One in Three (32%) Working Canadians Say They’d Look for Another Job if Their Employer Forced Them to Work Exclusively at the Office/Workplace

Toronto, ON, May 6, 2022 – Many working Canadians want the changes that the pandemic brought to the workplace to be permanent and are willing to change jobs to find an employer that allows them to work from home, according to a new Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Global News.

One in three (32%) say that they’d look for another job if their employer forced them to work exclusively from the office, a sentiment more widely held among those aged 18-34 (42%) than those aged 35-54 (29%) and 55+ (22%). Residents of Quebec (39%) are most likely to say so, followed by those living in Atlantic Canada (33%), Ontario (32%), British Columbia (30%), Alberta (23%) and Saskatchewan and Manitoba (21%).

Moreover, 15% have already changed jobs in the past year so that they could continue to work from home, once again more common among those aged 18-34 (24%) than working Canadians aged 35-54 (11%) or 55+ (6%).

Nearly half (44%) acknowledge that their employer has now adopted flexible working arrangements where they didn’t exist prior to the pandemic. Workers in Ontario are most likely (51%) to say their workplace has adopted a flexible model, followed by those living in Atlantic Canada (43%), BC (43%), Quebec (38%), Alberta (34%) and Saskatchewan and Manitoba (28%). Interestingly, among those who are optimistic about the future, 49% agree that their employer has adopted flexible policies, while only 26% of those who are pessimistic about the future say their workplace has adopted a flexible workplace.

But flexibility goes both ways, and many are willing to give up some of their pay in order to achieve flexibility: nearly four in ten (36%) say they would take a job for less pay if they could work at home instead of the office.

While many like the flexibility of working from home, this doesn’t mean that all Canadians are willing to eschew the workplace permanently for the comfy confines of their home office. In fact, four in ten (42%) say that the pandemic has taught them that they are happiest working at their place of work rather than at home. Perhaps surprisingly, nearly half (48%) of those aged 18-34 say this is the case.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between April 14 to 19, 2022, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 585 working Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 4.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all working Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.
For more information on this news release, please contact:

Sean Simpson
Senior Vice President

+1 416 324 2002
[email protected]

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