Square Enix Montréal has been allowing employees to return to the office on a casual basis since early September, after it was forced to shut due to the outbreak in March 2020. At this time, just about 20 people — a small proportion of the 150 local employees — are reporting to work each day.
Nedjma Belbahri, the communications director of Square Enix Montréal, will not really miss the days before the virus sent everyone home. That’s because she didn’t begin to work for the cell game designer until later. “They closed the office on Friday, and I started on Monday,” Belbahri explained, flashing back to March 2020.
The corporation quickly sent computers, desks, and other items to its employees so they could work from home. It wasn’t a simple transition for everyone, but they managed to pull it off. Today, Square Enix Montréal is a few months into a steady process of reintroducing its employees to the office – with their permission and with some changes to the way things are done.
“I don’t believe everything has to be the same,” Belbahri explained.”I think we need to stop hoping to go back [to the way things were] because no one’s going to go back.”
Decision-makers in companies across Canada are considering how their actual workspaces should function as they anticipate how their employees will utilize them in the future — although if their employees actually spend less time there in the years ahead.
This is prompting modifications to those spaces, such as enhancements to office equipment and infrastructure, as well as a rethinking of how people will work there.
Source: CBC News
