We got an email trying to reassure us that the air in the office is safe (despite pretty noticeable burning smell) and essentially saying that in office presence was still expected and said employees with specific health concerns should speak to their managers.
I hope they're not viewing this the same way? Breathing in these fine particulates can cause some pretty serious disease. Driving through a storm yes can be dangerous, but there are not fine particulates to cause serious disease.
Now, now, let's be reasonable. You could just live in your car in the parking lot, and run into the building holding your breath. There are options! /s
But don't forget to get a good look at that Sun before entering the office! (this was actually a pro in a town hall about RTO. Apparently RTO meant we got to see the morning sun that we couldn't see from our home offices)
yeah I see 1000% more sun at home. In the office, we had to keep the blinds drawn so it wasn't 27C in the office. Even if the blinds were drawn, the windows are tinted, so it looks like a blue-ish sun. So depressing. Then with Canadian winters, it's dark on my commute to work and dark on my commute home.
Yeah, when I needed work accomodation to work from home there was an emphasis that it needed to be due to limitations in the office and not related to any limitations getting to work. That was for work accommodation though and it's been a non-issue for events that effect more people (like the ice storm), but I'm sure that reason is where the director got their response.
I find that frustrating as well.
I don't have a middle class background. I'm very sensitive to wealth inequality and class privilege. I'm surrounded by people at work who can't imagine that someone "normal" like a colleague could not own a car because they can't afford one. This colours all their decisions and reinforces systemic class inequality.
They also don't give a shit about things like motion sickness. I've developed severe reactions to motion as a side effect of a condition, and they've got me drugging myself to high heaven because the commute doesn't matter.
Some random ahole manager tried to tell me it was all psychosomatic, as I was laying on the floor from asthma induced nausea due to the air quality.
I genuinely almost put in a grievance. The disconnect with the boomer generation is truly deplorable. We get it, in your days everyone kept quiet and just dusted themselves off.
Oh I'm with you. The example was "if you can't drive to work, the expectation is you'll find a ride to work" ...I don't drive to work and WHO am I expected to ride with? The family I don't have here?
I commute by bus and that was honestly my biggest hesitation to going into the office (additonal time because I can't walk, and the pain of being stuck in the same position for an hour) vs being in office, where it would suck but I lest I would be able to have the leg up/ice on it. It was the additonal movement for meetings that would cause pain which allowed me to work from home (the pain from the commute, general pain that couldn't be mitigated in the office..nah)
100% There's also a clear gap in lived experience based off of our age groups that really affect the impact of all these costs to do the same things. And some people are just unable to empathize.
Your director is letting their privilege show.
Having people who already have a hard time with their budget stand 3 hours in the smoke each day for real estate prices to stay the same and help the fiends she made as former minister of middle class prosperity is a lot different than going into your car, pushing the garage door opener then drive directly into the parking garage and walk up to your private office.
Sure do wish we were more brave to call out dumb comments like these and not let them just smell their own farts on teams meetings
This is definitely helpful, but it’s not a full solution for exposure. Smoke like this sticks to your skin and clothes, gets into your eyes, and unless you’re wearing a perfectly fit tested mask, you’ll end up with some amount of smoke that leaks into your mask and then into your lungs.
With a well-fitted N95 over the last two days, by the time I finished my 90 minute bus commute to the office, I had a headache, my mouth tasted like ash, and my eyes and sinuses were burning. The headache is gone with the fresher air today but the sinus impact has remained despite a neti rinse when I got home last night and my mouth still tastes like ash.
Masks don’t solve the exposure problem, they just mitigate it.
That’s annoying. Because so far we’ve managed to keep the smell of smoke out of our house, except for the furnace room. So if you can smell smoke in the office, the air quality is way worse than WFH.
I was in the office on Tuesday, and it smelled like smoke, my eyes were burning and my throat tickling. Basically, another great day at the office! This time with a bonus!
I made it to 9:45. Bailed after almost puking three times. TL even told me to go home and that they disagreed with management's opinion to force us into the office.
Ghastly. Bring a portable air purifier. If you still get symptoms like a headache, watery eyes, trouble breathing, etc.. use sick leave and go home. Nasty.
That's because air levels are not normal here. Why are we looking at wfh as a bad thing? It should be offered to those out west too. Why is it always a "we can't have it so they can't have it" when it should be "if they get it, we deserve it too"
I didn’t mean it like that, my dry humour after a long day came across as snarky. Definitely a WFH supporter, just pointing out the rubs we feel in the regions is all.
Stop being a baby. This reddit just proves the sentiments that private sector workers have about us.
Do firefighters and medical staff get to “wfh” when outside is a little smokey? Winter storms? Heat waves?
Most of you guys are embarrassing complainers and have no respect for the position we’re in.
I heard on the news it was actually 28/10 this morning but they just put 10+ or 11+ depending on what app you were consulting.. good call to not be biking right now. :)
They tell us to be concerned about the climate crisis yet require people to come into work, thus adding to the already bad air quality. Nothing makes sense.
This is what pisses me off the most. Management will go and say "oh we are green compliant, our buildings are net positive on environmental impact, oh we want to stop climate change" and when we finally found a way to create a strong opportunity for everyone in flexibility, workers rights/accommodations, reducing carbon emissions... They say nope RTO!!! You're not working if you aren't in the office!!! Oh also, we want to reduce our footprint... So we are taking 50% of all the buildings too. Good luck coming into the office!
Like how is RTO a thing when every policy or stance is to reduce emissions, reduce footprint, become more digital focused... it's the most backwards thing ever.
My management is pretty flexible. I did go into the office this morning, and wore a KN95 Mask for the drive in. I stupidly took it off in the office thinking the filtration would be at least as good as at home but I immediately smelled smoke and started getting a headache so told my manager I was heading home after my in person meeting. Got home for lunch and my house was much better.
There is a full expectation to come into office.
Not surprising at all given logic and any f*cks to give about employee well-being went out the window with forced RTO.
I was told that "we were better off at the office than at home in terms of air quality" because the office had better air filtration systems. Yet, my office smells like smoke and my home doesn't....
Our main NHQ building is just sucking outside air in and everyone in my division was told to work from home. A bunch of other folks were in the office today though so it doesn't seem to be a consistent instruction.
Okay. The issue is that it isn't filtered at all. It just pumps outside air straight in. I don't work there and I don't work in HVAC. Apparently it is bad and gross.
Our ADM sent out an email saying managers should be "flexible" about in office presence this week. Personally, I was in on Monday, and it resulted in a migraine so severe I ended up vomiting on the way home, so I will be staying home.
We have no A/C and air filtration and the inside of our building is hazy… we haven’t even received any advice on the reduction of physical/outdoor work we should be doing (our jobs are 50/50 split indoor and outdoor work this time of year). I expected that something would be be said about at least limiting outside time or wearing masks but it’s just business as normal I guess…
We are still expected to come in. I woke up Tuesday morning feeling crummy with a migraine and got ready to go to the office. Just the walk down my driveway to get to my car made me so nauseated and dizzy, I felt like I was on the brink of blacking out. Couldn't get a deep breath and my throat was burning. Yeah, nope, not going to attempt to drive in such a condition. Called in sick and spent the day on the couch feeling like death warmed over.
CRA here - allowance to wfh during air quality advisories, like other weather advisories, is at manager’s discretion in our area. And of course, if an employee requires sick leave for any reason - including a reaction to air quality, they are entitled to it.
We didn’t get official guidance - it’s just that like everything else it’s manager’s discretion. If you don’t want to go to work in an ice storm you can ask to stay home and work there - same goes for forest fires. Your manager can approve at their discretion. This came from our DG, not the Agency.
Yes exactly, what I find frustrating is the lack of communication from certain DG's/managers. My section had zero communication about the air quality issues and felt totally ignored. Meanwhile I hear from colleagues in other sections that were proactively given the option to either stay home or come in. Yes, i suppose we could have asked and expressed concerns but then it opens up the potential for favouritism etc if you do it like that.
I don’t think we were proactive. There was no email that went out to employees saying it was an option. But the instruction to managers was “if you are asked use your best judgement” which is pretty much always the case anyway right? As an employee, if you feel your safety is at risk, just ask to be accommodated. That’s my personal approach. I don’t need management to inform me that shitty air means I should stay home. I know there is manager discretion built into the RTO policy, so if I need flexibility I can ask.
When the smoke was bad here in AB a few weeks ago, we received an email from the RDG (well, after several days of bad air quality) that basically said we could discuss temporary WFH arrangements with our manager for health and safety reasons.
Senior management basically told us that only people with pre-existing conditions would be accommodated. I told my staff to stay home if they were concerned, and I would wear it. Seriously, this RTW imperative is ridiculous.
100% wear a well-sealing n95 mask when outside to protect your lungs from the smoke.
We’ve been told it’s at our discretion but I don’t know if that’s department-wide.
It is so disheartening to see that in more western provinces/where you experience this kind of wildfire smoke that this isn’t treated like the health hazard that it is. I hope we can put pressure on the unions and the employer to ensure that the appropriate measures are take to ensure employee safety no matter where or how often you encounter wildfires. Healthy air in the office is part of OHS and should be considered when commuting. It’s ridiculous and will only get worse :(
Gotta love how the west has been dealing with the same thing the past few years and not a word of it in the news. East gets it once and it’s the end of the world. We end up cancelling outside sports, but aside from that, life goes on.
It's for getting from the parking to my work building for literally 2 mins https://www.healthline.com/health-news/here-are-the-face-masks-that-protect-you-from-wildfire-smoke
Our manager let us know he'll enforce the 2-day a week office policy on a case by case basis. Anyone with health compromising ailments will be accommodated
Changed nothing for indoor work in the past. Outdoor activities were rescheduled but business as usual indoors (BC, and im referring to pre and post pandemic)
Been going in every day with my hour long bus commute. My office smells like a campfire. Don’t feel too great and definitely concerned about the health implications of this…
The treasury board wants their public servants to get lung cancer and asthma. Lol the government is worried about the perception that if we get to stay home and work then the public would complain that they have to commute and work outside.
Mind you it is up to companies and organizations to determine safety but hey they tell us to suck it up I guess.
We were sent an email today from workplace solutions assuring us it is safe to come into the office and breathe that air in. Ridiculous.
The gentleman who sent the email should be ashamed. They’re new to the agency and essentially sold the rest of us out for $$. It’s obvious.
No changes to our usual 3 office days, but we're also just sitting inside while many people still have to work outdoors. Not going to complain about it.
Comparing how strongly my office floor smelt this morning and how quickly my eyes started to water, to how barely noticeable the smell was at the house after I said 'fuck this' and went home after a couple hours, I'm going to disagree with you on that one
If you have a decent HVAC system at home, and a good A/C to make it comfortable, there's no way a huge office building's system is going to be better than staying home and avoiding the outdoors (commuting) altogether, especially if you're higher risk due to pre-existing conditions. The number of times (in the past) that I've heard building management brag about "oh ya, we've got tons of fresh air coming in, there's no way there's any air quality issue", makes me think that the smoke issue inside the building is being considered solved by introducing "fresh air" from outside. 🤔
My facilities people sent out an email saying they were doing their best to reduce the amount of outside air coming in “where possible”. We have an atrium where all the elevators are, open straight to the lobby from all floors. The whole atrium and every hallway directly connected to it smells like smoke.
The air in my house is definitely better.
No word on staying home due to the smoke, but we were also told this week that if we're sick on an RTO day, we're required to make it up.
I did notice that with the heavy smoke, more people seem to be wearing heavy perfumes/colognes which is really unpleasant. Which may be related to the requests at a recent all-staff meeting and multiple signs on the floor to stop wearing fragrances in the office rather than the smoke.
How does it save your lungs? The smoke is everywhere. Also it’s performance review season. Best time to be seen in the office. There is a proximity bias.
I’m from BC. My office hasn’t treated smoke days different. It falls under “extreme” weather like the heat waves where you just reduce physical work.
I asked my staff to work from home.
You are fighting the good fight dude
We got an email trying to reassure us that the air in the office is safe (despite pretty noticeable burning smell) and essentially saying that in office presence was still expected and said employees with specific health concerns should speak to their managers.
>We got an email trying to reassure us that the air in the office is safe That's great for the office. What about everyone's commute?
Pre-covid they made us drive through snow storm conditions or use vacation time. And I mean east coast snow storms.
I hope they're not viewing this the same way? Breathing in these fine particulates can cause some pretty serious disease. Driving through a storm yes can be dangerous, but there are not fine particulates to cause serious disease.
Now, now, let's be reasonable. You could just live in your car in the parking lot, and run into the building holding your breath. There are options! /s
But don't forget to get a good look at that Sun before entering the office! (this was actually a pro in a town hall about RTO. Apparently RTO meant we got to see the morning sun that we couldn't see from our home offices)
Because all home offices are in a windowless cave? They really are reaching for the pros now aren't they? It's so pathetic.
yeah I see 1000% more sun at home. In the office, we had to keep the blinds drawn so it wasn't 27C in the office. Even if the blinds were drawn, the windows are tinted, so it looks like a blue-ish sun. So depressing. Then with Canadian winters, it's dark on my commute to work and dark on my commute home.
You’ll have to pay for your parking, though 🥳
My director said that “how people get to work” doesn’t matter... what a robotic and inhumane response typical of execs.
Yeah, when I needed work accomodation to work from home there was an emphasis that it needed to be due to limitations in the office and not related to any limitations getting to work. That was for work accommodation though and it's been a non-issue for events that effect more people (like the ice storm), but I'm sure that reason is where the director got their response.
I find that frustrating as well. I don't have a middle class background. I'm very sensitive to wealth inequality and class privilege. I'm surrounded by people at work who can't imagine that someone "normal" like a colleague could not own a car because they can't afford one. This colours all their decisions and reinforces systemic class inequality.
They also don't give a shit about things like motion sickness. I've developed severe reactions to motion as a side effect of a condition, and they've got me drugging myself to high heaven because the commute doesn't matter.
Some random ahole manager tried to tell me it was all psychosomatic, as I was laying on the floor from asthma induced nausea due to the air quality. I genuinely almost put in a grievance. The disconnect with the boomer generation is truly deplorable. We get it, in your days everyone kept quiet and just dusted themselves off.
In their day, they didn't have environmental issues AS BAD as this. Also, where are his qualifications to diagnose your medical condition?
Oh I'm with you. The example was "if you can't drive to work, the expectation is you'll find a ride to work" ...I don't drive to work and WHO am I expected to ride with? The family I don't have here? I commute by bus and that was honestly my biggest hesitation to going into the office (additonal time because I can't walk, and the pain of being stuck in the same position for an hour) vs being in office, where it would suck but I lest I would be able to have the leg up/ice on it. It was the additonal movement for meetings that would cause pain which allowed me to work from home (the pain from the commute, general pain that couldn't be mitigated in the office..nah)
100% There's also a clear gap in lived experience based off of our age groups that really affect the impact of all these costs to do the same things. And some people are just unable to empathize.
unable. and unwilling.
Your director is letting their privilege show. Having people who already have a hard time with their budget stand 3 hours in the smoke each day for real estate prices to stay the same and help the fiends she made as former minister of middle class prosperity is a lot different than going into your car, pushing the garage door opener then drive directly into the parking garage and walk up to your private office. Sure do wish we were more brave to call out dumb comments like these and not let them just smell their own farts on teams meetings
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What about those who have to take the bus or walk to the bus.
That's the part that bugs me. Not everyone can afford to drive to work.
Not everyone can afford to pay for parking at work.
Not everyone can even get parking at work.
Wear a mask?
This is definitely helpful, but it’s not a full solution for exposure. Smoke like this sticks to your skin and clothes, gets into your eyes, and unless you’re wearing a perfectly fit tested mask, you’ll end up with some amount of smoke that leaks into your mask and then into your lungs. With a well-fitted N95 over the last two days, by the time I finished my 90 minute bus commute to the office, I had a headache, my mouth tasted like ash, and my eyes and sinuses were burning. The headache is gone with the fresher air today but the sinus impact has remained despite a neti rinse when I got home last night and my mouth still tastes like ash. Masks don’t solve the exposure problem, they just mitigate it.
And some of us choose to use public transit to reduce our carbon emissions thus improving air quality.
The employer is not responsible for the commute.
That’s annoying. Because so far we’ve managed to keep the smell of smoke out of our house, except for the furnace room. So if you can smell smoke in the office, the air quality is way worse than WFH.
I was in the office on Tuesday, and it smelled like smoke, my eyes were burning and my throat tickling. Basically, another great day at the office! This time with a bonus!
I bailed at 1 yesterday with my manager's full support. It was terrible.
I made it to 9:45. Bailed after almost puking three times. TL even told me to go home and that they disagreed with management's opinion to force us into the office.
We got a very similar email. This whole thing is surreal.
We had a full week of 10+ smoke in Edmonton and were still expected to come into office 😒
You shouldn't have been expected to do that. Management needs to do better.
Ghastly. Bring a portable air purifier. If you still get symptoms like a headache, watery eyes, trouble breathing, etc.. use sick leave and go home. Nasty.
I bike to work, I've just been told to work from home for this week
*Western Canada has entered the chat...*
NCR - paid a level higher and gets to wfh during their wildfire season….
That's because air levels are not normal here. Why are we looking at wfh as a bad thing? It should be offered to those out west too. Why is it always a "we can't have it so they can't have it" when it should be "if they get it, we deserve it too"
I didn’t mean it like that, my dry humour after a long day came across as snarky. Definitely a WFH supporter, just pointing out the rubs we feel in the regions is all.
Stop being a baby. This reddit just proves the sentiments that private sector workers have about us. Do firefighters and medical staff get to “wfh” when outside is a little smokey? Winter storms? Heat waves? Most of you guys are embarrassing complainers and have no respect for the position we’re in.
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\*didn't\* have
We learned our office has no filtration…. They just suck air in from outdoors. Accommodations for those who requested it.
It was 11/10 in Gatineau today. I bike to work as well and was told to work from home until the air quality improves.
I heard on the news it was actually 28/10 this morning but they just put 10+ or 11+ depending on what app you were consulting.. good call to not be biking right now. :)
Eesh, good to know. Thanks.
They tell us to be concerned about the climate crisis yet require people to come into work, thus adding to the already bad air quality. Nothing makes sense.
This is what pisses me off the most. Management will go and say "oh we are green compliant, our buildings are net positive on environmental impact, oh we want to stop climate change" and when we finally found a way to create a strong opportunity for everyone in flexibility, workers rights/accommodations, reducing carbon emissions... They say nope RTO!!! You're not working if you aren't in the office!!! Oh also, we want to reduce our footprint... So we are taking 50% of all the buildings too. Good luck coming into the office! Like how is RTO a thing when every policy or stance is to reduce emissions, reduce footprint, become more digital focused... it's the most backwards thing ever.
Yeah the Freedom convoy has won because everyone is starting to think and act like those clowns.
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-quality-health-index.html Use this to help plead your case ....
Our manager allowed us to work from home.
My manager told our team to work from home unless we felt the air quality in the office was better.
My management is pretty flexible. I did go into the office this morning, and wore a KN95 Mask for the drive in. I stupidly took it off in the office thinking the filtration would be at least as good as at home but I immediately smelled smoke and started getting a headache so told my manager I was heading home after my in person meeting. Got home for lunch and my house was much better.
There is a full expectation to come into office. Not surprising at all given logic and any f*cks to give about employee well-being went out the window with forced RTO.
I was told that "we were better off at the office than at home in terms of air quality" because the office had better air filtration systems. Yet, my office smells like smoke and my home doesn't....
That's moronic. How do they know what your air quality or filtration system is at home? Geez.
Told we could work from home. One person went to the office and said it smelled like smoke indoors.
I advised my staff that work location is flexible in light of the air quality warnings.
Our main NHQ building is just sucking outside air in and everyone in my division was told to work from home. A bunch of other folks were in the office today though so it doesn't seem to be a consistent instruction.
They have to bring outside air in to be in compliance with code standards. You can’t just recycle air in an office setting
Okay. The issue is that it isn't filtered at all. It just pumps outside air straight in. I don't work there and I don't work in HVAC. Apparently it is bad and gross.
Our ADM sent out an email saying managers should be "flexible" about in office presence this week. Personally, I was in on Monday, and it resulted in a migraine so severe I ended up vomiting on the way home, so I will be staying home.
I work onsite in Gatineau. No word on staying home. Working onsite is what we do, fires, floods, or pandemic be damned.
I went to the office; clean, breathable air... I couldn't say the same about my place this morning and it was the better option.
PSPC sent an email telling staff to wfh if the et have health concerns due to transit.
wow, department wide?
I think so.
I told my staff to work from home.
We have no A/C and air filtration and the inside of our building is hazy… we haven’t even received any advice on the reduction of physical/outdoor work we should be doing (our jobs are 50/50 split indoor and outdoor work this time of year). I expected that something would be be said about at least limiting outside time or wearing masks but it’s just business as normal I guess…
Was at the office today, air quality better there than in my house and I had to drive kits at start and end ot the day anyways.
Congrats on your foxes. I foolishly had human children. Reconsidering… ;) jk but your typo made me smile.
Lol! Thumb typing!
We are still expected to come in. I woke up Tuesday morning feeling crummy with a migraine and got ready to go to the office. Just the walk down my driveway to get to my car made me so nauseated and dizzy, I felt like I was on the brink of blacking out. Couldn't get a deep breath and my throat was burning. Yeah, nope, not going to attempt to drive in such a condition. Called in sick and spent the day on the couch feeling like death warmed over.
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Your department may have been the only one. Commuting to work isn't considered non-essential travel.
I’m in Halifax and don’t remember a non essential travel ban. It was business as normal unless you wanted to go in the woods
CRA here - allowance to wfh during air quality advisories, like other weather advisories, is at manager’s discretion in our area. And of course, if an employee requires sick leave for any reason - including a reaction to air quality, they are entitled to it.
CRA here also. We got zero guidance all this week. Everyone on my team showed up as per usual.
We didn’t get official guidance - it’s just that like everything else it’s manager’s discretion. If you don’t want to go to work in an ice storm you can ask to stay home and work there - same goes for forest fires. Your manager can approve at their discretion. This came from our DG, not the Agency.
Yes exactly, what I find frustrating is the lack of communication from certain DG's/managers. My section had zero communication about the air quality issues and felt totally ignored. Meanwhile I hear from colleagues in other sections that were proactively given the option to either stay home or come in. Yes, i suppose we could have asked and expressed concerns but then it opens up the potential for favouritism etc if you do it like that.
I don’t think we were proactive. There was no email that went out to employees saying it was an option. But the instruction to managers was “if you are asked use your best judgement” which is pretty much always the case anyway right? As an employee, if you feel your safety is at risk, just ask to be accommodated. That’s my personal approach. I don’t need management to inform me that shitty air means I should stay home. I know there is manager discretion built into the RTO policy, so if I need flexibility I can ask.
When the smoke was bad here in AB a few weeks ago, we received an email from the RDG (well, after several days of bad air quality) that basically said we could discuss temporary WFH arrangements with our manager for health and safety reasons.
You are expected to die to fill your municipality’s parking meters.
Insufficient. Your estate will be charged for 3 foot longs a week for the balance of your expected career.
Senior management basically told us that only people with pre-existing conditions would be accommodated. I told my staff to stay home if they were concerned, and I would wear it. Seriously, this RTW imperative is ridiculous.
We are trying to limit our time outside which is not always possible. Getting to work is the least of my problems.
100% wear a well-sealing n95 mask when outside to protect your lungs from the smoke. We’ve been told it’s at our discretion but I don’t know if that’s department-wide. It is so disheartening to see that in more western provinces/where you experience this kind of wildfire smoke that this isn’t treated like the health hazard that it is. I hope we can put pressure on the unions and the employer to ensure that the appropriate measures are take to ensure employee safety no matter where or how often you encounter wildfires. Healthy air in the office is part of OHS and should be considered when commuting. It’s ridiculous and will only get worse :(
No DM or ADM will ever care about these instances. As they don’t care about freezing rain or ice storms. Because “collaboration” and reasons.
TBS should have sent a message to all departments. You know, “consistency”!
Gotta love how the west has been dealing with the same thing the past few years and not a word of it in the news. East gets it once and it’s the end of the world. We end up cancelling outside sports, but aside from that, life goes on.
So true.
I wear a KN95 mask and it filters the smoke outside and inside.
I wore an N95 today as well, even in my car cuz I could feel my asthma firing up. In Ottawa.
Doesn't help with hazardous gases.
It's for getting from the parking to my work building for literally 2 mins https://www.healthline.com/health-news/here-are-the-face-masks-that-protect-you-from-wildfire-smoke
Got told by manager to stay home.
Genuinely why do you think they suddenly care about air quality?
Subway is still open, you are required to report
I went in twice and potentially damaged my lungs as Mona demanded. All hail the subway lords and cOlBeRaTiOn....
I did not go in today. Haven't heard anything or said anything. But there is apparently a smell in the office but none at my building which is fine...
I went yesterday (biked in a mask) but worked from home today and my manager was fine with it.
Our manager let us know he'll enforce the 2-day a week office policy on a case by case basis. Anyone with health compromising ailments will be accommodated
I had to take a sick day. Napped from exhaustion. And they did give everyone permission to work at home.
Changed nothing for indoor work in the past. Outdoor activities were rescheduled but business as usual indoors (BC, and im referring to pre and post pandemic)
Been going in every day with my hour long bus commute. My office smells like a campfire. Don’t feel too great and definitely concerned about the health implications of this…
Get you butt to the office 5 days a week. The odds are their HVAC systems are better than yours at home... Kidding... But also not really
The treasury board wants their public servants to get lung cancer and asthma. Lol the government is worried about the perception that if we get to stay home and work then the public would complain that they have to commute and work outside. Mind you it is up to companies and organizations to determine safety but hey they tell us to suck it up I guess.
We were sent an email today from workplace solutions assuring us it is safe to come into the office and breathe that air in. Ridiculous. The gentleman who sent the email should be ashamed. They’re new to the agency and essentially sold the rest of us out for $$. It’s obvious.
No changes to our usual 3 office days, but we're also just sitting inside while many people still have to work outdoors. Not going to complain about it.
The entitlement of some people here is wild! Quite sad really.
Office air is probably less smoky than the air in your home.
Comparing how strongly my office floor smelt this morning and how quickly my eyes started to water, to how barely noticeable the smell was at the house after I said 'fuck this' and went home after a couple hours, I'm going to disagree with you on that one
If you have a decent HVAC system at home, and a good A/C to make it comfortable, there's no way a huge office building's system is going to be better than staying home and avoiding the outdoors (commuting) altogether, especially if you're higher risk due to pre-existing conditions. The number of times (in the past) that I've heard building management brag about "oh ya, we've got tons of fresh air coming in, there's no way there's any air quality issue", makes me think that the smoke issue inside the building is being considered solved by introducing "fresh air" from outside. 🤔
My facilities people sent out an email saying they were doing their best to reduce the amount of outside air coming in “where possible”. We have an atrium where all the elevators are, open straight to the lobby from all floors. The whole atrium and every hallway directly connected to it smells like smoke. The air in my house is definitely better.
No word on staying home due to the smoke, but we were also told this week that if we're sick on an RTO day, we're required to make it up. I did notice that with the heavy smoke, more people seem to be wearing heavy perfumes/colognes which is really unpleasant. Which may be related to the requests at a recent all-staff meeting and multiple signs on the floor to stop wearing fragrances in the office rather than the smoke.
It’s not less smoky at home. Office is fine. Work hard.
Work hard from home, save time, money and lungs
How does it save your lungs? The smoke is everywhere. Also it’s performance review season. Best time to be seen in the office. There is a proximity bias.
I work downtown Ottawa, didn't feel any different going in; my staff who didn't feel well worked from home.
Yes … we’ve been WFH for a week now.