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Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | |
COMPENSATION
Cha-Ching! A day at the office costs more than you think
Spending a day in the office can be a shock to the wallet ― and most employees want employers to shoulder some of the financial burden
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INFLATION MAY HAVE cooled off this year for many things, but according to new data from Owl Labs’ annual State of Hybrid Work report, going to the office is not one of them: the average price of an in-office day hit $61 USD this year (about $85 CAD), up nearly 20 per cent from last year.
How’s that broken down? According to Owl Labs, commuting rings up $17 a day in vehicle and gas costs, while parking adds another $10. Breakfast and coffees will run you about $13 a day, and if you’re buying lunch, that’s another $21.
“For some workers, their resistance to going to the office comes down to dollars and cents. Workers are still paying substantially more each day they go to the office than they do when they work remotely,” the report found. “This may be why 22 per cent of hybrid workers said that if they were no longer allowed to work remotely or hybrid, they would expect a pay increase to make up for the additional costs.”
On the flip side, one in five workers said they would give up as much as 10 per cent of their salary in exchange for more flexibility.
“If you’re being asked to go into the office five days a week, an additional $300 a week in expenses is really, really high,” said Owl Labs CEO Frank Weishaupt. “I think that the long-term concern is employees are going to look for more hybrid opportunities and more remote opportunities.”
Canadian workers ― especially those in commute-heavy cities like Toronto or Vancouver ― are feeling this and are increasingly looking to their employers to cover some of these costs. A 2024 survey from Capterra found that 88 per cent of workers feel that employers should cover at least part of the cost of parking, 56 per cent said that employers should subsidize part of the cost of eating, and 47 per cent thought that employers should chip in for the cost of gas.
“What was once a foregone conclusion ― employees pay all the costs to be at work ― can no longer be assumed,” said Brian Westfall, an analyst with Capterra. “If you’re an HR leader or other executive charged with motivating your company’s workforce to return to the office, you may need to share at least some of these costs with your employees.”
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TECHNOLOGY
What’s old is new again
A new role is emerging that bridges the gap between human expertise and machine learning: the AI librarian
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WHEN YOU THINK of the librarian profession, you might think of stern glances, forceful shushing and the Dewey Decimal System. Well, maybe it’s time to update your perceptions, as a new type of librarian ― the AI Librarian ― may become one of the more important technical jobs of the future.
“As AI-based applications grow, so too does the need for talent with the expertise and skills to create business value from them,” reads a new report from Korn Ferry. “Librarians and insurance actuaries are skilled at collecting, organizing and analyzing data.”
It would be fair to say that thus far, AI has produced only negligible benefits, and most companies would probably say they are still figuring out what to do with the new technologies being rolled out. The notion that firms need AI librarians comes from the thinking that while AI is good at producing large volumes of information and data, software engineers are not necessarily adept at turning that into useful insights ― and that’s where the AI librarian steps in.
For instance, one AI librarian, Dougal Martin of the HR company Deel, explains that his company maintains a knowledge base of 20,000 articles, which grows by about 10 per cent each month. His job involves using a custom AI tool (DeelAI) to pull answers to compliance questions from that large database. Martin’s team creates and manages that database and needs to have a clear understanding not only of what’s contained within it, but how the AI will interact with it to produce its output. It is, he suggests, the missing link in the chain that makes AI tools effective.
“The baseline infrastructure about content, the knowledge base has to be human generated,” Martin said. “A human performed that analysis. A human said, ‘This is what’s going to happen.’”
“The evolution of technology is creating roles that merge traditional skills like information management with modern demands in data-driven environments,” pointed out Jaycee Schwarz, a talent acquisition manager at Prizeout. “It reflects a growing understanding across industries that managing the flow and structure of information is just as crucial as developing the technology itself.”
So, if you’re looking for a new line of work, becoming an AI librarian may make you a hot commodity in the future. And you won’t even need to shush anyone.
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Terry Talks: Humankind. Be both
| Uncertainty reigns entering the final full week of the 2024 campaign with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a razor-thin U.S. presidential contest. Whatever the outcome, the anger and vitriol that has taken centre stage serves as a not-so-gentle reminder of the simple yet profound message of “Humankind – be both,” and of the enduring qualities of being friendly, generous and considerate. | | | |
CAREERS
Making blue collar cool again
The skilled trades are appealing to the youngest cohort of workers. But will it last?
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WHILE MANY PEOPLE may have their eyes on a professional career in an emerging role (an AI librarian, perhaps), a growing number of next-generation workers have their eyes on something much different: blue-collar jobs.
According to CreditKarma, which recently conducted a large Harris Poll on the topic, 50 per cent of Gen Z say they plan on entering a blue-collar trade for their career. “As the promise of a four-year degree falls short, and the cost to receive a degree climbs, young people are making blue-collar jobs cool again,” the survey found.
What’s attracting Zoomers to blue-collar gigs is pretty much the same thing turning them away from white-collar jobs: they perceive the trades as having better work-life balance, job security and job availability, and they don’t fear that blue-collar workers will be replaced with AI (two thirds of people believe blue collar workers have much more security in this regard).
“It’s refreshing to see young adults taking notice and interest in these lines of work, especially considering how challenging it’s been for new grads to find white-collar jobs,” said CreditKarma’s consumer financial advocate Courtney Alev. “The traditional four-year degree path isn’t one-size-fits-all, and vocational and trade schools may offer an affordable path to well-paying, skilled trade jobs.”
It’s also being taken as a sign that entrepreneurial interests are shifting away from techy, app-based jobs to more small business ownership.
“Roughly three quarters [of respondents] believe trade professionals have a better chance at becoming a business owner than corporate professionals,” CreditKarma said. “And they’re not wrong.”
Whether it holds is going to be the important question going forward, suggested ADP Research.
“A toolbelt generation would be good news for employers and policymakers worried about shortages of skilled labor,” they wrote. “While the share of blue-collar workers varies seasonally, our analysis reveals that the rising share of blue-collar employment among young workers has stalled as the broader labour market cools. We can’t say whether Gen Z prefers blue collar work any more than previous generations did. But just because we aren’t sure that a new generation of blue-collar workers has emerged doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to create one.”
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HEALTH & WELLNESS
Are you sitting down? Standing desks are overrated
Bad news, home office grunts. Standing desks could actually be bad for you
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THE MARKET FOR standing desks has been booming for a few years now with little sign of slowing down. Often touted as an antidote to the negative health effects of sitting at a desk all day, by 2032 the market for standing desks is expected to grow to over $12 billion USD, according to Global Market Insights.
“Rising awareness of the negative health effects associated with prolonged sitting, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorders has driven interest in standing desks as a solution for promoting physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour,” the Global Market report from this August reads. “Standing desks are part of broader ergonomic initiatives aimed at creating healthier and more comfortable work environments.”
But a new study takes aim at that belief, suggesting that the benefits of standing desks have been way overinflated, and that while they may be a popular way for people to work, they don’t compensate for inactivity and “may even increase the risk of conditions such as swollen veins and blood clots in the legs,” reported The Guardian.
The Australian study looked at over 80,000 adults in the UK and concluded that standing desks offer no real lasting benefits. “The key takeaway is that standing for too long will not offset an otherwise sedentary lifestyle and could be risky for some people in terms of circulatory health,” said the lead researcher, Dr. Matthew Ahmadi. “We found that standing more does not improve cardiovascular health over the long term and increases the risk of circulatory issues.”
That isn’t to say that sitting is any better ― you’re stationary in either case. “It’s not just standing. It’s sedentary behaviour that is problematic ― not moving,” said Simon Fraser University health sciences professor Scott Lear. “It’s a different posture than sitting. But as this study showed, it comes also with its own risks.”
The large sample size makes this a fairly robust study, and it helps to reinforce something workplace experts have started to realize ― that regular movement is the correct way to offset the effects of stationary work, not a change in posture.
A few months ago, we wrote about the idea of “movement snacks” in this newsletter ― five-minute breaks periodically throughout the day to walk around or move your body in some way. That, it seems, is the gold standard way to prevent the negative health effects of prolonged stationary work.
“Embracing a more active lifestyle, both in and out of the office, is likely to yield the greatest health benefits,” wrote Jack McNamara in The Conversation. “It’s not just about standing or sitting; it’s about moving more and sitting less.”
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