"I get a sense for what people like best and do that. And any executive who wants to take that time away should be prepared for more than a little blowback.Picking the right channel to foster those interactions is also crucial. This might not be apparent to an average CEO who might be chauffeured around or flying in a private jet.īut just as weekends, holidays, and benefits were things fought for by workers, whether or not a job that can be done remotely includes a commute is now a question of worker rights. Whether or not CEO complaints about reduced productivity from remote work have merit is something that will still need time to evaluate that there are some types of interaction better suited to being in-person is clear, and no matter how awful commuting can be, we shouldn’t avoid this obvious fact.Ī hybrid solution that limits commuting to a couple of days a week - or, akin the case of companies like Shopify, significantly less than that - may be one option.īut any attempt to reconcile the competing needs of businesses’ bottom lines and their workers needs to grapple with the fact that schlepping to an office on a regular basis is something almost no-one wants to do - at least not frequently. Not only is it the city the third most congested in North America, our transit infrastructure is arguably decades behind, making driving all but mandatory for many, particularly those outside the core.Īll that time in traffic has obvious consequences for both air quality and carbon emissions.Ĭommuting thus swallows time that could be better spent relaxing or working makes us stressed and unhealthy and leaves us less satisfied with both life and work. Making matters worse is that in Toronto specifically, congestion continues to deteriorate. Part of it is the stress of things like being in traffic, but part of it is that commuting can also supplant time that might otherwise be used for physical activity. There is, however, a large body of research that suggests that the cost of a commute is not only financial.Ī team of researchers at the University of Waterloo took a look at StatsCan data and found that the longer it takes someone to get to work, the lower their satisfaction with life in general. As the cost of commuting goes up due to a variety of factors - not just fuel prices, but higher prices on cars, in addition to increasing transit fares - even a reduced salary might have one end up with more money in one’s pocket. They may, however, still end up saving money. Is it any wonder, then, that workers would do anything to reclaim that time, whether to spend with family, complete errands, relax - or even work? That amounts to a staggering nine hours a week spent getting to and from work - more than a full workday. It has now ballooned to 54 minutes, with congested places like Toronto being even higher. How could it not be? Consider that in 2016, the average Canadian commute each way was 24 minutes. Rather, to borrow a line from Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign: It’s the commute, stupid. When JP Morgan told its workers to go back, some staffers reacted by calling the move “tone deaf” and “divisive.”īut in the tug of war that has emerged between executives and their white collar minions, it isn’t productivity that is actually driving the tension. That, at least, is the consensus that seems to be emerging among a handful of companies who, apparently having tired of post-COVID work habits, have asked their employees to come back to the office.Īs to why, whether it’s RBC’s Dave McKay, Salesforce’s Marc Beinhoff, or JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon, CEOs at a variety of major firms claim that remote work harms productivity, creativity, and company culture.Įmployees, perhaps unsurprisingly, find the assertion offensive. The C-suite has had enough of remote work.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |