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Editorial: Back to work

As divided as people have been while the virus has spread, it's quite possible the lifting of restrictions will make the world of work its next divisive frontier.
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No doubt, since the recent announcement from Premier Jason Kenney on the plan to lift public-health restrictions, boardrooms all over the province have been abuzz about how and when – or whether – to bring staff back to work.

It's a daunting landscape, one fraught with more questions than answers.

Since 2020, COVID-19 has shaped many versions of "the new normal." It's gotten to the point where learning to live beyond it is tough to imagine.

After all the world has collectively been through, will the concept of work be the part we can't handle? As divided as people have been while the virus has spread, it's quite possible the lifting of restrictions will make the world of work its next divisive frontier.

Along with COVID came an acceleration in the number of people working remotely. Not every Canadian can work from afar, as those in health care, construction, retail, and the service industry can attest. But the mass migration to working from home was swift and challenging.

There are perks to working in person. Zoom can't replace the connectivity and mental-health benefits a workplace can offer.

Data from recent studies on whether productivity has suffered as a result is evenly divided. It's been a heavily researched topic these past two years, and one with plenty of stats.

In one such study, released in January, which examined surveys from 79 executives of 56 Fortune 500 companies in the U.S., 50 per cent believed productivity was not impacted by remote work; 30 per cent believed teams were more productive; and 20 per cent reported mixed impacts across business units.

The one constant among much of the research out there on one side or the other: the post-COVID workplace may never look like it once did.

But those whispers of, "be thankful you have a job," will no longer be enough as the economy begins to bloom again. Employees accustomed to white-knuckling it through pandemic-related job-loss fears may not be so willing to return to workplaces with less flexibility.

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