The Flaws In Three-Day Work Week: THE VOTER
We have to remember that the three-day week is not a done deal yet.
There are various appeals and grievances underway with doubtless more to come which might or might not be successful. Many of them might demonstrate why a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in this environment.
A case-by-case approach would allow the government to tailor its requirements so that a person whose position requires them to be on-site four or five days a week can be accommodated just as easily and efficiently as one whose job really only requires their physical presence twice a week.
In addition, not every department is requiring their employees to follow the three-day rule which will undermine the government’s position overall. That failure to implement the policy will also play into the grievances and appeals since, it will be argued, if it isn’t applied across the board, the reasoning being given by the feds falls apart. If X in department A doesn’t need to be on-site three days a week and can still meet the requirements of the position, why does Y who works in department B need to be there that often, particularly if they do the same work?
In some offices, the government has had to issue exemptions to people because they don’t have the physical space or necessary equipment for everyone to be there three days a week. If X and Y are there twice a week and on different days, they can use one desk, computer, phone, etc. but, if there’s overlap due to a three-day week, that’s not possible. As the government continues to downsize its footprint and divests itself of office space and entire buildings, this will become a more serious issue.
On a municipal level, I wonder if Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has considered all the impacts of his wish. People who are used to having their transit expenses reduced through the use of a pass versus the cost of single fares are going to be looking for a three-day per week pass. Once such an instrument is created, it will be used by others whose travel doesn’t currently justify the purchase of a monthly pass. There are lots of people who commute for part-time work other than this newly-created group of federal employees. Is Sutcliffe going to restrict the use of a part-time pass to federal workers? Good luck with that!
The other issue for OC Transpo will be the way that federal employees distribute their three days. If, for example, they all decide to work Monday to Wednesday, the transit system will have to be ramped up to a higher service level than will be needed on Thursdays and Fridays but will still have to be provided. The transit system has no way to predict which days people will choose or whether that choice will be locked in. For instance, can a person opt to work Monday to Wednesday on alternate weeks and Tuesday to Thursday on the other weeks?
What about the increased traffic on city streets when people decide not to use our unreliable transit system and opt to drive to work? Maybe Sutcliffe should have held off until he could offer a functioning LRT service on the Confederation Line and an operating service on the Trillium Line.
Sutcliffe may well have bitten off more than he can chew and his push for the three-day week could easily blow up in his face. Sometimes you need to be careful what you wish for in case you get it.
I sure hope he’s not building into the 2025 budget all kinds of rosy figures that are based on a huge increase in ridership and income for the transit system. We’ve seen where that got them in the last few years when over-optimistic transit forecasts meant they dug themselves a fiscal hole that they can’t get out of without taking drastic measures.
The Voter is a respected community activist and long-time Bulldog commenter who prefers to keep her identity private.
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So much to unpack here. Let’s start with the LRT and safety. The union’s could make the case that the LRT has been stated that it has safety risks by the Transportation Safety Board. On the LRT wrecked site this, several women either stated the were carrying “dog spray” (mace) or were about to get it due to the strange and violent men that are on the trains now, so there’s a double case to be made about LRT safety. Before Covid the Feds brought out their plans to reduce their footprint to reduce office space by bringing in Workplace 2.0. it’s when the govt moved from desktops to laptops in order to allow people to work from home a couple of days a week. Although this was ambling along at a slow pace, when covid hit we had the laptops but not the bandwidth to work from home so we were told to connect with our computers for short periods every day. Covid allowed the IT to catch up with the original aim much faster. I remember discussing the implications to transit of this Workplace 2.0 with Jenna Suds when she was our councillor and city hall knew about this at the time. So the city knew about this expected reduction of ridership years ago but still painted rosy projections of future ridership, of course. On a side note, when people had offices instead of having to hot desk, they left a part of themselves and their family in the office. Pictures, art, souvenirs. I remember when going into someone’s office after some conflict and starting the conversation about their pictures,art, souvenirs and that conversation would melt the tension as we enjoyed a few moments of humanity as you learned about that person you worked with and they no longer were a “transaction”, in that moment they became a colleague. When the federal government removed individual desks, they lost a large part of the loyalty that people had for their jobs and each other, and their clients, as everyone just became a transaction.
Also, Person A and Person B work in the same group and both attend the same meetings throughout the week. Person A decides to work Monday thru Wednesday while Person B chooses Wednesday thru Friday. As such they won’t be able to attend all daily meetings in person. With the advent of tools like Zoom, what does it matter whether they’re in the office or not? Check the numbers. What is the impact on productivity? Is the job getting done or not?
C,
Very good point about the personalization of office spaces – I hadn’t thought of that. The lack of that ability to put down roots and make a sterile box “your” space will be doubly felt by people who’ve been forced to leave their home workspace where they didn’t need a photo of their dog because it was right beside them. It will definitely impact on their sense of it being their place and, as you say, weaken their attachment to the office and the employer.
That, of course, flies in the face of the government narrative about bringing people in so they can connect with others and build links that will make it easier to collaborate. I would suggest that me having to rally around and arrange for my plants to get watered if I was away was more team-building than wondering on the bus on the way in who I’d be sitting beside in a cattle shed office space with rows of strangers at computer stations.
I’m just wondering how much it cost the city to install the 3 new secure bike parking lockers.