Morning Update: Canada’s back-to-the-office push

Good morning. Canadian employers are insisting on face time – more on that below, along with the latest on the pager explosion in Lebanon and expiring work permits for international students. But first:

Today’s headlines

• Justin Trudeau pledges to forge ahead after the Liberals lose another fortress riding
• The annual inflation rate returns to the Bank of Canada’s 2-per-cent target
• Trump could trigger a global trade war if re-elected, but shipping giant Maersk isn’t worried

Work

The new office divide

Let’s begin with the necessary disclosure: I am not writing this from The Globe and Mail’s downtown Toronto office. I’m at home on my couch, an hour’s commute away, TTC willing (and ergonomics be damned). Here’s where I fess up further: As much as I enjoy seeing my colleagues in all three dimensions, in order to research, write and hit my deadline for these daily newsletters, I need to be tethered to my computer. I’m lucky if I make it to the office a few times a month.

That stat would horrify a whole bunch of Canadian employers in the public and private sectors. As of Sept. 9, the federal government requires civil servants to be in the building at least three days a week, and extended that mandate to four days for executives. The unions have pledged a fight, but the government isn’t backing down: Failure to show up can result in dismissal.

The move is in line with a firmer stand from financial service companies such as Manulife and Canada Life, which both demand employees in the office three days a week. Over in Britain, PricewaterhouseCoopers is so committed to this schedule that it’ll start geo-locating its 26,000 workers come January to ensure compliance. And in the U.S., Amazon is requiring staff to return a full five days a week by the start of next year.

Okay, but … why? Does in-office face time really boost collaboration, as the government insists, and stop employees from slacking off at home, as plenty of managers – not mine! – have implied? The Globe’s Zosia Bielski, whose reporting investigates how people live and work together and apart, has been digging into this question. “Many people still believe the only way to get real work done is having your butt in a chair at the office 9 to 5, five days a week,” she told me. Not so: “The evidence says hybrid is best for business, but the jury is out on just how many days.”

Proximity vs. productivity

So let’s look at some of that evidence. Bielski just spoke with author Brigid Schulte, whose new book, Over Work: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life, includes a ton of research on how employees actually use their in-office time. It confirms – with 90 pages of footnotes – what you probably expect. Rushing to and from meetings, checking e-mail and Slack, hunting down lunch and coffee, sneaking in a gossip session behind a cubicle wall, then shifting your attention back after all these interruptions: None of it is great for productivity. Schulte points to research that found desk workers tend to be interrupted roughly every three minutes, and that it takes, on average, more than 23 minutes to focus again. In fact, another study estimated that when Canada’s employees are in the office, they manage between 1.5 and 2.5 hours a day of focused, quality work

What do they get in return? Well, there is something to Ottawa’s bullishness on co-worker proximity. According to a recent study from economists at Harvard and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, employees trade short-term output for long-term development. The economists looked at a Fortune 500 company (which may or may not be Meta) and found that while productivity takes a hit in the office, feedback and guidance markedly improves – particularly for women, who are more likely to both give and get mentorship. That translated to higher salaries in the future, as well.

The retention defence

Google “WFH studies” and you’ll almost certainly wind up reading about Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford economy professor whose research points to hybrid work as highly productive, even before the pandemic hit. In the largest-yet study of work-from-home professionals, released in June, Bloom found that hybrid arrangements benefit both employees and companies.

“He saw that workers on a two-days-at-home, three-days-in-office model were just as productive as those fully in office – though, crucially, they were much less likely to quit than those staring down five days,” Bielski explains. Women and people with a hefty commute were especially inclined to stay. “High retention signals engaged staff, and less turnover means fewer retraining hours and costs, which is better for business.”

The idea, Bielski says, has to do with schedule control: You’ve got days in the office for collaboration and mentorship, plus days at home to focus on the work that actually needs to get done and to have a better handle on the juggle of life, whether that’s booking appointments for your kids, arranging help for your parents or just chucking in a load of laundry. “It’s a winning formula against burnout, which saps morale and energy,” Bielski told me. “Skepticism remains fierce, but that misses another point Brigid Schulte raises: Work evolves over time, and this is one of those moments.”

Canada might not be ready to go full Iceland, which – as part of its “well-being economy” – shortened the workweek by about 3.5 hours for the vast majority of employees. (The move came out of another catastrophe: Iceland’s 2008 financial collapse.) But clawing back a bit of working time, even if only by cancelling some meetings or ditching the commute, won’t only benefit our personal lives. Schulte spoke with one cop in Iceland who used his extra hours not just for chores and childcare but to think harder about the kind of detective he wanted to be. “It’s given him more space to see the bigger picture,” she told Bielski in their interview. “You’re not just constantly reacting to the moment but making more impact with your work.”

Middle East

Hundreds of pagers explode at once across Lebanon

Hours after Israeli leaders warned they might step up their military campaign against Hezbollah, hundreds of hand-held, low-tech pagers detonated simultaneously in Lebanon yesterday. At least 12 people were killed and 3,000 were injured, including Iran’s envoy to Beirut. Israel did not immediately comment on the attack, but U.S. officials say Israel planted explosives in a new batch of pagers sold to Hezbollah, which vowed retaliation. Read more here.

The Wrap

What else we’re following

At home: The Canadian Medical Association will issue a landmark apology to Indigenous people today, acknowledging, among other harms, medical experiments on Indigenous patients and forced sterilizations of Indigenous women.

On campus: The work permits of some 200,000 international students will expire by the end of 2025, and after recent policy changes, many of them might not be able to secure permanent residency before that.

Online: After all sorts of outcry that kids aren’t being kept safe on social media, Instagram will now make teen accounts private by default.

Boosted: Health Canada approved Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine, which should begin to arrive within days.

Busted: B.C. and Manitoba have a bold new tool to target money laundering – but it may end up violating Canadians’ basic rights.