Workers looking forward to their return to the office and a sense of normalcy should brace themselves for a wide range of new safety protocols.
The post-pandemic workplace could include greater distance between desks, mandatory masks, shift work and lineups to take crowd-free elevators or get a temperature check, according to people who design and lay out offices for a living.
Advisers at Canadian commercial real estate and architecture have issued guidelines to clients on how to prepare for their employees’ return to Canadian workspaces once it’s deemed appropriate. They say many changes will be required.
Spoiler alert: It’s not going to be fun. And it’s not going to be fast.
“It will be a very slow, graduated return to work with employees that are critical to the business,” says Lisa Fulford, a senior vice-president with commercial real estate giant CBRE, based in Toronto. “A lot of the social areas that we use when we’re at work — break spaces, lunchrooms, food courts, cafés — many of those will be coming back slowly, as well.”
More personal space
Once staff arrive, there will have to be more breathing room. Seating plans should be modified in order to physically distance workers, say advisers.
That will reverse a decades-long trend. Companies in high-rent downtown cores across Canada have been cramming workers into closer proximity to each other for years. Open-plan offices with small workstations and few private offices can save space and reduce real estate costs. In some workplaces, dividers between cubicles have been abandoned, as well, to encourage teamwork and collaboration.
A graphic from architecture firm Gensler illustrates how employers can colour-code a floor plan to show the stages of re-entry, and which desks have been ‘approved for occupancy.’ (Gensler)
But studies done even before the pandemic have shown that employees working in shared or open-plan offices call in sick more often. The term “office plague” became common long before COVID-19 hit, to describe the phenomenon when a flu or cold spreads among an entire pod of workers.
Shift work
Now, amid fears of COVID contagion, those types of densely populated indoor environments seem downright dangerous.
Architecture firm Gensler has posted a to-do list for office managers transitioning employees back to work. Job number one is “rethink density.”
The firm promotes a tool it created that uses “generative algorithms” to take the existing layout of a workplace and create new scenarios to meet physical distancing conditions. Desks can be staggered, giving every worker a larger perimeter of free space around them.
Annie Bergeron, Gensler’s design director in Toronto, says the firm is also suggesting that workers’ hours be modified. “One of the strategies that we are recommending for re-entry into the workplace is either shift work or a balance of work from home and work from the office, so that you don’t have too many people re-entering the workplace at the same time,” she said.
Annie Bergeron, design director at architecture firm Gensler, spoke to CBC News by video from her home office. (Dianne Buckner/CBC News)
Shifts could be organized by days of the week or hours of the day, according to Bergeron. Simply having fewer staff on the premises at any given time would be preferable for companies hesitant to incur the expense of additional space to accommodate distancing protocols.
Temperature checks
Bergeron also says the firm has discussed screening measures with its clients, in order to avoid admitting workers with symptoms of the virus. “Some of the screening could include restricting entry into the building from only one access point, instead of several access points. There could be interaction with security, just to make sure that people aren’t sick.”
That could lead to lineups and wait times to get into work.
Some Canadians could soon face a temperature check to get into their offices, similar to the way this employee was being checked in Shanghai in this photo from February. (Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images)
Walmart and Amazon have implemented temperature checks for workers, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said offices will need to do the same. In Canada, Tim Hortons has mandated masks and temperature checks for employees.
Once employees get into the building, a number of other office routines will become more time-consuming, says Brent McKnight, an associate professor in strategic management at McMaster University’s business school in Hamilton.
Along with lining up to board an elevator, there could be additional effort required in other scenarios: “Waiting to go into a copier room after someone is finished using it, having sanitization practices to do after leaving a shared meeting room,” McKnight added.
One-way hallways
There could even be new ways to move around a building. “I think you’ll see one-way hallways and clear directional pathways around the office,” McKnight says. “Perhaps even physical markers like what they have in grocery stores and other places, to show people what a physical distance of two metres actually looks like.”
In a photo taken on April 9, employees in the cafeteria at the Hyundai Card company offices in Seoul sit behind protective screens as part of preventative measures against COVID-19. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)
But all of these new practices may ease over time, says Fulford, of CBRE. “I think we’re talking about a pre-vaccine phase and a post-vaccine phase,” she said. “Certainly pre-vaccine, return to work isn’t going to be anything like business as usual because of the social distancing that’s required, and deep cleaning in between uses.”
Eventually some protocols may be relaxed, as governments, companies and workers begin to feel secure that COVID-19 is under control. Until then, familiar workplaces and habits of the recent past may feel very different.
VANCOUVER – West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. says it’s indefinitely curtailing its sawmill in Lake Butler, Fla., by the end of the month.
The Vancouver-based company says the decision is because of high fibre costs and soft lumber markets.
West Fraser says the curtailment will affect about 130 employees, though it will mitigate the impact by providing work opportunities at other locations.
The company says high fibre costs at Lake Butler and the current low-price commodity environment have made it difficult to operate the mill profitably.
It expects to take an impairment charge in the third quarter associated with the curtailment.
At the beginning of this year, West Fraser said it was closing a sawmill in Maxville, Fla., and indefinitely closing another in Huttig, Ark.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. says it has signed a deal that will result in the creation of its first eyewear collection.
The deal announced on Thursday by the Toronto-based luxury apparel company comes in the form of an exclusive, long-term global licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear Inc.
The terms and value of the agreement were not disclosed, but Marchon produces eyewear for brands including Lacoste, Nike, Calvin Klein, Ferragamo, Longchamp and Zeiss.
Marchon plans to roll out both sunglasses and optical wear under the Canada Goose name next spring, starting in North America.
Canada Goose says the eyewear will be sold through optical retailers, department stores, Canada Goose shops and its website.
Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss told The Canadian Press in August that he envisioned his company eventually expanding into eyewear and luggage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
