Bunny slippers could become a part of business attire in Ottawa and a living room couch could become an office desk.
WORKshift Canada and the City of Ottawa co-hosted a summit on Jan. 26 to address the future of flexible work – innovations in commuting schedules and work-from-home arrangements. The session was presented to a crowd of more than 170 people and discussed by a panel of featured speakers at Ottawa City Hall.
“We had a sold out event,” says WORKshift Canada director Robyn Bews. “I think if there’s any question that this is on the tops of mind of people, we can put that to bed.”
WORKshift aims to transform traditional workplaces and give employees the opportunity to work where they are most productive. The initiative encourages businesses to adopt flexible work styles – such as telecommuting and working from home – to benefit themselves and their employees.
Bews says this non-traditional work model allows companies to appreciate the value of their employees’ work rather than simply having someone present in an office environment.
“Measuring results rather than ‘presenteeism’ is probably the biggest leap,” she says. “The future of work is going to reflect organizations catching up to the ways their employees are already working.”
The Calgary-based, not-for-profit organization expanded to Ottawa in September after being invited to partner with the City of Ottawa.
Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney, who is also vice-chair of the city’s transportation committee, says the collaboration to promote WORKshift is one way to help deal with traffic congestion in downtown Ottawa when LRT construction ramps up later this year.
“Through that period,” she says, “when we’ve got a lot of street closures, when we’re widening the Queensway, when we’re doing things like diverting 2,500 buses off of the Transitway, as we’re building the light rail . . . the implications for Centretown will be traffic.”
“If you can move at a different time of day,” she adds, “that’s also a benefit to folks who are traveling and also people whose neighborhoods you’re traveling through.”
Along with managing LRT-related congestion, WORKshift provides the city with other benefits.
Don Grant, executive director of the Ottawa Centre EcoDistrict, says WORKshift also provides environmental benefits. The EcoDistrict is the first of its kind in Canada, and promotes a sustainable and environmentally friendly city. It covers Centretown’s downtown core from Wellington Street to Gloucester , and is quickly expanding into nearby areas.
Grant says WORKshift allows employees to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by not driving during rush hours or by avoiding commuting to work entirely.
“This is an opportunity to shrink the footprint of work,” says Grant. “If I owned a business and this wasn’t costing me more money and it had an environmental benefit, I would be telling the world.”
Rolling out of bed and into a home office may sound like a dream come true. However, much controversy exists around this work model.
“I think it’s ludicrous to attempt to talk about thinking of work in an entirely different way without looking at it all together,” says Sean McKenny, president of Ottawa and District Labour Council (ODLC). “There’s so much damage that could be caused here.”
He says the WORKshift has many flaws and will cause more harm than good. For example, he says, the potential increase in the number of public servants or other workers staying at home rather than commuting to downtown offices would have negative impacts on the commercial economy of the urban core.
“If you’re going to remove a significant number of people within any community, what happens to those businesses in that area that used to be frequented by those individuals, buying coffee, going to the restaurants at lunch time? What happens to those businesses? They’re all going to pay. They’re all going to suffer,” says McKenny.
The day after the WORKshift summit – the ODLC sent a letter to Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson indicating its concern with the work model. “I think our frustration is around (Watson) buying into the first idea that was put his way in respect to trying to deal with this expected traffic gridlock later this year,” he says.
Some downtown businesses, including Centretown-based e-commerce company Shopify, have already adapted flexible work platforms. The company’s human relations manager Miranda O’Brien spoke at the summit and gave the workshifting concept positive reviews.