Why workers want to stay at home
The C-suite has had enough of remote work.
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.
As 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.
Employees, perhaps unsurprisingly, find the assertion offensive. When JP Morgan told its workers to go back, some staffers reacted by calling the move “tone deaf” and “divisive.”
But 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.
Rather, to borrow a line from Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign: It’s the commute, stupid.
How could it not be? Consider that in 2016, the average Canadian commute each way was 24 minutes. It has now ballooned to 54 minutes, with congested places like Toronto being even higher.
That amounts to a staggering nine hours a week spent getting to and from work — more than a full workday.
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 last part isn’t even a joke. A study put out in America by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that up to 40 per cent of the time saved by not commuting actually goes in to completing work tasks.
Yet, to focus only on increased productivity would be a mistake. Recently while at a friend’s place for drinks, more than one working parent talked about how much better it was to be able to either pick up children from school or to be at home when they returned.
There are significant challenges around how to work from home and balance, say, sick children, or what to do during periods like the long summer vacation. But all other things being equal, not commuting gives parents extra time to, well, parent.
It reflects a broader trend in which the lack of a commute allows for a better work-life balance. Saving more than an entire work day a week represents an enormous benefit.
It’s one that many workers are willing to take a pay cut for. A 2021 survey by GoodHire stated that 61 per cent of respondents would be willing to accept less money if it meant not commuting.
They may, however, still end up saving money. 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.
There is, however, a large body of research that suggests that the cost of a commute is not only financial.
A team of researchers at the University of Waterloo took a look at Statistics Canada data and found that the longer it takes someone to get to work, the lower their satisfaction with life in general. 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.
Making matters worse is that in Toronto specifically, congestion continues to deteriorate. 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.
All that time in traffic has obvious consequences for both air quality and carbon emissions.
Commuting 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.
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.
A 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.
But 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.
This might not be apparent to an average CEO who might be chauffeured around or flying in a private jet.
But 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. And any executive who wants to take that time away should be prepared for more than a little blowback.