Nova Scotia government employees expected back at office

With the Nova Scotia government’s full return to the office mandate taking effect Oct. 15, several stakeholders are resisting the mandate.

There are 3,500 non-unionized provincial employees, accounting for about a third of the workforce.

But the province won’t say how many have complied with the order, according to the Financial Post.

“Managers are having conversations about this directive, directly with their staff, as they have been asked, and we are not currently aware of any incidents,” Jeff Tobin, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Public Service Commission, told the publication. “This represents significant change for some. Staff maintain some level of flexibility. We will continue to support our staff throughout the adjustment.”

3 reasons for return to office

In August, Nova Scotia ordered workers who have been allowed to work from home to return to the office full-time starting Oct. 15. The directive came as a shock to many who’d been working remotely for as many as three days a week for several years.

Back then, the government did not explain the rationale for the sudden decision, according to a CBC report.

However, in the FP report, Twila Grosse, Nova Scotia’s minister responsible for the Public Service Commission, said employees were told to come back for three reasons: managers were having trouble managing employees in different places, new employees needed help with training and in developing relationships with their colleagues.

But there will be some flexibility for NS workers who will not be able to return to the office full-time, said Grosse. Currently, workers and managers are still ironing out the kinks of the arrangement.

“Managers are having conversations about this directive, directly with their staff, as they have been asked, and we are not currently aware of any incidents,” Jeff Tobin, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Public Service Commission, said in the FP report. “This represents significant change for some. Staff maintain some level of flexibility. We will continue to support our staff throughout the adjustment.”

Amazon employees are said to be "strongly dissatisfied" with the company's latest mandate to make them come to the office five days a week, according to a previous report.

Meanwhile, two unions called for a formal probe into the federal government’s RTO mandate for federal public service workers.

Resistance to RTW mandate

One worker – who has benefitted from having worked in a hybrid model – says going back to the workplace causes more challenges than benefits.

“Having to travel back and forth to work, which costs money and, more importantly, time we’re not compensated for, only to sit in a desk and dial into virtual meetings all day just doesn’t make a lot of sense,” the worker, who wanted to be anonymous, said in a Financial Post report. “People are struggling to heat their homes and put food on the table. Government employees are no exception.”

She also said: “Back at the office, all our meetings remain virtual or have a virtual option.”

The worker also noted that the employer benefits from having workers work remotely.

“For most of the people impacted, working remotely changed nothing from a work perspective,” she said in the Financial Post (FP) report. “I would argue most of us worked more hours and were more willing to respond to requests outside their normal work hours as a way to show how much we appreciated the flexibility.”

How to manage return to office?

With the change that the province wants to happen, employers should provide more notice or consider a pay raise, said Rafael Gomez, a professor of employment relations at the University of Toronto.

“This is where good management, a good HR approach, is to say let’s do trade-offs,” he told the FP.

That might include a pay differential wherein workers who report to the workplace are paid more, while those who would remain working from home would be paid less, for example. 

“This would be a better management approach and would mean less conflict (and) you’d probably have a more motivated staff,” Gomez said.