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Andrew Parkin is a sessional lecturer at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. Justin Savoie is a PhD Candidate in political science at the University of Toronto. |
THE onset of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sudden disruption of everyday life. While many things are back to the way they were before, one change has proven harder to reverse: working from home.
Three years after the switch to remote work, there is little sign people are growing tired of it. In fact, experiences of working from home have become more positive over time. What’s more, our latest research shows that remote work is not eroding people’s well-being.
This evidence points to one conclusion: employers should focus more on managing new hybrid work models and less on trying to force employees back into their cubicles.
Who is working from home?
The Survey on Employment and Skills has been tracking the pandemic’s impact on the workplace over the past three years.
The latest wave — a survey of 5,904 Canadian adults conducted in March 2023 — found that almost two in five (38 per cent) people worked remotely at least some of the time in the early months of 2023. These individuals had previously worked outside the home before the pandemic.
The likelihood of working from home varies significantly by occupation. A majority of office workers (57 per cent) and executives or managers (57 per cent) work from home at least some days.
But working from home is much less common among skilled trade workers (16 per cent). The likelihood of working from home is also higher for workers with more education or higher incomes.
These figures remind us that COVID-19’s impact on work goes beyond the appeal of remote work. It has also created a new division in the labour force between those whose jobs can be done at home (mostly white-collar workers) and those whose jobs cannot (mostly blue-collar and service workers).
This new division is likely to continue because those who are still working from home like the new arrangement.
People prefer remote work
From the start, a majority of those who switched to remote work said they preferred it to in-person work.
The proportion of people holding this view increased to 74 per cent in 2023 from 63 per cent in 2020. In addition, over the past three years, seven out of 10 individuals working from home said they wanted their employer to allow them to do so after the pandemic ends.
When people say they would like to work from home, they really mean it. Forty-three per cent of those who want to keep working from home say they would like to do so every day; three-quarters (73 per cent) say at least two to three days a week. Only one in four envision working from home occasionally.
Another indicator of how hard it will be to reverse this trend is that a small, but noticeable, group of workers have reorganized their lives around working from home.
About one in ten said they switched jobs to make it easier to work from home. The same proportion said the option to work from home allowed them to relocate to a different community. Given the life choices some have made, getting them back into the office will take more than a memo from their managers.
Health and well-being findings
The biggest obstacle to getting everyone back into the workplace is the fact that people who are working from home seem to be doing better — or at least no worse — than those who are not.
At the start of the pandemic, there were concerns that adjusting to working from home, like finding a suitable workspace and dealing with distractions, would negatively impact people’s mental well-being.
But three years later, those who work from home are reporting slightly higher job satisfaction, mental health and overall well-being than their counterparts who are working outside the home.
They also appear to have a similar number of connections to friends, suggesting they do not feel more isolated.
Since there are specific demographics of workers that are more likely to work remotely, our analysis controlled for things such as education and occupation.
The results confirmed that people who are working from home are genuinely more satisfied and healthy than those who are not. At the very least, they are not more likely to report feeling lonely or isolated. These positive outcomes were most noticeable for women and for younger workers.
New workplace challenges
Our survey not only provides insights about the current remote work situation, but also sheds light about what it was like to go into the workplace every day prior to the pandemic.
For many workers, it would seem the pre-pandemic arrangement was inconvenient, tiring or stressful. People worked in-person jobs because no other option was on offer. The pandemic forced an alternative out into the open, and what began as a temporary disruption has become permanent.
Employers now face the challenge of not only accommodating ongoing remote work arrangements, but also managing new inequities between those whose jobs lend themselves to remote work and those whose don’t.
Employers also need to think more about the job satisfaction and mental health — not just of remote workers, but of those who can’t work remotely and find themselves in a workplace that feels a lot more empty than before.
Author’s Note: Most data cited is from the Survey on Employment and Skills, conducted by the Environics Institute, the Future Skills Centre and the Diversity Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University. The Survey on Employment and Skills is funded primarily by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre. Additional data is from surveys funded by the Toronto Foundation, Community Foundations of Canada, and other Toronto-based community organizations.
Andrew Parkin is a sessional lecturer at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. Justin Savoie is a PhD Candidate in political science at the University of Toronto. Read the original article with hyperlinks on The Conversation Canada. Author photos courtesy: The Conversation. Title image by Tumisu from Pixabay.
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MANILA, Philippines — One of the work trends that have emerged from the more than two-year pandemic is the work-from-home (WFH) set-up. Some offices have stuck to it even after the pandemic has somehow let up and allowed the economy to move forward.
While working remotely may have become a new source of stress for those who have set up makeshift office spaces in their living area or bedroom, especially for those who lack the proper facilities for it, it still has its advantages. For one, it eliminates the need to travel to and from work, thus saving time otherwise wasted in traffic and budget for gas or bus fare. Then there is the versatility of attending to household chores and mommy or daddy time while at the same time being able to fulfill your corporate duties with proper time management.
But, well, yes, not having the ideal set-up of a real office can take a toll on a WFH employee. Working longer hours in a makeshift office may lead not only to mental fatigue and burnout but also lower back pain and “tech neck,” also known as chronic pain in the neck.
“Poor positioning of work equipment and sitting longer in chairs that were not designed for desk jobs can cause health issues that may get in your day-to-day tasks and affect your productivity, and even make you more prone to injury and fatigue,” said Anne Kathleen Ganal-Antonio, MD, of the Department of Orthopaedics, of Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed).
Even after the pandemic, a lot of people will still be doing business straight from their homes. Fortunately, Dr. Ganal-Antonio shared a few tips on simple adjustments that can help get the work done minus the unnecessary aches and pains:
- Create an ergonomic workspace. There’s no need to buy expensive office furnishings to be comfortable while working from home.
“Just improvise,” advised Dr. Ganal-Antonio. “Make sure your computer screen is in front of you at a comfortable viewing height, not in a place where you have to look down. If you use a laptop, prop it up to eye level on a stack of books or a sturdy box, and invest in an external keyboard and mouse. Your forearms and hands must be level and straight when you use the keyboard, and your arm must be close to the side of your body when using the mouse. The more your arm is stretched to the side, the greater the chance of straining your neck and shoulder.”
As for the way you sit, make sure that your hips and knees are level, or your hips are slightly above your knees, she added. “Avoid slouching or leaning forward. Instead, sit with your upper back straight and your lower back curving to the shape of the chair. Use a pillow to support your lower back. Make sure, too, that your feet touch the floor.”
Dr. Ganal-Antonio also recommends using standing tables or a foot stool. “According to the pioneering study conducted by Swedish spine researcher and orthopedic surgeon Alf Nachemson, when we flex forward, more stress is concentrated at the discs, which are the shock absorbers of the spine. It’s best to be slightly reclined, about 110 degrees. You can use standing tables to lessen the stress. Adding a foot stool to alternately rest each foot can also help.”
- Get up. Sitting is the new smoking, as the saying goes, and studies have linked longer sitting time to higher risk of death, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. But standing for long periods has also been associated with varicose veins and back pain. “A Cornell University professor of ergonomics suggests following the rule of 20-8-2: Sit for 20 minutes, get up for 8 minutes, and move around for at least 2 minutes,” Dr. Ganal-Antonio shared.
- Use the break to stretch, roll your shoulders, do arm circles, or touch your toes. “You can also give yourself a reason to stand up and move,” the doctor added. “Place the printer or phone in the other side of the room so you have no choice but to get up and walk when you need them.”
- Work out in your workplace. Start and end your workday with simple yet effective exercises that strengthen your core and target the muscles on your back and shoulders, said Dr. Ganal-Antonio. “Begin with 10 squats, 10 tricep dips using a stable chair, and 10 wall push-ups. You can also do jumping jacks, push-ups, and crunches to stimulate circulation.”
RELATED: BPOs hailed as among best workplaces in the Philippines for 2023
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A look at flexibility, productivity, and mental health of working from home
ALBAWABA – Three years post the pandemic that sent countless professionals into remote working arrangements, the landscape of Working from Home is taking an unexpected turn, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
There’s palpable tension between employers yearning for the bustling energy of the office and employees who have grown accustomed to the convenience of working from home.
Both parties are making concessions. Bloomberg reports that some corporate leaders initially embraced the remote-work revolution, but are now experiencing an epiphany about the drawbacks.
For instance, Martin Sorrell, founder of WPP Plc and chairman of S4 Capital Plc, claims that what began as a productive arrangement later gave rise to concerns regarding diminishing corporate culture and engagement.
However, for employees, the reluctance to fully give up on working from home is well-founded.
The model has proven to be an invaluable resource, especially for parents and those with long commutes. It has offered unparalleled flexibility in managing work-life balance.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in March revealed that despite the downsides, about a third of Americans eligible to work from home still prefer to do so.
Rise of hybrid work
Recognizing the merits of both the traditional and remote working models, many companies are adopting hybrid arrangements.
This allows employees to work from home on certain days and requires them to be in the office on others. Google, for instance, mandated a three-day office attendance, making it a factor in performance reviews.
However, these hybrid models are not without challenges.
According to a PwC study, 50 percent of UK businesses report a decline in staff mental health since the onset of COVID-19. The UK-based business consultancy, Ayming, concurs that motivation levels at work have been on the decline for the past three years.
Pursuit of productivity
There’s growing concern among employers that productivity might be taking a hit with remote working. The United States (US) Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that productivity in the US declined in the first quarter of the year.
This is a critical issue that demands attention, as productivity is intrinsically linked to profits.
A crucial element to address is the absence of guidance on when employees should be in the office.
It’s essential to define circumstances that warrant physical presence, such as team meetings or onboarding new members.
Christine Armstrong, a UK-based workplace researcher, suggests that managers actively engage with teams to develop schedules that suit everyone’s personal circumstances.
Mental health and corporate culture
The isolation resulting from extensive periods of working from home can adversely affect mental health.
The US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, likened the damage from social isolation to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. This is echoed by Hannah Ingram, a marketing manager in England, who experienced loneliness and a drop in productivity due to the absence of social interaction, according to Bloomberg’s report.
To cultivate a thriving corporate culture, companies need to reimagine HR processes.
Jonathan Best, Chief Customer Officer at GoodShape, highlighted to Bloomberg the importance of informal interactions which are largely absent in remote working. Replacing these with structured virtual engagements is vital for sustaining team spirit and company culture.
Road ahead
As the debate over “working from home” versus “returning to the office” rages on, it’s evident that an equilibrium must be achieved. This requires adaptation, open communication, and understanding from both employers and employees.
Moving forward, it’s imperative that organizations develop robust frameworks that not only encourage productivity but also prioritize mental health and foster corporate culture.
The transition to a new normal is an ongoing journey, and collaboration will be the glue that holds the corporate world together in these changing times.
In conclusion, the Working from Home landscape is an ever-evolving one.
The burden lies on both employers and employees to embrace change, innovate, and adapt to safeguard careers, profits, and most importantly, mental well-being.
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More and more staff are growing weary of working from home as loneliness starts to trump convenience.
Just under 40pc of office workers now say they are struggling with the downsides of working remotely, with less time spent with co-workers cited as the biggest downside.
One in ten blame mental health problems on home working, according to a survey by software firm Ivanti.
Helen Masters, executive vice president at Ivanti, said it was “interesting but unsurprising to see that so many people are turning against working from home.
“I myself can see why that might be, as the pressures associated with it are something I’ve faced in my own experience.”
Dissatisfaction with working from home was highest in the tech sector. 60pc of staff in the sector said they were not enjoying working remotely, with almost three quarters saying their workloads had increased as a result of not being in the office.
The findings come as bosses continue to push for more employees to return to the office, arguing that isolated working harms creativity and is bad for culture and training.
The number of remote jobs advertised on LinkedIn fell for the eleventh straight month in March, the professional networking service siad.
Just one in 10 openings now offers the option of fully remote work, compared with almost one in six a year ago.
Hybrid working is also falling out of favour, with the share of roles allowing people to work a few days a week remotely also falling for the second month in a row.
Ngaire Moyes, LinkedIn’s UK country manager, said: “It’s very difficult to build and maintain a strong company culture when a significant chunk of your workforce isn’t ever in the office.
“How do you keep those employees engaged?
“Another challenge for leaders is thinking about how to effectively train up members of staff, particularly your more junior people.”
Companies are increasingly identifying skills gaps among younger people who spent large parts of the pandemic learning or working remotely.
PwC and Deloitte, two of the UK’s big four accounting firms, are giving extra training to younger staff after finding that those who spent large chunks of time in isolation during Covid struggled with speaking during meetings and working in teams.
Ms Moyes said: “When more experienced members of the team are not in the office, new hires and more junior employees are arguably not able to soak up knowledge and learn from those around them as effectively.”
Ms Moyes said the deteriorating economic climate was also a factor in the move away from work from home.
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A recent request from the Halifax Chamber of Commerce to have a hybrid work model requiring downtown municipal employees to be in the office three to four days a week isn’t sitting right with some critics.
One recommendation in the chamber’s municipal pre-budget submission for the 2023-24 year said having more people working downtown would “help stimulate the downtown area” as it recovers from three years of COVID-19.
Some downtown businesses that rely on the lunch-hour crowd told Global News they’ve been struggling with fewer customers, as working from home becomes more normalized.
Currently, Halifax Regional Municipality employees whose roles allow for a flexible work model can request to work from home up to three days a week.
Read more:
Halifax chamber calls for more in-office work days to help with downtown pandemic recovery
While some local downtown restaurants are in favour of the chamber’s recommendation, many people on social media have pushed back against it.
“That’s ridiculous. Great way to ask for mass retirements,” one person said on Twitter.
“How about making it easier and cheaper to patronize downtown?” said another.
A screenshot of Global’s initial article even made its way to the front of the “antiwork” Reddit page, where it was posted with the caption: “How about no?”
Coun. Waye Mason, whose district includes the downtown area, said in an interview Thursday that he understands where the chamber is coming from, and recognized that businesses downtown are still struggling from the impacts of COVID-19.
“But we also have to think about the fact that HRM employees, and all employees … the way they work has changed,” he said. “We’re seeing people working from home more across all sorts of different industries, and there are good reasons for that.”
Coun. Waye Mason wants to see more people downtown, but is unconvinced the recommendation will have a material impact on the economy.
Vanessa Wright/Global News
Mason is unconvinced the chamber’s recommendation will make a material difference in the downtown economy.
“If you’re at home, you might go out and have lunch anyway, and if you’re downtown you might brown-bag it,” he said.
Mason said cities have changed in the last few years, and the Monday-to-Friday downtown crowd isn’t the same as it once was.
“Businesses will have to change, the business mix downtown will change. Some will succeed and thrive, and some will find that it’s harder to succeed and they might close,” he said. “We’re going to continue to support, trying to get people downtown.”
Numbers ‘don’t make any sense’
Shawn Cleary, the councillor for Halifax West-Armdale, said having more workers downtown, “on the face of it, sounds great.”
“The issue I have,” he told Global News, “is (the chamber’s) numbers don’t make sense.”
In its initial recommendation, the chamber said Halifax has roughly 3,600 to 5,000 employees. But HRM spokesperson Klara Needler said earlier this week that there are just under 800 flexible work agreements in place, less than 50 per cent of which are for employees who work downtown.
So in terms of who the chamber’s recommendation would apply to, “we’re only left with a few hundred workers,” Cleary said.
“If they can do the job that they’re employed to do, and they can do it as a mix from home and from the office, then I don’t see why we would force them into an office,” he said.
Coun. Shawn Cleary said only a fraction of municipal workers get to work from home.
Vanessa Wright/Global News
Cleary added that while some people working downtown can walk to the office, others have to drive in from more suburban areas, contributing to pollution.
“That’s a lot of greenhouse gas emissions just because someone wants you to buy a lunch downtown,” he said.
Patrick Sullivan, president and CEO of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, estimated earlier this week that the change would lead to $2 to $4 million in increased spending downtown — but after the actual number of downtown municipal workers was clarified, he revised that number to $500,000.
While Sullivan admitted he “did misspeak” when he gave the initial 3,600-5,000 number of municipal employees, he said in an interview Thursday that he believes the point still stands.
“Our concern is the vibrancy of our downtown core. We lost that vibrancy during the pandemic, we’d love to see it back,” he said. “There are many businesses that have people returning to work more often, I would encourage the municipality to do that.”
He said he encourages all municipal employees who have flexible work agreements “to perhaps increase the number of days that they’re in the office, whether it’s to spend money in downtown, or downtown Dartmouth, or Bedford, or Sackville, to support the businesses and to make efficient use of the buildings that they’re currently paying rent for.”
Sullivan also said he has about 15 staff members at the chamber’s headquarters in Burnside, who mostly work in the office and are “spending money in Burnside.”
He noted the chamber made a number of other recommendations to the municipality as well in its pre-budget submission.
“It talks about a lot more than a hybrid work environment, it talks about more efficient spending, it talks about longer-term plans that the municipality should be thinking of,” he said.
“There’s a lot to talk about in this vibrant growing area of Halifax.”
Revitalizing downtown Halifax
In an interview, Halifax business professor Ed McHugh said the chamber’s request is an “interesting situation.”
“What you have is one organization almost telling another organization how to manage its employees. And so on the very surface, that just doesn’t feel right,” he said.
However, McHugh noted that the Chamber of Commerce must work in the best interests of its members, some of whom are struggling due to a lack of business downtown.
He said employees across the country are fighting the return to the office, as the pandemic helped people realize “there are a number of things in the world of work that people can do now from home, just as efficiently.
“And once some employees got a taste of that, and managers have very satisfied employees who are quite happy to do that, it does add to employee retention,” he said.
Ed McHugh says there are other ways to get people downtown, like increasing the housing supply and improving transit.
Callum Smith / Global News
McHugh said in order to work from home, employees must show they can work in an unsupervised environment.
“If you’ve got a good, competent, mature employee who can do that, and the job can be done just as efficiently from home, I see no reason why employees can’t work from home,” he said.
Not having a good reason to force staff back to the office, he said, could create problems for employers. “I think that employee then starts to look around.”
McHugh said it will be interesting to see if the city accepts the chamber’s recommendation.
“I’m sure there are people inside the municipality who right now feel slightly insulted that they’ve been told how to manage their employees,” he said.
“You do want to see your municipality and your chamber … getting along, so I think behind closed doors, there’s going to have to be some conversations to get to a middle ground on this.”
He said there are other ways to boost the downtown economy, such as adding more housing and improving transit to move people to the city core more efficiently.
Lars Osberg, a professor in Dalhousie University’s Department of Economics, agreed.
“The whole role of the downtown in urban areas is now up for grabs in a way that it just wasn’t before COVID,” he said. “Maybe we ought to be thinking more about a reallocation of activities, more downtown living, and more suburban offices.”
For instance, Osberg said it might be possible to convert empty office buildings into apartments.
“We do have a housing shortage right now, so empty buildings that can be converted to a better use are probably a good idea,” he said.
Sullivan, the chamber president and CEO, said he supports the idea of converting unused office space to housing so it can be put to “better use.”
“We support a vibrant downtown, we want more people downtown,” he said. “If that means they’re working downtown, great. If that means they’re living downtown, that’s also great.”
Read more:
Vernon, B.C.’s chamber suggests converting office space to housing as remote work continues
Osberg said it might be a tough ask to get employees back in the office, as there are “lots of benefits” for employees working from home — time and money saved from not having to commute, and the ability to take care of things around their homes and care for children.
And he noted that when unemployment rates are relatively low, like they are now, that shifts the balance of power at the workplace.
“If it’s jobs chasing people, then people have choices,” he said.
— with files from Vanessa Wright
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Lloyd’s of London is rejecting the shift to home working with talks to remain at its listed headquarters in the heart of the City until the end of the next decade.
The world’s largest insurance market, which has been based at the “inside-out” building at One Lime Street since 1986, is in discussions with the Chinese owner of the property about extending its lease well beyond 2031, the Telegraph understands.
Lloyd’s is weighing options to diversify parts of the Grade 1 listed building as part of a revamp, including creating a large communal area with temporary working spaces for clients.
Swathes of the Richard Rogers-designed building could also be opened up to host conferences, general meetings, and other events under plans being considered to generate additional revenue.
It comes after the insurance market last year raised the prospect of moving out amid a widespread shift to home working that raised questions about whether it needed the same amount of office space.
Lloyd’s lease on the 298ft building, which is owned by Chinese insurance giant Ping An, runs until 2031, with a break clause in 2026.
Last July, the market said it would remain in the building until at least 2031. However, the talks to extend its lease further suggest it is confident of more people returning to the workplace in the medium to long term.
John Neal, chief executive of Lloyd’s, has been vocal in support of getting white collar workers back to the office since the pandemic.
It is believed that Lloyd’s bosses think that the future global insurance market is at a critical juncture. Members of the 335-year-old insurance market are gearing up to hire around 20,000 people over the next four years ahead of a deluge of activity.
Mr Neal previously said that City firms had a duty to get staff back into the office so that younger employees could develop their careers and learn from senior colleagues.
“I think it’s massively important for younger workers to experience in-person trading. We have the best talent in the world in London in the insurance industry,” he said.
“But we need to be with that talent to help develop them so the next generation can be better than my generation. We have a responsibility to the next generation.”
The Lloyd’s underwriting room is one of the City’s last face-to-face markets and has capacity for 7,000 people. Since the pandemic, it has also offered the ability to trade remotely.
It is known as the “inside-out” building because its lifts and pipework are on the outside of the property.
A Lloyd’s spokesman said: “We’re building the marketplace of the future, which means having both a fully integrated digital offering and a thriving physical space for our market to convene. While our workplace strategy and future leasing arrangements remain under consideration, our preference is to stay in the building if the right terms are agreed.”
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