COVID spawned a new reality

Eight in 10 eligible employees at Manitoba Hydro and Manitoba Public Insurance, and roughly one in three government staffers, have a hybrid timetable — once a rarity in the public service — on the five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Manitoba government has approved 30.4 per cent of its “core employee” group to clock-in from home at least one day per month, up to a maximum of two days per week.

Crown corporations employ far more hybrid workers, with roughly 80 per cent of eligible employees at both Hydro and MPI taking advantage of the post-pandemic flexibility.

“The vast majority of Manitoba government workers are coming into the office, just like the vast majority of Manitoba workers, generally,” Finance Minister Adrien Sala told the Free Press.

Manitoba’s internal flexible work arrangement policy, introduced in June 2021, was last updated in February 2022. Employees can leverage it on an opt-in basis, if being at their part-time home office does not affect service or program delivery.

A government spokesperson said 3,721 staff members who have partial remote schedules are expected to be in the office for the majority of their work week, although “there is room for discretion based on management approval.”

(That group includes the clerk of the executive council, deputy ministers and department staff who are part-time or full-time or have either a contract or term position.)

Sala indicated the province’s priority is to ensure members of the public receive the in-person services they depend on. At the same time, the minister said departments must be flexible to support staff and remain competitive with the private sector.

Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government of General Employees’ Union, called the set-up “fair and reasonable” across sectors.

“Before the pandemic, it wasn’t even an option on the table. … It was a definite ‘no’ when we asked to work from home,” the union leader recalled.

Ross was a computer software developer at MPI who was managing a team when the arrival of COVID-19 sparked a remote work revolution in 2020. He was among the Manitobans who found themselves scrambling to set up a home office.

As of this week, 77 per cent of MPI employees work in a hybrid or fully remote position.

The Crown corporation began scheduling non-management employees on rotating shifts last winter that require they work in the office two days one week and three the next. Managers have a standard three-day in-person timetable.

MPI spokeswoman Tara Seel said the program supports work-life balance, encourages face-to-face collaboration among colleagues “and it helps to contribute to the vitality of downtown Winnipeg by bringing people back to our headquarters in Cityplace.”

Hydro continues to grant non-field employees – 1,800 of whom are based out of its 360 Portage Ave. headquarters – the option to work remotely on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Three years after the Crown corporation rolled out the hybrid model, the overwhelming majority of workers are part of it. There is approximately 20 per cent occupancy in the high-rise building on designated flexible days, said Riley McDonald, a media relations officer at Hydro.

The MGEU president said the pandemic proved many jobs could be done from afar, but it also made it more difficult for managers to communicate with employees and navigate both new virtual tools and workflows.

While members have welcomed more flexibility, Ross noted that employer bargaining teams have been reluctant to enshrine related rights into their contracts.

Giving job candidates an opportunity to work from home could be a “recruitment tactic and opportunity,” he said, noting many teams are “working short” and that reality is taking the most significant toll on job satisfaction.

The Survey on Employment and Skills, a Toronto-based research project that has been measuring the COVID-19 fallout on worksites across the country, found that 42 per cent of Canadians typically worked from home at least once per week last spring.

Two out of three respondents of the 2024 survey said they wanted to have the option to work from home at least once a week in the future. It also found there was little difference in morale between those who work at home and those who do not.

Manitoba’s finance minister said “balance” continues to guide the government’s approach to scheduling. His personal preference is full-time, in-person shifts in an external office.

“I do work a lot at home, I suppose; late in the evenings and so forth, as many of my colleagues do, as well, but the vast majority of my work is done here at the legislature and in our constituency office,” Sala said.

The Downtown Winnipeg BIZ recorded an additional seven million visits from 2023 to 2024, but its leaders recognize that hybrid work has permanently changed activity in the core.

“Increasing visitation and the residential population is key to supporting a downtown full of people that drives economic activity,” communications manager Olivia Billson said in an email.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca