If we’ve learned anything from the COVID pandemic, it’s that employers and employees have a wide variety of working arrangements to structure their relationships. We see everything from salaried workers to hourly to independent contractors, part-time student employment and so on.
To understand how many ways of doing things there are, just watch the daily briefings from Ottawa on wage subsidies. There are new details every day as the feds discover this group or that one doesn’t fit into the structure they announced on Day One.
We’re also seeing the relationships between workers and employers being redefined.
When an employee is asked to work from home, who is responsible for internet connections and fees, supplying equipment such as desks, laptops or chairs?
If a worker is not technology-enabled at home, employers may be inclined to lay them off rather than supply another printer or computer or office gear the company doesn’t need when this is over, defeating Ottawa’s hope that employment arrangements are sustained through this.
New employment policies are going to flow from this experience and tech-savvy workers equipped to work from home should think about adding that fact to their resume.
