Return to Work Post-COVID
BLOG POST BY PATRICIA MARTONE
When COVID-19 hit North America and became more than just something happening on another continent, many people didn’t anticipate it turning into a global pandemic, especially not one that’s been ongoing for a year and a half. After some panic, many of us adjusted and figured out how to work from home, trying to make the best of the situation.
Now here we are, after a year and a half of lockdowns and being mostly confined to our homes, restrictions are easing! But maybe this renewed freedom isn’t great for everyone. Maybe some of us are wondering if working from home wasn’t all that bad? Perhaps you enjoy working on your own, maybe you find it more productive and less distracting.
But maybe this isn’t you. Maybe you are ready to get back in the office, to have somewhere to go that is not the kitchen or the living room, to talk to people – real people in person and not have to sit on so many video calls. Perhaps your home environment is not a great place for getting quiet work done, and returning to the office sounds like a vacation that you’re ready for!
Both scenarios are likely, and not everyone feels the same way about working from home permanently or physically being present in an office space. This is where we start our discussion – how to determine what’s the best path forward once COVID is no longer a barrier to leaving your house. What are some of the pros and cons of each? Should we go back to a one size fits all work day, 9 to 5 or 8 to 4, five days a week? I think many would agree that making all employees go back to working the same way they were working before March 2020 is just not a likely scenario. So where do we go from here?
Understanding the challenges
According to Statistics Canada, in January 2021, 32% of Canadian employees worked primarily from home, which is a major increase compared to the reported 4% in 2016 (Mehdi & Morisette, 2021). It’s no wonder then that organizations are looking ahead to workplace arrangements post-pandemic. It appears that three general options are emerging:
- Get back to pre-pandemic work arrangements and everyone works from the office
- Work permanently from home, or
- Arrange a hybrid model where employees work some days in the office and some days from home
Option 1: Get back to pre-pandemic work arrangements
Some Canadians are eager to get back to the workplace and enjoy the social interactions that come with physically working with other people. The pandemic has left many feeling alone and isolated, and some organizations feel that the working atmosphere and team building that comes with working in person are all positive reasons to return to the workplace full time. In a recent poll by Statistics Canada, 20% of respondents would prefer working most (11%) or all (9%) of their hours outside the home (Mehdi & Morisette, 2021). This may be particularly true for employees who don’t have optimal home office environments, or who are missing those social interactions you have daily with coworkers.
While returning to work full time in the workplace seems like a positive option for some Canadians, some concerns surrounding the safety of the workplace have been raised. A poll by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies found that 50% of Canadians surveyed would not be comfortable returning to work if some of their colleagues were not vaccinated (Leger, 2021a). This raises another issue entirely and is something organizations are going to have to seriously consider when developing their return-to-work policies. Should organizations require mandatory proof of vaccination to work in the office? While proof of vaccination for things like measles, mumps, rubella, and polio are mandatory for elementary school children to attend public school in Canada, some people remain hesitant about the legitimacy of the current vaccine. This can lead to anxiety and apprehension for some employees and is an area that organizations will need to think critically about to move their organization forward.
In fact, a study looking at the impact of telecommuting on employees’ perceptions of professional isolation found that some employees reported feelings of isolation related to interpersonal networking, informal learning, and mentoring (Cooper & Kurland, 2002). Interestingly, after asking a number of both private and public sector employees about their preference, public sector employees reported that they valued informal learning at work more so than the employees in the private sector. The researchers go on to suggest that telecommuting may have more negative effects for public sector employees compared to private sector employees, which is an interesting consideration (Cooper & Kurland, 2002). Perhaps for individuals in the public sector, a return to pre-pandemic work arrangements is a preferrable option that facilitates career development.
Option 2: Permanent work from home
While some Canadians are looking forward to a return to the office, many are unsure about having to go back. A KPMG poll found that 54% of Canadians surveyed were feeling anxious about returning to the office, and a poll by Leger and the Associations for Canadian Studies found that 82% of Canadian respondents who moved to working from home during the pandemic feel positively about this experience (Van Hasselt, 2020; Leger, 2021b). A permanent work from home model allows people the freedom to live further away from the city, in a different province, or potentially in a different country – though this last option may be difficult depending on the nature of your work. Working from home seems to have a lot of positives for people, and some households are seeing increased savings in areas like travel costs. Many are enjoying the time you’ve gained from not having to commute to work or pack lunches. In fact, previous research in the area has found that long commute times between home and work are related to people feeling less satisfied with their down time (Dickerson et al., 2014). However, the researchers do note that they did not find any relation between longer commute times and low overall life satisfaction. Another positive aspect related to working from home is the obvious decrease in your exposure to pathogens such as COVID-19 and the seasonal flu. Researchers in Germany and the UK found that, in counties with more jobs that allowed employees to work from home, the spread of the coronavirus significantly decreased (Alipour et al., 2021).
However, while we’re on the topic of permanently working from home, we should also discuss how this affects our work-life balance. A recent study on this topic found that working solely from home might lead to some conflict in your personal life given that the boundaries between work and your personal life are blurred (Palumbo et al., 2020). However, there are some things you can do to help maintain those boundaries. The authors found that employees who find their jobs to be meaningful and who perceive work-related well-being experienced less stress due to the overlap between work and home-life boundaries (Palumbo et al., 2020).
Although there are a lot of benefits related to working from home, some workers are looking for a more flexible option that allows you to have both. This brings us to our next option: the hybrid model.
Option 3: Hybrid model
Many Canadians are enjoying the flexibility to choose their own hours and work days. In fact, an estimate of worker preferences was compiled by Statistics Canada and found that 80% of employees who had been with the same employer since at least March 2019 would like to work at least half of their hours from home once the pandemic is over. Another interesting finding from this report is that 41% would prefer working about half of their hours at home and the other half outside the home – which would fall under a hybrid model. Similar to this, a poll done by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies found that 40% of Canadians would rather have the option to work a few days a week in the office and a few days a week at home. Many organizations have realized this and they are now rethinking how and where employees can work so that organizations can attract and retain talented employees.
Providing flexible work arrangements has forced organizations who were perhaps resistant to change to allow for remote work or to allow for flexible work schedules (Bontrager et al., 2021). A recent Canadian study investigating flexible work arrangements and employee wellbeing found employees who had flexible work schedules in terms of what hours they worked and where they worked had significantly more satisfaction related to their job and work-life balance (Dilmaghani, 2020). A similar finding was also reported in a study by researchers in Montreal and Oklahoma where they looked at the relation between flexible work options and perceived control (Hsu et al., 2021). They found that employees who took advantage of the flexible work options offered by their employer reported feeling a greater sense of control both at work and at home. Based on these findings, the researchers suggest that employees who use flexible work arrangements may have more resources to dedicate to other aspects of their life (Hsu et al., 2021).
As this pandemic continues to unfold and organizations continue to adapt, employees are now in a unique position where they have the opportunity to tailor their working requirements to something that best suits their schedule. Maybe your current work doesn’t offer the flexibility you’re looking for, and in today’s job market that’s actually okay. While in previous years you may have been hard pressed to find a job that accommodated your scheduling needs, today’s organizations have been forced to be flexible and adapt to the circumstances. This means you as an employee have a bright future in the ability to choose where and when you want to work.
References
Alipour, J.-V., Fadinger, H., & Schymik, J. (2021). My home is my castle: The benefits of working from home during a pandemic crisis. Journal of Public Economics, 196, 104373.
Bontrager, M., Clinton, M. S., & Tyner, L. (2021). Flexible work arrangements: A human resource development tool to reduce turnover. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 23(2), 121–141.
Clark, B., Chatterjee, K., Martin, A., & Davis, A. (2020). How commuting affects subjective wellbeing. Transportation, 47(6), 2777–2805.
Cooper, C. D., & Kurland, N. B. (2002). Telecommuting, professional isolation, and employee development in public and private organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(4), 511–532.
Dickerson, A., Hole, A. R., & Munford, L. A. (2014). The relationship between well-being and commuting revisited: Does the choice of methodology matter? Regional Science and Urban Economics, 49, 321–329.
Dilmaghani, M. (2020). There is a time and a place for work: Comparative evaluation of flexible work arrangements in Canada. International Journal of Manpower, 42(1), 167–192.
Hsu, Y.-S., Chen, Y.-P., Shaffer, M. A. (2021). Reducing work and home cognitive failures: The roles of workplace flextime use and perceived control. Journal of Business and Psychology, 36(1), 155–172.
Leger. (2021a, May 26). Lifting safety measures and the return to normal. https://leger360.com/surveys/legers-north-american-tracker-may-26-2021/
Leger. (2021b, May 31). Returning to work. https://leger360.com/surveys/legers-north-american-tracker-may-31-2021/
Mehdi, T., & Morissette, R. (2021). Working from home after the COVID-19 pandemic: An estimate of worker preferences. Statistics Canada: Economic and Social Reports, 1(5), 1–4.
Palumbo, R., Manna, R., & Cavallone, M. (2020). Beware of side effects on quality! Investigating the implications of home working on work-life balance in educational services. The TQM Journal, 33(4), 915–929.
Van Hasselt, C. (2020). Most Canadians afraid to return to workplace, yet trust employers. KPMG. https://home.kpmg/ca/en/home/media/press-releases/2020/09/most-canadians-afraid-to-return-to-workplace.html