National Post (National Edition)
WORKING FROM HOME IS LOSING SOME OF ITS LUSTRE.
Workers in Montreal crave reconnection
MONTREAL • Are Montrealers ready to go back to working in office towers? They'd better be — because employers and building owners are gearing up for that very prospect.
Working from home has gone mainstream during the COVID-19 pandemic, even leading some companies to scale back their office-space needs after multiple employee polls showed teleworking's strong appeal. Sixty-seven per cent of downtown Montreal office workers who answered a recent survey commissioned by Montréal Centre-Ville and the Urban Development Institute said they want to continue working remotely most of the time after the pandemic.
Still, the bloom might be coming off the rose. The same poll found the percentage of Montreal office workers who favour teleworking actually fell 9 percentage points in six months. Fiftyone per cent of respondents found professional relationships harder to maintain when working from home.
Whether it's because they miss office banter or the energy of a bustling city centre, many Montrealers say they are looking forward to going back.
“I'm eager to be in a classroom with students again, to feel their energy,” said Karl Moore, a management strategy professor at McGill University who has been mainly teaching remotely since the pandemic began last March.
“A lot of people are happy not to commute, but what many extroverts are missing is the water-cooler talk, being around people, the connections that happen spontaneously. You can't replicate that on a Zoom call.”
Adds Natalie Voland, president of Montreal-based real estate company Gestion Immobilière Quo Vadis: “Most of the people in our portfolio are really sick and tired of being alone. We need to go back to our offices. Teleworking won't remain in the same percentages. Maybe a better worklife balance will remain.”
What will that return look like? Flexible or staggered shifts, with people probably working part of the week from the office, plus revamped workplaces — with a focus on physical distancing — and improved air flows will all be part of the package, real estate professionals say.
Sonia Gagné, a partner at the Provencher Roy architecture firm, said flexible work schedules are here to stay.
“I fully expect some employees will want to work from home part time, and it will be up to us to adapt,” she said in an interview.
Simply put, offices “will be transformed coming out of the pandemic,” Danny Déry, vice-president of employee experience at National Bank of Canada, said in an interview.
“Working from the office will never be what it was, and it won't be what it is now.”
COVID-19 is forcing both property managers and employers to look at space differently, Voland said. As a building owner, designer and operator, she looks after about 500 business tenants, most of which are small and medium-size companies.
“We have a real opportunity with the pandemic to reinvent work,” Voland said in an interview. “You can't have a lot of people sitting together. Traditional offices have a lot of closed spaces, so I think you'll see people reconfiguring offices and changing the positioning to make sure that air flows. There is going to be more and more pressure on property owners to have central heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.”
National Bank, which is building a $500-million tower downtown that's scheduled to open in 2023, is keenly aware of the need to strike the right note as it plans its future office layout.
“COVID-19 came at an interesting time for us because of this new head office that we're building,” Déry said.
“With the pandemic, we realized distancing has to be factored in. We need to have modular space, transformable space. All companies are looking at modular furniture right now. When you make an investment of this nature, you need to emphasize flexibility. Space has to be adapted, and this requires a lot of work. The pandemic has pushed us to reflect about layout and personal spaces even more. We can't cram people on top of one another.”
Any talk for now of a downtown revival is premature. As long as Montreal remains a Red zone, office towers are off-limits to all non-essential staff.
Still, as COVID-19 infections start decreasing and Quebec embarks on a mass vaccination campaign, many employers are starting to think about welcoming back workers.
At Provencher Roy, Gagné said she's hoping at least some of the 150 local employees can resume working from the firm's Old Montreal office by the summer.
“It's going to be fun,” she said.
“I miss exchanging views with people, being able to feel their mood. It's more difficult to motivate people when you work remotely, to share the culture. The work gets done, but you lose touch somewhat.”
In the meantime, the goal for employers will be to “rebuild the work experience for when people return,” Déry said.
“I don't see everyone coming back at once. As long as sanitary measures are in place, most of the companies I talk to are thinking about a maximum occupancy ratio of 40-50 per cent. Because of the elevators, you cannot have 100 per cent occupancy. It also depends on the configuration of your floors. So we're not talking about a massive return to work in the next few months, and it won't be all at once. But I have faith.”