When the pandemic struck Ontario, many employees started working from home. It allowed them to better manage their work hours and to spend more time with their kids. Eventually, many of those workers got vaccinated, and the companies started considering bringing them back to the office. Howard Levitt, an employment lawyer, and senior partner with Levitt, Sheikh, Chaudhri, and Swann law firm, said that companies could fire those workers if they don’t return to their workplaces.
He added:
“I think a lot of employers can’t wait to get people back to the office because as much as employees are loving it, employers are not loving it quite so much.”
Ever since the pandemic started, many office buildings sat empty as the employees were working from home. Robert Half from the staffing agency that was performing a work-from-home survey said that 33 percent of employees working from home would quit their job if they were forced to return to the office full time.
Levitt stated that companies need their workers to come back to their workplaces because of the dropping productivity.
He added:
“There isn’t the same buzz that makes you enthusiastic about your job when you are working in your pajamas at your house. Employers could say you’ve proven you can work effectively outside the office, so you can continue to work from home, but they can say to another employee you haven’t, so you have to work from the office.”
He said that working from home has its own risks, especially to local workers. Levitt concluded:
“If everybody can work from home, why hire a $100,000 Canadian when you can hire someone from the Philippines for $20,000 who speaks perfect English or somewhere else?”
