No more work from home for Alberta government employees

The province has mandated all of its employees must now work completely in person, and it is already proving to be a jarring switch for many.

Thousands of Alberta government employees returned to work in their offices full time Monday.

Sunday marked the official end of the province’s hybrid-work option, which was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) says many of its 9,000 members aren’t pleased with a full-time arrangement.

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“We’ve yet to be provided with any fact-based rational as to why this decision was made,” AUPE vice president Bobby-Joe Borodey said. “Members feel like trust is being eroded. They appreciated the ability to be flexible, and essentially, they’re just unhappy.”

The union speculates members were ordered back full time in part to help boost local economies — an accusation the government rejects.

Members are also upset the decision, unveiled in October, wasn’t discussed in the prior round of bargaining.

The AUPE has filed a policy grievance and Borodey tells CTV News hybrid work will be brought up in the next round of contract talks.

“We’ve proven over the last number of years that collaboration and teamwork is still taking place, even in a hybrid model,” she said.

To express their frustration with the full-time return, AUPE says workers have placed brown paper lunch bags on their desks on their first day back with a note stating: “Hybrid work tastes better.”

Workplace exceptions have been made for some workers.

Provincial reasoning

The province says circumstances have changed and it’s time to bring workers back to strengthen collaboration and service delivery.

A statement from the Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance says the decision was made “independently by the Public Service Commission as part of its responsibility to manage the public service and ensure operational excellence.”

It adds the “hybrid work model introduced during COVID-19 was always intended as a temporary measure.”

In-office blues

The return to work follows the release of a new study that ranks Calgary dead last among major Canadian cities in terms of workplace flexibility.

The study from JobLeads, an online job search platform, says 87.9 per cent of Calgary jobs require full-time in-person presence.

That’s a lot lower than other major urban centres — and directly opposed to the recorded employer appetite.

The same study says 60.5 per cent of Canadian workers want hybrid work.

Currently, only 8.8 per cent of Calgary jobs offer it.

“I think if you want to attract talent, you have to offer flexible jobs,” JobLeads founder Jan Hendrik von Ahlen said.

“There is a generational (gap) too. (Hybrid work) attracts younger people, and I think older people — more senior people — are not that flexible anymore.”

JobLeads analyzed 15,233 active job postings in its research.

With files from The Canadian Press