Most subscribers don’t expect to return to office-based work full time once the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, The Logic’s latest survey has found, with nearly three-quarters expecting that hybrid arrangements of in-person and remote work will stick.

Nearly 45 per cent of respondents in the July survey said their organizations don’t have full return-to-work plans. Thirty-three per cent said theirs do and 17 per cent said theirs might.

 

Of those that do have return-to-the-office plans, half of respondents said they’re going back this fall. A further 16 per cent of respondents are expecting to return in winter.

“We have been remote since March 13, 2020. We moved 500 employees to [working from home] and haven’t missed a beat. We’ll employ our new hybrid approach starting with a return to office in January 2022,” wrote one respondent.

“We have started to return to the office in some regions and are evaluating the results and required protocols,” another respondent wrote.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai wrote publicly this week about how the global tech giant is grappling with the situation.

“I have to say it’s been great to see Googlers brainstorming around whiteboards and enjoying meals in cafes again in the many offices that have already re-opened globally,” he said in an internal email the company posted publicly. But Google is also extending its worldwide voluntary work-from-home policy until at least Oct. 18 and anyone who does go back to a Google office will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19, he added.

The tech giant isn’t alone in taking such precautions. Apple is reportedly pushing its return-to-the-office plans back to at least October. LinkedIn said Thursday its leaders have changed their minds on workers returning to the office.

This is a tricky time to make plans, anyway: “The details have not been fully published and communicated,” wrote another respondent to The Logic’s survey, who expects a return to offices in the autumn. “Summer leave has priority.”

And with COVID-19 still not vanquished—Australia is struggling with a severe outbreak, Japan is seeing its highest case counts yet amid its Tokyo Summer Olympics, and what might happen when children too young to be vaccinated return to school in the fall isn’t clear—a broader uncertainty still applies.

Nearly 37 per cent of respondents said they would regard a full-time return to the office very negatively, and 26 per cent would see it somewhat negatively. About 15 per cent each would see it either somewhat or very positively.

Business measures adopted in the midst of an emergency are still in use and some subscribers are concerned about how they’ll be adapted as permanent conditions.

“They have talked a lot about hybrid and remote but not really invested in the management support mechanisms and communication channels,” one subscriber wrote.

“Some of us have returned already, although I note management hasn’t!” wrote another.

However this part of post-pandemic life shakes out, subscribers are overwhelmingly positive about the capacity of the Canadian economy to bounce back, with 51 per cent saying they were somewhat optimistic and 32 per cent very optimistic.

“A lot of people are itching to spend some money,” was one respondent’s optimistic view.

On the negative: “The recovery is going to be lumpy/uneven. Some sectors will recover well and others are booming (tech) while others will really struggle (and have been).”

As for the longer-term future, 72 per cent of respondents either somewhat or strongly agreed with the idea that the pandemic will lead to prolonged, structural reorganization of the global economy. Several of those who offered specifics noted that both large companies and countries have seen that it can be hazardous to rely on foreign suppliers in times of crisis.

We’ll see “more nationalism and less globalization,” one respondent wrote. ”Countries need to have their own supply chain for critical supplies.”

Another wrote that battle lines are being drawn between the United States and its allies and China and its allies, leading to “the end of globalization as we know it.”