Editor,
I have been watching the events unfolding at the MRC, and can’t understand their logic. Specifically, the decision of the MRC Pontiac Council of Mayors (COM) to order MRC employees back to working full-time in the office.
Here are some of the positive aspects of allowing employees to continue working from home two days a week:
– employees save time travelling to work
– employees save fuel (important as gasoline threatens to break $2/litre and diesel is worse)
– employees are overwhelmingly in favour of it, which translates to greater job satisfaction, as well as better recruiting and retention outcomes
– the flexibility of working from home could make dependent care and other family activities less expensive and more convenient
– the infrastructure to work from home is already in place, and proven to work, otherwise the call back to the office would have come when Covid restrictions were lifted, not years after
One of the main reasons given to the public for this decision is: everyone else is doing it. In fact, the Pontiac leadership is following what a previous EQUITY editorial clearly showed is a bad idea.
Is that it? Can they point to decreased productivity, difficulty communicating, or any other tangible justification for bringing workers back to the office? Is there pressure on the MRC coming from above to conform blindly to what other jurisdictions are doing? And why such a sudden decision without consulting the people whose lives it is affecting?
The COM needs to be more transparent about their intentions and reasoning in this matter, and show more engagement with their staff.
Graham Stratford, Portage-du-Fort