Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada picket exterior a Service Canada workplace in Canmore, Alta., in April 2023. More than 150,000 federal public-service employees are on strike throughout the nation after talks with the federal government failed. Remote work is a negotiation difficulty. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Three years after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, many public well being restrictions have been lifted and organizations are requiring employees to return to the workplace.
The desired return to pre-pandemic societal norms versus the pushback from workers who need to proceed to get pleasure from the advantages of working from residence has sparked debate about what the long run job market will seem like.
Hybrid and distant preparations turned commonplace through the COVID-19 pandemic and have become very important instruments for the continued functioning of society, the economic system and all ranges of presidency.
These preparations enabled hundreds of workers to maintain their jobs, firms to stay operational and the general public sector to proceed offering important items and providers to residents.
Schoolchildren take part in on-line classes whereas their mom works from residence in January 2022 in Mississauga, Ont.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Dramatic adjustments to how we work
Consequently, the pandemic brought on sudden and profound adjustments to conventional work fashions.
While some thought these adjustments could be everlasting, a partial and gradual return to the standard office has begun.
Does this merely contain adapting the full-time, pandemic-fuelled distant work mannequin to present occasions, or does it sign an entire return to the pre-pandemic means of working?
We’re exploring the behaviour and decision-making means of the federal government of Canada when it comes to distant and hybrid work environments earlier than, throughout and after the pandemic.
Our evaluation outcomes from an intensive assessment of a number of official authorities paperwork, together with new info launched via access-to-information requests and extra casual observations and insights from the sector.
The evolution of distant work
A 12 months previous to the outbreak of COVID-19, the federal authorities began experimenting by providing “new and versatile (shared) office options” for workers in 14 departments who may work remotely.
But previous to 2020, the variety of Canadian workers who labored at residence full-time was statistically low: Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey 2016 reported that lower than 4 per cent of workers had been working from residence more often than not.
This means that although distant work was already acknowledged as a viable employment possibility by some organizations earlier than the pandemic, it wasn’t used effectively as a widespread work association till COVID-19.
As a results of the pandemic, the federal government of Canada has supplied steering to departments and companies to stipulate how the general public sector can greatest present distant and hybrid work preparations to their workers in an effort to normalize this new means of working.
No direct contact with residents
The pandemic has dramatically modified the way in which public sector workers work, particularly within the federal authorities, the place all kinds of jobs don’t require direct interactions with the general public.
As Evert Lindquist, a public administration scholar on the University of Victoria, has famous, distant and hybrid work fashions had been accelerated by the digitization of the federal government:
“Many governments have instituted digital service companies, established open knowledge platforms, adopted social media channels, created innovation labs and proclaimed dedication to ‘open authorities.‘”
In the general public sector, distant work turned a means for governments to proceed functioning remotely throughout COVID-19.
Once the pandemic stabilized, the federal government of Canada started a gradual, partial return to the designated office, initially giving departments appreciable latitude to experiment with totally different hybrid fashions and the chance to make their very own decisions with few limitations.
But this technique — based mostly on flexibility and managerial discretion — didn’t final very lengthy.
New guidelines had been imposed by the Treasury Board Secretariat on departments in December 2022, together with a requirement for public servants to work 40 to 60 per cent of their common month-to-month schedule on the designated office. These guidelines have been criticized by many who consider they mark the start of a return to the pre-pandemic means of working.
President of the Treasury Board Jean-Yves Duclos, proven on video, joins different public officers, together with Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, in a COVID-19 briefing in January 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Remote work as a negotiation difficulty
All these adjustments taking place in a brief time frame have created uncertainty and even mistrust on the a part of federal authorities workers towards their employers — a lot in order that distant work is now a central difficulty within the negotiations for the brand new collective settlement with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) representing 120,000 workers.
The skill to proceed to earn a living from home is a degree of rivalry, significantly pertaining to workers who had been employed through the pandemic since they don’t have a bodily workplace and have solely ever labored from residence, particularly these in rural areas.
The federal authorities and federal workers are each navigating uncharted territories.
On the one hand, those that at present work remotely need to protect as a lot flexibility as potential of their work patterns.
On the opposite hand, enshrining the best to work remotely in a collective settlement will considerably restrict the employer’s skill to impose return-to-office mandates over the long run. It may additionally create inequality and competitors amongst these whose jobs can simply be performed remotely and people who present direct providers to the general public.
Multiple points at play
In addition, there’s uncertainty in regards to the long-term influence on the standard of staff work, the administration and design of presidency buildings and the psychological influence of isolation on workers. There’s much more at stake in these negotiations than wage points.
Although the foundations have not too long ago been tightened and are nonetheless a significant focus of the present bargaining course of, the federal government of Canada has shifted considerably with regards to the position of distant and hybrid work earlier than and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The disaster has irrefutably reworked the workforce in all sectors, and an entire reversal to pre-pandemic work fashions isn’t possible.
Even although many political and administrative choices on distant work loom on the horizon, we argue that workplaces will proceed to evolve within the months and years forward.
Olivier Choinière is affiliated with the Centre on Governance (University of Ottawa). Olivier is a former Government of Canada government (2018-2022). During this era, he held a number of obligations, together with the Director of the Future of Work Office in a significant division (2021-2022).
Aracelly Denise Granja and Eric Champagne don’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that might profit from this text, and have disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.
