As food and gas prices remain high, nearly half of Canadian workers worry about the added costs of returning to the office full-time more than other issues like office politics or distractions. The Reinventing Work Study, from global technology provider Adaptavist, underscores the ‘cost of working crisis’ alongside other issues like hybrid versus in-office work life, productivity, collaboration and isolation and wellbeing.
The research is gathered from close to 3,500 Canadian, U.S., UK, and Australian respondents. In addition to wanting more vacation days and flexible work hours, 25 per cent of workers noted that free food and beverages would be an enticing perk to help get them into the office more frequently.
“Just as employees have grown accustomed to questioning the level of flexibility and freedom their organization provides, they’re now understandably considering the costs associated with heading back to the office, working from home or some combination of the two,” said John Turley, head of organizational transformation at Adaptavist. “Whether these costs are mental, emotional or financial, employees and employers will need to find a new equilibrium between business as usual and the way people want to work now—one that supports wellbeing as well as creating value for customers.”
While the price of returning to the office has become a concern, with the commute cited as a big driver behind the anxiety, Canada continues seeing a shift in hybrid versus in-office work options. Fifty-fifty per cent of workers indicated they are back in the office full time (or never left) while 28 per cent said they have a hybrid set up. Even fewer respondents—just 17 per cent—said they are fully remote.
Some employees have been asked to return to the office by management (57 per cent do not have the option to work remotely), while many have chosen to go back due to loneliness and isolation. The vast majority (86 per cent) said in-person connection with colleagues is important or critical. Yet, many employees (48 per cent) also believe they are at peak productivity in a hybrid environment and a further 40 per cent said they are too overwhelmed with work to talk to their colleagues anyway—a possible nod to the ‘quiet quitting’ movement.
A good-bye to the side hustle?
An estimated 42 per cent of employees are worried that a recession-driven work reset (more employers are demanding a return to the office) would eliminate essential workplace freedoms enjoyed in remote and hybrid setups. Some workers have been able to take on extra paid work over the past year. Losing this supplemental income with a full-time return would likely be difficult as nearly 64 per cent of employees taking on second jobs report earning more than $7,500 annually through their side hustle.
Tool fatigue
People who work and communicate without the requirement of being ‘present’ at the same time, or asynchronous workers, experienced tool fatigue at a higher rate than non-asynchronous workers.
Close to half of employees said they lose time during the day due to task switching and 35 per cent note their organization has too many tools that perform the same function.
For 38 per cent, email remains the communication method employees use most at work, followed by in-person talking (14 per cent) and phone calls (14 per cent). Only 10 per cent use collaboration tools such as Slack as their primary communication method. Asynchronous workers within larger companies (250+ employees) were much more likely to make use of these tools and said that Microsoft Teams (69 per cent) and Zoom (46 per cent) are essential for work collaboration.
Measuring quality over quantity
Most respondents believe it’s time for companies to measure employee productivity based on the quality and output of work rather than the number of hours worked. The majority said they are currently working the same pre-pandemic hours, but hope to eliminate the 40-hour workweek. Almost half (49 per cent) believe the best flexible work option would be a four-day workweek, with one-fifth saying their employer has already given them that option.
