evandyk
Senior Member
I love my commute, but it's a 15 minute walk, often with a stop at St. Lawrence Market to grab something for breakfast. I miss that.
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Working from home vs. commuting to work during and after the pandemic
- Thread starter Johnny Au
- Start date
Bayer
Senior Member
I went to my office at Victoria and Adelaide today, just to pick up the mail and water the plant. The building was essentially deserted. At first, in 2020, those visits made me sad. Now, I'm used to it. Our lease ends in seven months and we're not renewing. Things rarely go as you plan them. You just adapt and move on.
turbanplanner
Senior Member
Many people I know are in the office 5 days a week
Admiral Beez
Superstar
I wondered who all those people driving to and from downtown each rush hour. I’m waking the dog with my coffee and podcast and all I see is thousands of cars. I suppose for most it’s back to the office?
gabe
Senior Member
Me, not all of us can work from home. Thousands of people commute every day.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Even if it doubled my pay I’d never again live in the suburbs and drive into the city everyday. Reverse commuting I can handle, some days.
evandyk
Senior Member
I did a reverse commute (Annex to near the airport) for years and it wasn't much better, especially in the afternoon. It sucked the life out of me. I will never take another job that I would have to drive to.
Undead
Senior Member
I was driving counterpeak for a few months last year and it was ok-ish.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Much of my career was reverse commuting from Cabbagetown. First out to the airport, then to 407 and Langstaff, then to QEW and Hurontario (did Bikeshare and GoTrain a few times a month to mix It up), and then the worst of all, once a week to New Hamburg, near Stratford. It once took me 3.5 hours to get home in winter. My current job is located at Dufferin and Supertest, but I haven't been there since April 2020 when we closed the sales office to protect the guys in ops. I don't think I will ever return full time. Instead once a week I meet at the boss' house near Casa Loma for lunch and coffee, where we sit at tables about six meters apart, except in the summer when we're on the patio.
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gabe
Senior Member
It's a tech company, I'm sure the workers can be just as productive working from home. Especially those who are in high-risk groups. Not that Elon really cares, he downplayed the seriousness of Covid since day one.
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www.reuters.com
Chief Executive Elon Musk has asked employees to return to the office or leave the company, according to an email sent to employees on Tuesday night and seen by Reuters.
"Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week," Musk said in the email.
"If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned."
Elon Musk tells Tesla staff: return to office or leave
Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk has asked employees to return to the office or leave the company, according to an email sent to employees on Tuesday night and seen by Reuters.
Chief Executive Elon Musk has asked employees to return to the office or leave the company, according to an email sent to employees on Tuesday night and seen by Reuters.
"Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week," Musk said in the email.
"If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned."
Jonny5
Senior Member
This is an interesting graphic. Canada really is an outlier with much higher work from home rates than most other Western countries.
Note, this covers "all workers" so it includes people whose jobs require them to be at their workplace, that's why the averages overall seem low, but the comparison to other countries remains valid.
I would like to see a deep dive on this to check if there is a cultural or economic reason behind it.
Note, this covers "all workers" so it includes people whose jobs require them to be at their workplace, that's why the averages overall seem low, but the comparison to other countries remains valid.
I would like to see a deep dive on this to check if there is a cultural or economic reason behind it.
evandyk
Senior Member
I've been going in mostly weekly or so for the last few months, but we had our official "return to office" party today. The downtown has been slowly picking up. It's not quite like the old days, but it's come a long way over the last 4-6 weeks in terms of things being open and busy.
Jonny5
Senior Member
I've been to my office located in the middle of the financial district three days this week; Monday, Tuesday, and today (which is Friday for when people read this comment later).
Definitely I have seen that Tuesday was far busier than Monday or Friday, which matches anecdotes I have heard from others who have said three-day hybrid options have most staff focusing on the mid-week days, with Monday and Friday for work from home, though it also has led to an interesting and motley "Monday/Friday" group of people who deliberately want to go in when there aren't many other people around. Note that this is not that they necessarily want to work from home every day, it's that there's a small but noticeable group of people who like going downtown to the office, but only when it's least crowded, and this is an interesting development as it could become very cliquish in an office where there's a subset of staff who generally plan their time to avoid the other staff. I do wonder--based on some personal experience--if this is because they strongly dislike some of the other staff for whatever reasons (personal or professional) and this is their opportunity to mostly escape their presence while meeting the in-office presence requirements. However, I have also heard people say they simply prefer the less crowded commuting options, especially long distance, where it was much more comfortable compared to a 100% seated train, but I don't know about that since I live very close to the office where I work, and the commute is short on the streetcar.
Definitely I have seen that Tuesday was far busier than Monday or Friday, which matches anecdotes I have heard from others who have said three-day hybrid options have most staff focusing on the mid-week days, with Monday and Friday for work from home, though it also has led to an interesting and motley "Monday/Friday" group of people who deliberately want to go in when there aren't many other people around. Note that this is not that they necessarily want to work from home every day, it's that there's a small but noticeable group of people who like going downtown to the office, but only when it's least crowded, and this is an interesting development as it could become very cliquish in an office where there's a subset of staff who generally plan their time to avoid the other staff. I do wonder--based on some personal experience--if this is because they strongly dislike some of the other staff for whatever reasons (personal or professional) and this is their opportunity to mostly escape their presence while meeting the in-office presence requirements. However, I have also heard people say they simply prefer the less crowded commuting options, especially long distance, where it was much more comfortable compared to a 100% seated train, but I don't know about that since I live very close to the office where I work, and the commute is short on the streetcar.
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AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
I have noticed that GO is back to pretty much filled (seated) during the evening rush for LSW. I am sure the rush for seating won't be far behind. Totally get what you've said about the midweek vs Monday/Friday crowd. I am in the former, but thinking about shifting maybe Wednesday to WFH (trading Monday or Friday)
AoD
tripwire
Active Member
Some divisions of my company have been pushing hard for people going back to office at least 3 days a week. Thankfully my division management doesn't care at all if we stay WFH, and so far, their management hasn't been pushing them. But from speaking with others who are being nudged back in, it sounds very much as you described. Tuesday/Thursday are very busy with almost a full office[1], and Wednesday is also quite full, and Monday/Fridays are quite empty, and the best days to come in if you want to avoid the crowd.
[1] They renovated the office for more open space, cutting down on the # of desks, and so the office doesn't have capacity for *everyone* to return all at once anyways.