The final fight in the Return To Office war

Many companies are making a big push to bring their employees back to the office. Though, new data shows that employees are getting even more comfortable working from home, and are reporting improved mental health as a result. Meanwhile, the labour market favours workers, and employers are struggling to retain talent—which leaves them with little leverage when employees say they’d rather work remotely.

Vanmala Subramaniam is the Future of Work reporter at The Globe and Mail. She’s covered over the last year the ways in which the pandemic has changed our working habits.

“I’ve been in conversations with many chief human resource offices companies, there’s definitely a consensus … that they want more employees back in the office, they are still figuring out what that ratio will look like between the number of days you work from home, and the number of days you’re in the office,” she said.

What happens now? Because one thing is becoming clear: If employers can’t get their workers back at the start of a new school year, with no pandemic restrictions and office space begging to be used … they’re probably not coming back to the office, ever.

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