who works remotely
- 99% of remote workers want to continue working remotely and 90% of them would recommend it to a friend.
But many employees cannot work from home, particularly in the hospitality, retail, educational, and health sectors. So, what about them?
- A demand for improved ventilation. We know very well now that Covid-19 spreads through the air and proper ventilation of a room cuts down the spread. There has been an increasing push to make sure that ventilation systems are kept up, installed, and encouraged. If nothing else, we are going to see more people opening their windows.
- The Six foot workspace. Where once we had people working in clusters, now there is a push for larger work areas to keep people apart and even the returned of closed off rooms (With windows!) instead of big open areas. This can help keep people apart and make them feel safer coming back to work.
- Mandatory sick days. Legislation was recently put through in BC that mandated that businesses must give their employees at least five paid sick days per year. This is the amount of time it takes for Covid-19 to run through its infectious period. This is in addition to the 3 days of unpaid sick leave and includes part time workers.
So, what does this mean for returning to normal? Well, the way things have been going for the last three years is likely to turn into the new normal. And if employers don’t like it, employees still hold a lot of the power, and they can simply leave. The Great Migration is still ongoing with millions of workers leaving businesses and going to new ones every month. If a business wants to compete for the best talent, offering at least a hybrid work model is going to be the way to go, as well as making sure that their office is as safe and comfortable as possible.
Why the Full Return to the Office Model Has Quietly Died
Back in 2020, there was certainly an expectation that this disease would be short lived and that people would be back to work shortly (10 days to flatten the curve!). But as 2020 wore on and it became very obvious that this disease was going nowhere, businesses had to pivot. Furthermore, employees became used to the idea of working from home and proved that they were just as productive, or more, in their own space than they were at the office. CEOs continually pushed their return to the office dates back.
Here we are now in 2022 and you’ll notice that a lot of businesses have quietly dropped the idea of everyone returning to the 9-5 office life. Employees have pointed out that they are just as productive working at home, for at least part of the time, and employers have seen that they can save money by keeping the majority of people working remotely. Furthermore, it’s easier to deal with the variants and new rounds of restrictions and closures if you never assumed people would be coming back in the first place. And after three years, many people don’t want to return to the office, and they’ll quit their job if pushed on it.
Now, this is not to say that people won’t be told to come back to work. Businesses such as finance have been quite hardnosed about getting people back to work, partly due to the nature of the job and partly because they a lot less nimble and so struggle with remote working. And other sectors are totally impractical and impossible to do remotely – at least at this point. (Though I would wonder if an ongoing pandemic into the five-year mark for example, would cause an explosion of telesurgery use, for example, where surgeries are done remotely. Right now, this is relatively uncommon, but who knows in the future). If you work in a company that has repeatedly tried to set Full Return to Office dates, it’s more likely that at some point, you will have to make a choice about whether to return to the office or quit. And many workers, to the tune of millions, have indicated that if their company gave them that ultimatum, they would quit. In fact, as an example of a survey done by Advanced Workplace Associates, only 3% of skill workers want a full return back to the office – and a full 86% want to work from home at least two days a week.
But Can a Business Mandate a Return to Work?
Absolutely a business can mandate that all workers must return to the office, assuming that doing so wouldn’t override public health orders. Would it be sensible to or practical to is another matter and will be entirely up to the CEO to decide, but there’s nothing stopping a return-to-work order, assuming the restrictions continue to be lifted. They may have to have other mandates in place such as vaccination ones or a requirement to wear a mask, but otherwise, you absolutely can be told that you must return to work in the office or else be let go. Whether you decide to return to the office or quit and look for something else is a decision that only you can make.
Now, will a company mandate a return to work? Again, this is up to the company, but right now, it’s still being viewed as talent suicide. Workers are still holding a lot of the power and people have shown that they will willingly quit in droves if they cannot work where they want to work, assuming they are remaining productive. But hey, we can’t know for certain what a CEO will want to do!
Either way, it’s important to take stock of where you are and where you want to be because, as the restrictions loosen, you may find that you have a choice to make when it comes to your career path.
Do loosened Covid restrictions make you worry about going back to the office or are you excited? (Or did you never leave!) What impact do you think this will have on work from now on? Sound off in our comments!
