The landscape of office cleaning and maintenance, which has evolved over the last 15 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, may never be the same again. A major factor in how office maintenance may shift in the long term is that the vast majority of Canadian workers seem to have no intent or desire to return to the office on a full-time basis.

A recent poll by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies found that 82 per cent of Canadian respondents who have worked from home during the pandemic found the experience to be very or somewhat positive.

Just 20 per cent want to return to the office every day once they can, and another one-fifth (19 per cent) said they never want to go back. In fact, 35 per cent of those surveyed in Canada even agreed when asked that they would begin hunting for another job that would allow them to work from home if they were ordered to return to the office by their current employers.

The top three reasons for preferring to continue to work from home were convenience, saving money, and increased productivity.

That doesn’t mean Canada is ready to abandon the office entirely, though. Almost 60 per cent of those surveyed said they would prefer to return to the office part-time or occasionally.

For those office facilities that do have workers returning now or in the future, it is more crucial than ever for organizations to provide clean, safe, and healthy environments for staff and visitors.

The survey queried 1,647 Canadians and 1,002 Americans between May 21 to 23.