A Petition To Restore The Work/Life Balance to Work From Home

[lukom]

Many have been pushed back into offices in a time where inflation has hit everyone like never before. Working from home alleviated that, plus it allowed for time for many to manage their physical and mental health with the time they saved leaving the house to commute. Additionally, many turned down other opportunities to work at companies who offered work from only for that work from home perk to be removed over some nonsensical domineering lame excuse of "cause we said so" by the bosses. Here's a petition we are hoping will have an impact. Please sign.

https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions...ct=psac-bc-regional-newsletter-for-may-2026&&

 

[westwoody]

Two friends work from home, one is a tech support other is supply chain manager. Both do very well, basically on call 24/7. Being in an office would make no difference in their job.
I think there are a lot of jobs like that, if you are doing scheduling for service calls or tracking down orders and vendors, they can be done anywhere.
My family doctor has his kid doing scheduling and book keeping for his office at home..
My accountant worked out of a home office.
No commuting - a huge savings in time and money.
No packing lunches or buying crap at Tim's.
Work in your sweats or pyjamas, who cares.

A lot of the "back to the office" bullshit comes from property managers peeing their pants over the collapse of office space value. If nobody has to be in an office why pay to rent one?

 

[Larry's Torch]

Two friends work from home, one is a tech support other is supply chain manager. Both do very well, basically on call 24/7. Being in an office would make no difference in their job.
I think there are a lot of jobs like that, if you are doing scheduling for service calls or tracking down orders and vendors, they can be done anywhere.
My family doctor has his kid doing scheduling and book keeping for his office at home..
My accountant worked out of a home office.
No commuting - a huge savings in time and money.
No packing lunches or buying crap at Tim's.
Work in your sweats or pyjamas, who cares.

A lot of the "back to the office" bullshit comes from property managers peeing their pants over the collapse of office space value. If nobody has to be in an office why pay to rent one?

Well, part of the problem is Government owned buildings used for government employees. Taxpayers are paying both ways; wages and building costs. Empty buildings still cost $$$.

 

[sealion of bc]

Many have been pushed back into offices in a time where inflation has hit everyone like never before. Working from home alleviated that, plus it allowed for time for many to manage their physical and mental health with the time they saved leaving the house to commute. Additionally, many turned down other opportunities to work at companies who offered work from only for that work from home perk to be removed over some nonsensical domineering lame excuse of "cause we said so" by the bosses. Here's a petition we are hoping will have an impact. Please sign.

https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions...ct=psac-bc-regional-newsletter-for-may-2026&&

are you willing to work for less $ to stay home
public sector get your ass in the office

 

[islander1-1]

Plus.... Many of the merchants, mostly places for lunch, suffered badly during covid in areas where they catered to the office worker. I also wonder about bosses or supervisors trust in office workers "hours of work" claimed on their time cards, when they work from home.

 

[Pumped]

I support work from home for most situations.

1. many of those office buildings should be sold if owned, or terminate the lease if rented. If they are just offices then rationalize them to make better financial sense.

2. Not doing your job at home? Yeah, anyone complaining about that has never had a job. There are plenty of people who are 'employed' but don't do any work both public and private sector.

3. Rather than the government subsidizing gas prices, let gov employees work from home.

4. Like any other government situation, there will be people who rip off the system, but it's usually such a small percentage that the cost of imposing more surveillance or hiring more managers totally outweighs the tiny cost of slackers.

5. Conservatives should grow up and stop shitting their pants about everything that has little to do with them.

 

[masterpoonhunter]

I doubt a petition is going to make any difference in this topic. You have an employer. And you have an employee. Job conditions are set out by the employer, and the employee either agrees to them or finds another job.
If the job conditions violate the labour laws well that's a different topic.

Covid times brought in a whole new set of circumstances where there was a confluence of a lot of things we had not had before. Web meetings for one. And mass "work at home" needs. Was that a more productive way of working? Did it invite time theft?

Personally, I am all for work at home as long as the employee really is trusted. In some cases, changing a commute from an hour each way to a 22 second trip from kitchen to home office can offer productivity increases that are phenomenal, not just in time saved but in morale.

Anyway, best of luck with this project.

 

[sealion of bc]

I support work from home for most situations.

1. many of those office buildings should be sold if owned, or terminate the lease if rented. If they are just offices then rationalize them to make better financial sense.

2. Not doing your job at home? Yeah, anyone complaining about that has never had a job. There are plenty of people who are 'employed' but don't do any work both public and private sector.

3. Rather than the government subsidizing gas prices, let gov employees work from home.

4. Like any other government situation, there will be people who rip off the system, but it's usually such a small percentage that the cost of imposing more surveillance or hiring more managers totally outweighs the tiny cost of slackers.

5. Conservatives should grow up and stop shitting their pants about everything that has little to do with them.

Nothing to do with the tax payers
Really
What this country needs to do is quit subsidizibg people and busnessies and let the chips fall where they will.
Instead of catering to every public sector whim
Get back to the office
Or take less pay

 

[asf_post]

I never liked working from home. Going to the office gives opportunities to interact with your coworkers face to face, instead of doing so over chat. Another small benefit is being able to stop by your favorite MP or SP after work 😄

The ability to occasionally work from home when needed (waiting for cable guys, plumbers etc) is great.

 

[dude1q2w3e2w]

I never liked working from home. Going to the office gives opportunities to interact with your coworkers face to face, instead of doing so over chat. Another small benefit is being able to stop by your favorite MP or SP after work 😄

The ability to occasionally work from home when needed (waiting for cable guys, plumbers etc) is great.

I like the option of both.

 

[lukom]

My current employer allows a work.from home model, and in office. This has been the case since before covid. Only difference was that I had to come in twice a month for upgrades, and to stay connected with coworkers. Also, half our staff worked in the office by choice. Covid changed things, and no one has ever looked back to coming into an office. The prior office building in question has had the lease canceled and we have satellite locations we can go to in our municipality. We dont go there, except for those who might be dealing with an internet or power outage. Only my manager goes to the satellite office in her area cause she likes to and theres a coworker who is footsteps away from there who comes in. We are running smoothly, no drama, no hatred for a company that makes us come in.

are you willing to work for less $ to stay home
public sector get your ass in the office

I'm not public sector. Most aren't who are adding to traffic congestion. Federally regulated doesnt mean you work for government. By the way I haven't received a pay raise since 2021. So I am by cost of living and inflation standards working for less money. Additionally if I were to make more money to keep up with inflation it wouldn't be enough to keep up with time commuting, car costs, maintenance, repairs, insurance and gas. I sold my car and have paid off my mortgage.

 

[masterpoonhunter]

Should have really added this to my previous post and that is when coming into the office a guy does get to meet the women co-workers. All points of not fucking in your backyard etc are well taken, but by god I sure wish I had banged my secretary back in the day. One of my real regrets!

 

[Forum mod]

Ok guys, major clean up on this thread and two folks are taking a couple of days off to learn to play nice with others. Can the insults and the sniping back and forth, or it's getting locked down.

 

[Larry's Torch]

(snip)
Can the insults and the sniping back and forth, or it's getting locked down.

Can it? Man, I haven't heard that in a good minute. I'm guessing we're around the same age. 😉

 

[80watts]

Two friends work from home, one is a tech support other is supply chain manager. Both do very well, basically on call 24/7. Being in an office would make no difference in their job.
I think there are a lot of jobs like that, if you are doing scheduling for service calls or tracking down orders and vendors, they can be done anywhere.
My family doctor has his kid doing scheduling and book keeping for his office at home..
My accountant worked out of a home office.
No commuting - a huge savings in time and money.
No packing lunches or buying crap at Tim's.
Work in your sweats or pyjamas, who cares.

A lot of the "back to the office" bullshit comes from property managers peeing their pants over the collapse of office space value. If nobody has to be in an office why pay to rent one?

I do think their is need for a "office" if not to work there, but to connect to others in person in the same office. Mechanics will always have to go into the garage to fix and do maintenance.
Office workers do need to do things at the office, but if it is on the computer, remote operation is a possibility, as long as its in the same city. You need to put a distance on your leash. What prevents a IT worker from working in Mexico, but suddenly he needs to go in and work on the main computer or server?? This is why you need limits.
People working from home are actually getting paid more. They don't have to commute into the office compared to people that do need to come in. So prices should adjust accordingly.

I like Timmies... I think I'll go there now..

 

[80watts]

The cottage industry. An idea from the 60s where every one worked from home... With todays technology it can be done.

Its funny that unions were brought into being due to bad work conditions and safety of the people working. In the last 40 years there has been a big push to get rid of unions, if so does that mean we lose "Labour Day" in September...
Sick leave, doctors appointments, the right to go vote on a working day, overtime, working conditions, harassment, accumulation of sick days, Holiday pay, double/triple pay on holidays, paid leave, lunch breaks and coffee breaks, safety. So much has been earned by unions in the past... now being slowly erroded by bean-counter trying to save the company money and increase profits.