42nd & Grace

Should unionized government employees have to go back to the office? It’s a contentious issue at the provincial and federal level, with sides throwing out data about efficiency, mentorship and health of the environment. And the answer is, obviously, yes – mostly.

There is a clear generational divide, with those raised in a digital world more comfortable with the situation. But to be fair, there’s an older cohort who also favours a commute from kitchen to office (aka spare bedroom).

What’s often missing from the debate, though, is the impact on isolation. The communal moments we share seems to be shrinking. Service club memberships are dramatically down; many religious organizations are seeing a steady decline; and even restaurants are a place, it seems to fuel up, while reading up on your mobile even if you’re with someone.

Work used to be one of the last places where people reliably gathered. Sharing a space matters. Collaboration matters. The quick pop‑in to someone’s office matters. That’s where mentorship happens. That’s where ideas collide. That’s where you learn that the best idea doesn’t always win and how to move on from that.

From someone who now works from home, it has advantages – scheduling runs, popping in a load of laundry and cat breaks are among them. Overall, though, it’s a bit of lonely existence. Everyone opportunity to meet for coffee or pop into an office or project my face onto a Zoom call is taken. And I’m an introvert.

Yes, there are many tasks where people don’t need to be physically in the office. They can analyse information, write reports and answer calls from just about anywhere. It’s a feature of the world we live-in, we can plug-in wherever we are.

It’s also a defect.

Working from home blurs the lines – for you and for your employer. It becomes easier to take calls or jump into work outside “office hours,” and there’s far less hesitation from leaders about reaching out during what should be downtime. The creep is subtle, but it’s real and it slowly eats away at personal time.

And that’s layered on top of an already plugged‑in culture, where the expectation of instant response keeps rising. Sometimes the most productive thing we can do is the hardest: unplug, step back, and reclaim the boundaries that used to be built into the workday.

A day a week, if possible, to sit and catch-up on emails, writing and other backlogged work, sure.

The benefits in terms of team camaraderie, the ability for mentorship and the enforcing of boundaries means – for me – going back to the office is absolutely the right choice.

P.S. Yes, all of this was written in my home office. If you’re in Kelowna (or coming through) and want to grab a coffee let me know, would love to get out of the office!