Concordia staff launch petition against orders to return on-campus four days a week

Concordia University staff are petitioning for a hybrid work model as academic staff is being called into comeback four days a week — backtracking on their original decision to allow them to work two days a week remotely.

Those we spoke to, call the move a slap in the face.

“It really doesn’t make sense to be pushing for four days. All the indicators are pointing in the other direction,” says Sigmund Lam, Information System Developer at the Faculty Of Engineering and VP of Negotiations for the CUPEU.

“I was really shocked, I was taken aback and I was not happy,” says Beata Tararuj, Graduate Program Coordinator for the MEng Program.

“I didn’t understand why I was slapped in the face so I reached out to my colleagues at Gina Cody and I asked them I said how do you guys feel because I’m not feeling good about it. And the amount of emails that came to my inbox was unbelievable. Every single person sent me an email telling me how disappointed and backstabbed they feel and they do not agree with this decision,” says Tararuj.

“It really doesn’t make sense to be pushing for four days, all the indicators are pointing in the other direction,” says Lam. “The research shows the norm in terms of hybrid work these days is 2.56 days in the office, so by pushing to four days you’re trying to do something that is an anomaly it’s something that is outside common practice.”

As of Friday afternoon, over 600 staff members have signed the petition.

Some say the hybrid models allow for more productivity and in turn better service for students.

 

“I get a lot of traffic, I get a lot of interruptions, and I don’t mind it but it does make me not be able to complete my tasks,” says Tararuj.

“In my case, I do remote work from the office anyway because I’m a programmer. I write software, the services I write them on are remote, I sometimes have meetings, they’re all on Zoom, and when we come to the office it’s basically for social. Sometimes we have team meetings but we definitely don’t need four days for that,” says Valentin Eidelman, Programmer for the Faculty of Fine Arts. “They’re kind of wasting an opportunity to make employees happy, and they’re wasting their resources by actually allowing it at all so they’re choosing the worst of both worlds.”

In a statement to CityNews by email, Concordia University says:

“We have guidelines on hybrid work which prioritize services to our community, first and foremost students who are on campus for courses and also support the university’s core activities – teaching, research, knowledge creation, and the student experience. The Hybrid Work Guidelines support a flexible hybrid work model when possible and the level of flexibility is based on the sector’s leader’s vision.

As a university, we want to ensure that students, who are coming to campus, have a vibrant experience. To achieve this, the deans of Concordia’s faculties decided to request staff to be on campus at least 4 days a week. The decision was based on equity – equity between staff working remotely and those working on campus, equity between departments that if they are smaller might not have the same opportunity for remote work while ensuring the needed presence for students, and equity across all faculties—as well as ensuring that service to the community, particularly students, is not affected by remote work.”

“If you look at the research, places with proper hybrid environments tend to have more people applying for jobs and have an easier time keeping the jobs,” says Lam. “This kind of feels like a slow push towards being fully on campus since the year before they asked for three days, and now they’re asking for four days. Most people can connect the dots and say that means next year they’re going to ask for five days.”

“I have some good news to share, I got a great job at the Canadian National Railway, it’s a network analyst role. I’m so happy and grateful for this opportunity. I’d like to meet you next week. In my academic career, you motivated me a lot, and I will never forget that,” says Tararuj reading an email she received from a past student. “I can’t because I’m emotional when I read it…So in that email, that lady was accepted during the pandemic and this is not the only one. So I would like them and tell me how did I not provide the best possible service to the students because this lady I provided service online only.”