Here’s A New Take On Return-To-Office

As a Manager I had to ensure work from home met all standards including leave. It is a fact work from home staff do not take “appointment leave”, family related leave, sick leave etc when office workers do. Union contracts do not have any accommodation for this inequitable difference. A office worker has to take a day off for sick children at home, not work from home. The leave accumulation by work from home is clear evidence of inequitable working conditions. For this reason the system needs large changes, and until that happens the fair way of solving this problem is having all work at the office. OC transpo will benefit from increased ridership as well.

Thank you, Andrew for pointing out some of the differences between ‘in office’ and ‘at home’ work scenarios. Managing staff equitably is always a challenge. Even more so when collective bargaining agreements are in place, as these invariably limit the range of alternatives.

Other points to consider.

Nearly all of the studies that people cite focus on the issue from an employee’s perspective. The benefits of reduced commute times leading to more family time. Lower child care costs. The employee’s sense of their own productivity.

What about the studies that examined the employer’s perspective?

How do managers evaluate individual productivity? If there are material differences, where an ‘in office’ employee out-performs an ‘at home’ employee, how much time and effort is put in by the manager trying to figure out whether it is due to an individual skill level or a work location issue?

How much time do managers spend having to handle significant differences of opinion about that productivity?

How much time do managers spend handling conflicts due to the perception of unequal and inequitable treatment of ‘in office’ and ‘at home’ staff? How does senior management handle ‘at home’ employees who are upset when passed over for a promotion to an ‘in office’ colleague?

All of these challenges consume a manager’s time. Time that might otherwise be spent in different value-added areas of their job.

These are real issues. Issues that need to be looked at in conjunction with employee job satisfaction. Like most situations in life, the answer lies somewhere in between the two extremes. Like most situations in life, the solution requires that both sides approach the situation with an open mind. And the shortage of open minds at the table is one of the biggest impediments to reaching a viable solution.