Subscribe
At the beginning of this month, the Government of Canada issued this direction, setting out the requirement for all public servants to be "in the workplace" at least three days per week. To ensure some flexibility, it also specified that it didn't have to be exactly this schedule. But the intent was that public servants would need to spend a minimum of 60% of their regular schedules, in the workplace, whether measured on a weekly or monthly basis.
Immediately, the Public Service Alliance of Canada reacted and said that it would be filing "unfair labor practice" complaints: “We will be using every recourse we have available to fight this mandate,” PSAC national president Chris Aylward said, arguing that the surprise policy update was “anti-worker” and “fundamentally breaks the trust of workers and unions with the Trudeau government.”
Now, I understand that there are a whole host of legal considerations with a mandate like this. If remote work has, for example, become an implied term of these employment relationships, then it might be difficult for any employer to call these people back. Thankfully, I am not a lawyer. And so I don't think this way. It is probably also the case that I'm now in my middle adulthood and have old school views on this topic.
Because in my mind, this is the government saying, "hey everyone who works for us, we'd like you to come into the office at least three days a week so that we can work together as a team, collaborate, and hopefully innovate." And this is employees saying, "no way, that's totally unfair! How dare you demand we come into the office that much?" Like, since when did going into work become such a problem?
At the same time, Canada is suffering from an existential productivity problem. This country has seen no productivity growth in recent years. And if you compare us to other developed countries, we are near the bottom. Even France -- which is stereotypically famous for its relaxed work culture and its ban on after-work emails -- is more productive than were are!
This needs to change or we will remain a deeply troubled country. And like everything, it's going to require work.
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
Here's an interesting paper from WFH Research that looks at, "the evolution of working from home." Not surprisingly, remote work tends to vary by industry, with tech being the most likely to work from home and with hospitality & food services the least likely.
At the beginning of this month, the Government of Canada issued this direction, setting out the requirement for all public servants to be "in the workplace" at least three days per week. To ensure some flexibility, it also specified that it didn't have to be exactly this schedule. But the intent was that public servants would need to spend a minimum of 60% of their regular schedules, in the workplace, whether measured on a weekly or monthly basis.
Immediately, the Public Service Alliance of Canada reacted and said that it would be filing "unfair labor practice" complaints: “We will be using every recourse we have available to fight this mandate,” PSAC national president Chris Aylward said, arguing that the surprise policy update was “anti-worker” and “fundamentally breaks the trust of workers and unions with the Trudeau government.”
Now, I understand that there are a whole host of legal considerations with a mandate like this. If remote work has, for example, become an implied term of these employment relationships, then it might be difficult for any employer to call these people back. Thankfully, I am not a lawyer. And so I don't think this way. It is probably also the case that I'm now in my middle adulthood and have old school views on this topic.
Because in my mind, this is the government saying, "hey everyone who works for us, we'd like you to come into the office at least three days a week so that we can work together as a team, collaborate, and hopefully innovate." And this is employees saying, "no way, that's totally unfair! How dare you demand we come into the office that much?" Like, since when did going into work become such a problem?
At the same time, Canada is suffering from an existential productivity problem. This country has seen no productivity growth in recent years. And if you compare us to other developed countries, we are near the bottom. Even France -- which is stereotypically famous for its relaxed work culture and its ban on after-work emails -- is more productive than were are!
This needs to change or we will remain a deeply troubled country. And like everything, it's going to require work.
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
Here's an interesting paper from WFH Research that looks at, "the evolution of working from home." Not surprisingly, remote work tends to vary by industry, with tech being the most likely to work from home and with hospitality & food services the least likely.
By extension, WFH prevalence also appears to correlate with population density. This largely has to do with the kinds of jobs that center themselves in big and dense cities. This is interesting because one conventional way to think about cities is that they are places where businesses and people cluster to accumulate wealth. That clustering is still happening, but work is evolving.
And that is always the case.
Overall, the authors conclude that about 40% of US employees are now working at least one day a week at home, and that just over 11% are fully remote. They also argue that fully remote work lowers average productivity by about 10-20%, but that hybrid work is closer to flat. Interestingly enough, opinions on productivity differ whether you ask employees or managers.
If you'd like to read the full paper, click here.
Figures: WFH Research
By extension, WFH prevalence also appears to correlate with population density. This largely has to do with the kinds of jobs that center themselves in big and dense cities. This is interesting because one conventional way to think about cities is that they are places where businesses and people cluster to accumulate wealth. That clustering is still happening, but work is evolving.
And that is always the case.
Overall, the authors conclude that about 40% of US employees are now working at least one day a week at home, and that just over 11% are fully remote. They also argue that fully remote work lowers average productivity by about 10-20%, but that hybrid work is closer to flat. Interestingly enough, opinions on productivity differ whether you ask employees or managers.
If you'd like to read the full paper, click here.
Figures: WFH Research
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog