The Community EditionTHE GREAT WORK FROM HOME DEBATE
In July, TD Bank announced that its employees would be required to work from the office four days a week beginning on Oct. 6, 2025. The financial institution joins Google, Amazon, the Royal Bank of Canada and other businesses that have mandated a return-to-office policy for their employees.
According to a survey by Benefits Canada, 76 per cent of Canadian employers have already mandated a partial or full return to the office. Improving productivity and collaboration are often cited as goals for the mandates.
Dave Whiteside, Director of Insights at YMCA Work Well, stated that while companies and workers have presented arguments for and against return-to-office mandates, many of these arguments are not grounded in research or data.
“Many companies have a building that they’re paying for and they don’t want it empty. They’re using the argument that getting people back in person will create connections again, and I think they’re harnessing this argument that people at home are lonely and they want them connected again,” Whiteside said.
While discussions on loneliness and the loneliness epidemic focus on post-COVID 19 experiences, Whiteside said our society has been struggling with the issue for decades.
“There’s this idea that the loneliness epidemic only began once everyone was working at home. It’s not really true. People were lonely in a crowded office. The issue with loneliness is that it is invisible. You never really know who’s feeling it and who’s not,” he said.
Respondents to the Gallup 2024 State of the Global Workplace survey support Whiteside’s views, with one in five respondents reporting feeling lonely at work. Whiteside said the increase in awareness and discussions about loneliness in the workplace is driven by people who felt connected before working from home.
“These people were typically well-connected when they were in the office. Now they’re feeling alone and are talking about it. It’s shone a big light on the issue,” he said.
While more employees are sharing their feelings of loneliness, many return-to-office mandates have been met with challenges from employees who are affected by the mandates.
In May 2024, the Treasury Board of Canada amended its policies to increase the number of days employees were required to be in the office from two to three days a week. The employees’ union, Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), filed a court challenge against the change.
The PSAC said that the government lacked evidence to support the change. In August 2024, the court ruled that the government had to provide full justification for its return-to-office policy.
One of the justifications Whiteside hears from leaders for return-to-office mandates is that it improves connections between their employees. He said that leaders looking to change their current policies or issue a return-to-office policy should be intentional about what outcomes they want to see and how the change could affect their employees.
“Our approach at WorkWell is to view your office as a tool, not a location. Just because people are going to be back in the office, that doesn’t mean they’re going to be connected again. Leaders need to think about how they are going to create opportunities for employees to connect,” Whiteside said.
Through his research, Whiteside has observed organizations adopting an intentional approach that has made the return to the office beneficial for their employees.
“The ones who do it well are the ones who make in-office time worth it. They’re coming together around a whiteboard and solving problems. They’re not just coming into an office to join a video call with colleagues across the room,” he said.
In addition to making in-office time valuable, Whiteside said leaders should also remember that the flexibility from hybrid and remote work is a significant driver of employee satisfaction.
“Naturally, people are pushing back on losing that flexibility they had, and that’s why you see people changing jobs and saying they would rather get paid a little bit less and have an opportunity choose how they work,” Whiteside said.
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Maya Lindemann, RN