Telecommuting, my love
Many fell in love with telecommuting and it could even encourage them to consider another job if a return to the office becomes mandatory.
As one savors a sample of cheese with walnuts and dried tomatoes at the grocery store, the most privileged among us have been able to taste working from home during the last two years of the panini. We've since exhausted the baggy clothes jokes and stared into space thinking of all those light and insignificant office relationships sacrificed in favor of a remote working mode.
You would have thought that the return to face-to-face would be welcomed with more enthusiasm, but the idea of working in an office is now proving hard to swallow for some millennials and young Gen Zers who have tasted the pleasures of working from home.
Make like home
Despite the panna cotta, many of these workers have found happiness in telecommuting and would not want to go back for anything in the world, changing jobs altogether or refusing tempting offers that would have forced them to leave. return to the office. This is what happened to Tanya St-Jean, a freelance social media specialist, who turned down a position because the employer changed her hiring conditions to impose face-to-face work. “[I love] the freedom to build my days as [I want] and to make myself a routine according to my needs and, of course, according to my mandates”, she underlines.
Listening to the people interviewed for this article on the reality of working at home, we must admit that the portrait they paint of it has something of a little corner of paradise: a cozy siesta in afternoon to digest your little homemade lunch, pet therapy at will, a bath break to soothe painful periods, nice neighborhood walks to air out the brain at dinner time, the office on the balcony during summer mornings with a soundtrack of birdsong… Not to mention the small pleasures that people whose working conditions were less permissive can finally afford.
“[I can] drink my hot coffee and snacker whenever I want. Not funkyfor the average office worker, but groundbreaking for someone used to the frenzy of clinical life!” says Jessica Massy, who quit her job as an animal health technician to work from home in a related field. money and energy needed to travel; we sleep longer and we completely avoid rush hour by working from home. Important benefits which, for these people who have refused to return to face-to-face meetings, greatly help to reduce the stress associated with work.
< strong>Pinch in the heart
Despite its many advantages, telework leads to a cruel lack of socialization. “The informal discussions, the bonds that we develop with colleagues [I miss], especially when it's a new job and you've never seen your colleagues beyond the screen,” says Elizabeth Dupont, now advisor for mobilization and communications in the community sector. This is a rather widespread impression, since according to a study by Slack, the feeling of belonging to a team also takes a toll (too soon?).
We also know that teleworking is not enough to lighten the mental load of women, even if it is practiced by both members of a heterosexual couple. Working at home, however, has the advantage of avoiding trips for mothers, who are used to returning to the cycle of household chores anyway when they return from the office. This is particularly the case for Marie-Michèle Patry-Gobeil, administrative support agent, for whom teleworking allows a better work-family balance.
“[My children] come home as soon as school is over and I no longer have to run to make meals, shop, leave a load. Scheduling appointments is so much easier too! Our family life is much better without this completely grueling race.”
Doing things at his pace
For everyone surveyed, the real deal breaker was finding a better work-life balance. This new wave of workers now refusing to return to face-to-face know they are capable of delivering the best of themselves in a work environment that adapts to their needs, rather than the other way around. And if it makes our little furry friends happy, it has something to make us happy too.
