In March 2020, Darren Mitchell was vice-president of operations at Wayfinder Corp., adjusting — like everyone else at the company — to the unfolding realities of a pandemic, working remotely as the world tried to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Five years later, much has changed at Wayfinder. For one, Mitchell is now president. Meanwhile, some aspects of the lockdowns have left a lasting legacy at his office. Notably, staff still work remotely once per week.

“As much as we can, for the Calgary office workers, we work four days in the office and one day a week — Fridays — we work from home. That’s our policy,” he told DOB Energy.

Wayfinder, a proppant solutions provider, prioritizes work completion and allows flexibility, Mitchell noted, so long as employees communicate their schedules with their managers.

“We’ve always been lenient that way.”

Hybrid work is a major post-pandemic trend across Canada’s energy sector and broader economy, evolving alongside workplace policies on collaboration, communication and employee wellbeing. Human resources experts note that employers recognize the benefits of reduced commuting and greater flexibility, while continuing to emphasize the importance of teamwork, in-person connection and effective use of technology.

Wendy Giuffre, president and principal consultant at Wendy Ellen Inc., said that based on her experience and industry feedback, one to two remote days per week is common, though not mandatory. She also highlighted instances where teams are required to be in the office on specific days, with additional flexible days. The pandemic formalized these trends.

“There’s a high expectation of hybrid — the ability to sort of work from home.”

Many energy companies are embracing hybrid models, Giuffre added, highlighting a growing emphasis on trust, team connection and work-life integration.

“People really understood [during the pandemic] how much time they were losing commuting, how much money they were spending on food, coffee, gas, et cetera. So, it just opened employees’ eyes to the fact they could still be very productive, get their work done, but not have to spend two hours on the road.”

Throughout Canada, one day remote and four days on-site is a current norm for office workers, suggested Matthias Spitzmuller, associate professor of organizational behaviour at the Smith School of Business, Queen’s University.

Larger firms require more presence, while smaller, more entrepreneurial firms typically are more flexible. However, he said, variation persists across industries as well — notably within the energy sector.

“For oil and gas, it has traditionally been on the more traditional, conservative side. There, you see employees are working much, much more again on-site than they used to [during the pandemic].”

As Mitchell recalls, certain Calgary firms fully returned to the office as soon as the government lifted restrictions — almost automatically.

Wayfinder took a more measured approach. While he resumed in-office work immediately, the company allowed its employees to ease back to “normal.” Ultimately, once the COVID-19 restrictions subsided, Wayfinder offered its one-day remote work policy. “We just decided to mandate that Fridays would be our flex day.”

Recruitment matters

Some clients are more rigid than Wayfinder, Mitchell noted, requiring employees to be in the office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday — a stark contrast to more relaxed environments on the remote working front. Those stricter policies can make it harder to attract and retain top talent, particularly with younger generations, he added. “Certainly, if you’re rigid, then I can’t imagine that’s a good thing for hiring. It just holds you back.”

Another consideration on the personnel front is remote recruiting, said Giuffre, where companies hire talent from anywhere, since location is no longer the same barrier it once was. This raises questions about compensation — specifically, whether salaries should be adjusted based on the cost of living in a given employee’s location. “Some companies following that methodology are actually choosing to hire from lower-cost centres.”

Spitzmuller finds it interesting how many startups tend to favour virtual work over mandated office presence. Their focus is on getting the job done, staying afloat and reaching clients — priorities that often outweigh the need to gather in person. It raises a key question: Do the productivity gains from working independently truly outweigh the benefits of a stronger corporate culture and in-person connections? “I think we still need answers when it comes to that equation.”

Evidence-based approach

Most firms across industries rarely base their remote-working policies on systematic, evidence-based approaches to determining the best time in the office or the best time working virtually, according to Spitzmuller. Instead, the values of the managers — whoever makes the decisions — drive the outcome. That is not how it should be.

“We should look at the productivity of employees when they’re working on-site or at home, comparing and not just letting the personal values of senior managers drive that decision, which is my experience of how this is usually done.”

By Spitzmuller’s estimation, workplaces are now approximately 80 per cent back to pre-COVID norms. However, he questions whether this return is due to habit and leadership preferences or actual effectiveness. While managers like flexibility for themselves, he said, they often do not extend it to their employees to the same degree, believing in-office presence supports collaboration and culture — though they do not always hold themselves to the same standard.

“The research finds the presumed productivity reductions of people working from home don’t take place. And so, people are not less productive when working from home. This is simply not true. There is indeed an effect on the strength of personal relationships and the strength of a culture — that also is true. But I would also argue that these effects don’t necessarily generalize to all firms of all sizes and industries.”

Spitzmuller believes organizations should run internal trials comparing different work arrangements to make evidence-based decisions on productivity and engagement. Too many managers still rely on gut feelings.

“Companies would be well advised to also investigate this internally based on their own industry, business models and culture, and what works best for them. There’s no one-size-fits-all.”

‘Hotdesking’ trend

Even organizations asking employees to return to the office are often changing how space is used, Spitzmuller said, with personal desks becoming less common and more shared spaces and fewer private offices. The focus is on creating collaborative spaces that encourage people to work together when they are on-site. “That’s definitely a trend that has continued regardless of the return to the office.”

Indeed, dedicated personal desks are less common, said Giuffre, replaced by flexible, plug-and-play workstations. Teams often follow staggered, mandated office days — such as one group coming in Tuesdays and Thursdays, another on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — a practice that started during COVID and has continued. “You come in, plug in and work away. Obviously, if companies have downsized, then they don’t have individual office space necessarily.”

Some companies have removed dedicated desks, Mitchell noted, expecting part-time office staff to work wherever space is free. However, he sees this as potentially frustrating for employees and counterproductive, as it adds confusion and makes collaboration harder by diminishing many of the benefits of being all together on-site.

Wayfinder has not taken this approach, particularly since staff are in the office about 80 per cent of the time, and everyone works the same day remotely. The president is not a fan of staggering his staff’s office time. “It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Maybe the savings are worth it, but I’d say at that point you might as well just go fully remote. If you think you can work from home more than 50 per cent of the time, then I’d say just do it all the time.”

Meeting virtually

Virtual meetings certainly have become the norm since COVID-19, Spitzmuller said. However, he added, this can lead to greater emotional exhaustion and weaker cultural and interpersonal benefits compared to in-person interactions. “How much of this is evidence-based, driven by the desire to impact our effectiveness, or how much of that is simply because it has become the dominant form of how we hold a meeting?”

However, Mitchell sees no issue with virtual or in-person meetings, favouring flexibility. Wayfinder’s meetings are typically hybrid, allowing attendees to join remotely or in person. Personally, he often prefers remote participation for tasks such as financial reviews, where access to multiple screens and the ability to multitask without disrupting others helps him engage more effectively and prepare thoughtful questions.

“I’d say the more important part is generally just having a well-structured meeting, agenda and instructions you’re going to adhere to. That’s more important than whether it’s virtual or in person.”

Lasting impact

Remote work has raised unresolved legal questions around workplace safety, confidentiality and liability, Giuffre said. Issues such as liability around home office accidents and file security are prompting litigation and scrutiny from workers’ compensation boards and insurers, but clear resolutions may still be years away.

An interesting trend she has noticed since the pandemic is that the stigma around staying home from work when sick largely has disappeared.

“Another thing that I’ve seen a difference in is how companies offer personal days, which includes sick time, also realizing that the whole issue with daycare and those kinds of things have changed as well, where [daycare facilities] don’t accept children who are at all sick.”

For Mitchell, the pandemic demanded a swift shift to remote work, which brought early technological hurdles but ultimately enabled flexibility and remote collaboration.

His team gradually returned to the office, eventually adopting a four-day in-office model with a designated flex day, balancing productivity needs with the realities of a changing work environment. “It’s been pretty exciting — a lot of different changes over the past five years. It’s gone very well.”