I find it quite interesting that Ubisoft Montreal chose the same day as my employer to enforce 2 days in the office every week.
I'll accept that there is a 1 in 356.25 chance that any employer will pick a specific day to enforce a return to office, but it does seem interesting that there would be 2 employers in different countries picking the same day. Is there something special about that day that makes it a special day to change where and how people work? (I know that there were events on 2001 that took place on this day, but that doesn't seem too likely a reason to pick that particular day to enact this change)
It's a monday. So that's already more like 1 in 52. There's been like 5-20 news worthy "return to work" announcements in the past year, I'm guessing half othem have mandatory 2 days, the other half have mandatory 3 days.
Multiply that by the number of things that happen in your life where a coincidence of this level could happen and you should be seeing this kind of coincidence a many times each year.
These idiots are totally destroying work life balance but honestly, they do not care about our welfare or mental health. We are just human machines that they think they own.
What is completely laughable is how they have become advocates of the environment and reducing carbon. Yah, my unnecessary shitty commute is really not contributing! They turn a blind eye to that yo.
We recently went from 2 days to 3 days, and I chalked it up to our new CEO (old one replaced for unrelated reasons). Granted, many departments were full remote, in violation of company policy.
I'm hopeful that we can get back down to 2 days in office. However, if the industry goes for 3 days as standard, the might not be realistic.
To re-iterate, Ubisoft has done nothing to curb the sexual harassment issues that were reported ages ago and, frankly, simply not requiring return to office would've solved that problem along with a boost to employee happiness and workplace attractiveness.
I am truly fortunate to work for a game industry studio, also Montreal, that has not seen fit to do this. A good thing, as I was hired on fully remote from halfway across the country 😆
Even if I were local, working remote has been transformative for me to the point that it is a criteria in my job seeking. I won't, can't take a role without it.
If done right, with the right trust and understanding, remote work increases productivity for most butt-in-chair jobs.