Return to workplace not so cut-and-dry

What’s an employer to do?

For employers, this presents a conundrum: should employees be given more flexibility and options, or should they be forced to do what management orders?

Legally, a recalcitrant employee can be fired, according to Puneet Tiwari, a lawyer at Levitt LLP.

“Before the pandemic, your job was working from an office location; and now that the pandemic is over, you’re being recalled, you must go back — unless some other deal has been made where your employer has said, ‘We are now a three-days-in-office, two-day-at-home work environment’ or you renegotiated a contract which states you can now work from home exclusively, or choose at your leisure the hybrid model.”

“Unless one of those factors exists, and your employer calls you back, you must go back. If you do not go back, it’s job abandonment,” said Tiwari.

But if you care about employee morale and engagement, tread carefully on this matter, said Stephanie Henry, an associate at Bennett Jones.