Concerns about the rapid spread of the Omicron variant are throwing a wrench into company plans for a broader return to the office in January and putting added pressure on local businesses that had benefited from higher foot traffic in commercial districts.said it was pausing a pilot return-to-office project until the end of January and would not add more employees to the program, which was
Though most of Canada’s largest employers had yet to issue company-wide orders to bring employees back to the workplace regularly, increasing numbers of people had been turning up at offices either voluntarily or with gentle encouragement from their superiors. The emergence of Omicron, on the cusp of the Christmas holidays, now threatens to reverse that trend, at least in the short term.
Christine Leadman, the executive director of the Bank Street BIA in downtown Ottawa, said the pandemic has been devastating for businesses in her city’s core, which includes a number of office buildings owned by the federal government.She said there seemed to be an increase in the number of workers returning to the office this fall, which generated some optimism among her members. But she said a number of the businesses in her district are raising concerns about the variant.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and will promptly apply the required changes to our return to office plans,” Erin Dermer, a Telus spokesperson, said in an e-mail., the country’s largest insurer, announced last month that it plans to reopen buildings on Jan. 24, implementing hybrid work arrangements that will require staff to come in three days a week. A company spokesperson declined to comment on the status of that plan Tuesday.