The perks of working from home

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/05/2024 (528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We apparently are facing a summer of discontent, as the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) pushes back against the federal government requirement for employees to have a least three days a week in the office. Recently, Shared Health in Manitoba mandated a physical return for its workers. Elsewhere, the same issue has been fought over, and employees are forced, once again, to commute.

Clearly, these employers don’t get the picture, from a number of angles. I could wax philosophical here, and reflect on the inertia of bureaucratic institutions and how hard it is to change the way they work. Or, I could remove my filters, and fume about the managerial stupidity of people who would lose money operating an air-conditioning business in hell.

Which of these two options I pick varies from day to day, depending on the level of frustration (and exhaustion) my commute involves. Perverse though it may sound, I learned some important life lessons during the COVID pandemic (which, judging by my in-person classes, is far from over).

Teaching from home was no issue for me — though it was nice to have the shiny new tools that universities had to provide, after 20 years of doing distance education on the cheap. But it made me realize how much of my life — and money — was spent on that commute. Working, in order to afford to drive to work, is as dumb as it sounds.

Pre-pandemic, I commuted four days, only able to avoid Fridays because of the two 17-hour days I would log every week. Working from home, I did not miss the drive, the traffic, or the time wasted en route — the lower income was more than compensated by the lower expenses.

While I missed chatting to colleagues in the hallways, I found other ways to talk to those who were also friends. Zoom gave lots of freedom to have meetings without commuting, and the mute/camera off buttons allowed me to do other things when someone inevitably droned on.

I got more work done, more efficiently, and felt I had a higher quality of life simply because I was working from home, and not constantly exhausted. Nor did it diminish interactions with students — if anything, distance learning options (like Zoom) made it easier to connect.

Now, I am back to working mostly in-person. I commute five days, because I am getting too old to work 17-hour days routinely. Each week, depending on traffic volume and weather, therefore, I spend at least 10 hours in my car, driving.

As a contract worker, I have no sick leave, no benefits, no job security, and no paid holidays. Any stat holiday needs to be “made up,” and (technically) so does any missed “sick” day when I am unable to drive. In theory, I could take time off whenever I want — as long as I don’t want a pay cheque — but the contract world does not make that wise. As people like me are described elsewhere, I am “precarious” faculty.

It’s a good deal for my employers — were the universities to get rid of contract faculty (who are paid much less, and teach more courses than regular faculty), their programs would be gutted, course options would collapse, and class sizes would balloon. So would tuition — students would be paying more and getting less.

I could live closer to where I work, except there is more than one location, and even that varies, depending on the term. It would be much smarter (and more stable) to work closer to where I live, but that would mean working from home.

But there is another side to all of this, a side that the pandemic also illustrated. We are all living into increasingly precarious times. Although there are other troubling reasons, climate change is the main driver.

Universities face protests (and encampments) because they are viewed as part of the problem, not its solution. Their job is to maintain the status quo, to defend privilege, and not to change anything that matters. (Ever notice the majority of grads these days in Business (as usual) programs?)

What if the administration actually worked — in a timely, and pragmatic fashion — to reduce its carbon footprint by adapting to what will soon be the new climate reality? Everything from timetables to course delivery options, textbooks and means of instruction, should be on the table. Students don’t want to commute, daily, for 50-minute classes — and, while I would like to insist on the breathtaking brilliance of my in-person lectures, I know they learn just as much by watching (and rewatching) a video.

A job that needs to be done in person, should be done that way. A job that can be done virtually, working from home, should be, too.

Whether you measure quality of life, or carbon emissions, there is only one smart answer.

For myself, as Fagin sang in Oliver Twist, “I am reviewing, the situation…”

Peter Denton writes from his home in rural Manitoba.