General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[danbrotherston]

Surprising conservative take from you. Canada is clearly not the US but I think this applies across the boarder as well even if it is more true in the US. I’m not going to argue that this is the same as indentured servitude but it is also absolutely clear that with the decimation of unions the majority of lower income people are not negotiating on an equal footing with employers. Not even remotely close. They generally must accept the terms they are offered because they have to work. Where as companies can generally replace people pretty easily. I don’t really believe the labour shortage arguments I heard a few years ago. That was a unique pandemic related situation not the typical North American situation. 

As for higher income workers like office workers, the reality is that flexible work arrangements are an incredibly cheap perk for a company to provide (generally having negative cost) and the only cases where it has been pulled back is through incompetent and spiteful management and as a mechanism of doing layoffs in secret (which I also consider incompetent).

Indeed, the situation is far less balanced for low-income/minimum-wage workers, no argument there. But the discussion started from remote work, and that's a different segment altogether.

I would argue that our group doesn't have incompetent management, nor have we had either layoffs or resignations since we switched from fully remote to hybrid almost four years ago. I would further propose that every situation is different, and not everyone is an idiot. 😊

Not everyone has been forced back to the office. But I have two friends who have been given “must be in office” notices. One is clearly suffering hidden layoffs (they don’t even have a desk for him) and the other I think is just bad management. Both are looking for work but both have been given a momentary reprieve because their direct managers don’t want to lose them.