University of Toronto Requires Staff in Office 5 Days A Week: Why It’s A Step-Back on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
With Toronto being one of the 2 “impossibly unaffordable” cities in Canada, a weakened Canadian economy, and sky-high unemployment rate in Canada, University of Toronto has just decided to make everything worse for its staff.
If you listened closely enough, you might have heard a collective groan from all the staff at the University of Toronto (U of T) last Friday—landed in our inbox was what was essentially a return-to-office (RTO) mandate.
I really like how a Redditor described the email:
“6 paragraphs of corporate speak garbage to say come back to the office.”
View original Reddit screenshot
As a U of T full-time staffer, this really hits home. I’d dreaded this moment to come after seeing RTO mandates from big corporations like TD Bank, BMO, and even the Ontario government.
I’ve had many strong feelings against the whole RTO trend and on why it goes against all the pledges these big institutions love to make on supporting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), so I’m taking this opportunity to share my thoughts.
Some clarifications
Before I make my case, I want to make a few things clear:
- I’m not saying everyone should have the option to work from home (WFH) no matter what. For positions that require the employees’ physical presence on-site regularly, like a circulation clerk at a library or a construction worker, then obviously that makes total sense. No one is saying you should try to do these jobs from home; don’t be obtuse.
- I have nothing against the act of “going into the office” itself; what I have issue with is, specifically, being forced to go into office when your job is not dependent on you being physically in the office.
- I’m using the terms “WFH” and “hybrid work” interchangeably here. When I say “WFH,” I’m not saying 100% remote work. I’m referring to the flexibility of WFH when an employee’s tasks can be completed without them being in the office.
The “we’ve done it for decades so it’s fine” argument—seriously?!
It’s common to see some people say it’s silly or self-entitled to make a big deal out of having to go into the office 5 days a week when we’ve been doing so since forever.
First of all, sexism has been around for even longer, so does that mean it’s fine? What kind of logic is that?
Second, maybe it’s just me, but I was under the impression that we as a society strives to improve our quality of life when possible? So get your “it’s been like this for a long time so why change it” kind of arguments out of here.
Why return-to-work mandates go against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)
It’s well-established that RTO mandates hurt DEI; a quick Google search will tell you that.
But here’s my analysis.
Harvard Business School defines DEI as:
- Diversity: The presence and participation of individuals with varying backgrounds and perspectives, including those who have been traditionally underrepresented
- Equity: Equal access to opportunities and fair, just, and impartial treatment
- Inclusion: A sense of belonging in an environment where all feel welcomed, accepted, and respected
Unsurprisingly, it’s not just about racism like this Redditor thought:
“I still don't understand why going to work, in person, is ‘anti DEI’ and essentially racist?”
View original Reddit screenshot
It’s about everyone.
Once you’ve read up on what DEI is about, it’s very easy to see why the hybrid work model is inherently a “powerful DEI-enabler” and why RTO mandates are anti-DEI.
The flexibility of WFH when possible isn’t just a nice-to-have benefit that people want simply because they don’t want to get out of bed at the crack of dawn to go to work.
People have come to really value it because it not only improves their quality of life, work-life balance, and mental/physical health, but it also allows people with many responsibilities—like young parents, single parents, people living with disabilities, caregivers—to have a chance at juggling a full-time job and those responsibilities without being drained to the bone at the end of the day or week.
Hybrid work benefits women & young parents
Studies and surveys have shown that hybrid work has many benefits for women, for example, with one company reporting 20% increase in female workforce participation and The Canadian HR Reporter stating that 61% of women in minority groups felt empowered to advance their career, both thanks to hybrid work.
I mean, do we really need stats to know this? It’s like saying “show me evidence that proves that abiding by traffic laws leads to safer roads.”
It’s not rocket science that working mothers—or any young parents—will benefit from the flexibility of WFH.
When a heterosexual couple has a new baby, who’s more likely to be expected to make more sacrifice to take care of the baby? It shouldn’t be the mother by default, but we live in a patriarchal and sexist society.
I keep reading about Canada having, by definition, “ultra low” birth rates right now, and somehow big employers think it’s a great time to get people back into the office 4 or 5 days a week.
Some U of T staffers who are young parents shared on Reddit about how the hybrid work model helped make parenting easier:
“I do actually like being in the office with my coworkers a few times a week, but more than 2–3 is totally unnecessary. As it stands, I make dinner for my family most days while my partner also works and kids have school. Coming in more days than I already do will make me and everyone on my team worse at our jobs, miserable, and significantly stress our families.”
View original Reddit screenshot
“The worst part is that this mandate will inordinately affect women as they are the typical caregivers and being able to WFH actually let you have work-life balance. For all of the university's bluster over caring about mental health and WLB [work-life balance], this just proves they don’t.”
View original Reddit screenshot
“I'm also a young parent with a 7-month-old, and these are my feelings too. While I don't live too far from campus, maybe a 20-minute bike ride, we had a great system where at least one person was in our office, so there was always representation, but it afforded me 2 days to work from home where I could help my partner in urgent situations, but still complete my work as needed. I actually generally work later and longer hours at home, but I still prefer it.”
View original Reddit screenshot
How U of T’s RTO mandate will exacerbate Toronto’s unaffordability issue
Let’s try another angle: U of T is located in the heart of downtown Toronto, one of Canada’s most unaffordable cities in terms of…well, everything, but especially housing.
Renting is crazily expensive; housing prices are crazily expensive.
During the pandemic or shortly after, WFH had allowed many to either rent a cheaper place or find a home they can afford to buy further outside the City of Toronto, in the suburbs.
If you only have to come to the office a couple of times a week or even a month, doing a 4-hour roundtrip commute is definitely doable, but most people won’t want to do that if they need to come to the campus 5 days a week.
A RTO mandate essentially makes it much harder for people who can’t afford to live in the city to keep their job at U of T or to get a job at U of T.
So it’s a clear step back in terms of DEI:
- job opportunities at U of T are more accessible to those who already live in the city, those who can afford to move to the city, those who have less responsibilities and therefore can afford to commute longer hours, etc
- U of T staffers who have built their lives around their existing hybrid work schedules have to now either make significant changes to their lives or consider finding employment elsewhere
You can obviously swap out “U of T” and replace it with another company/institution and the points will still stand.
Going into office regularly also means increased in transportation costs. A roundtrip of TTC (Toronto’s public transit) cost 1,650 a year. For a couple, that would be an unnecessary ~$3,300 extra expense a year.
There’s a reason why many consider RTO policies to be a pay cut and many are willing take a pay cut to find a job that allows them to work in a hybrid or remote manner—it’s no surprise some Redditors believe U of T’s RTO mandate is partially motivated by downsizing the staff.
How RTO mandates can affect people living with medical conditions
Here’s another angle. There are people out there who are living with health issues that might require frequent medical appointments and/or treatments.
Hybrid work allows them to go to their appointments and do whatever they need to do for their conditions without having to use up sick days. They can just make up for the time after they get home.
Medical appointments can often be just 1 or 2 hours and located far away from the work office. If an employee had to be on-site 4 or 5 days a week, that means they would have to take half or a full sick day every time they need to go to an appointment. There won’t be enough sick days in the world for them to realistically do that.
Let’s say an employee has a 1-hour appointment at 1pm. Do you really expect them to commute 1 hour to work in the morning, leave for the appointment at 12pm, commute another hour back to work after the appointment, and then commute another hour back home after work? And then do this multiple times a week?
It’s bad for DEI no matter how you look at it.
You might say institutions like U of T have accommodations for that, but, from what I’ve heard, they are surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) convoluted and don’t always apply depending on your condition(s).
I have chronic meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) that requires me to cleanse and put hot compress on my eyelids up to 3 times a day. If I don’t, my eyes will become very irritated and I’d be too distracted to focus on any work. It’s a minor condition in the grand scheme of things, but it’s going to be a challenge to do this if I had to go into the office 5 days a week.
You can imagine how much worse it can be for those with much more serious chronic conditions.
Does “in-person experience” as a justification really make sense in U of T’s RTO letter?
If you read U of T President’s letter, you will see that she talks about “in-person experience” a lot:
This in-person experience is the foundation of our vibrant campus life.
Sounds reasonable, but such a rationale quickly fails to make sense once you consider the fact that 1) most U of T staff whose physical presence is required on-site is already working on campus 5 days a week, and 2) the policy doesn’t seem to take into account that there is staff whose physical presence on campus doesn’t contribute to the “in-person experience.”
“Bringing everyone back to the office doesn’t actually help students. Hybrid already gave them flexible service. Forcing full in-person just slows staff down, makes them more frustrated, and cuts off students who can’t always be on campus. On top of that, traffic is unreliable, so both students and staff are crowding TTC now. And let’s be real, when everyone’s crammed together, sickness spreads faster, which just means more people out sick and even less support. Honestly, it feels like more barriers, not benefits, for students.
Also have you ever been standing in line for one hour in the financial support office? (All in person and pre-COVID.) How is that better than a scheduled online meeting?”
View original Reddit screenshot
My job at U of T belongs to the latter, so let me tell you how unnecessary it is for me to be on campus on a regular basis.
I work as a videographer and video editor, and so the only times I’m physically needed on campus is when I need to shoot videos; otherwise, my job is done entirely, 100%, perfectly at the computer by myself—just like any other professionals in the same field.
This is what my work day would look like if I go to the campus when I have no videos to shoot:
- Get up an hour early before I need to leave to shower, eat breakfast, get ready, etc
- A 2-transfer, 1- to 1.5-hour commute on the TTC, pending service disruptions
- Arrive at the office and work at my computer until lunch
- At lunch time, come out of the office to heat up food, then come back to the office to eat food
- Continue working until end of work day
- A 1.5-hour commute home.
So how exactly do I add to the “in-person experience” on campus? I would love to hear what the decision-makers would have to say.
There are plenty of U of T staffers like me, and the across-the-board RTO mandate really just makes no sense.
Why wasn’t the actual staff consulted?!
Something I found to be profoundly funny is this line in the letter:
Following discussions with academic and administrative leaders…
Uh, what about actual staff who are actually in the trenches doing the work, keeping the university running? I guess the overlords don’t think there’s any need to discuss with us.
And who are these “academic and administrative leaders”?
How many of them are on the Ontario sunshine list (public workers in Ontario who make over 100K a year)?
How many of them live close to the campus?
How many of them have a big, comfy office with their own washrooms?
I want to be clear again: there’s nothing wrong with going on-site when you physically need to be there to do your job.
I used to work at the front-desk at a library. I didn’t mind going in because I literally had to be there physically to do my job and provide services to library patrons.
What I absolutely don’t want is going into office just to sit on my bum for 8 hours and do tasks on my computer that can be done at home. That’s just a waste of my time, energy and money.
So what now?
For now, the RTO letter from the U of T President is more like a notice. No one knows how things will play out in January 2026 when the mandate comes into force.
U of T is a huge institution with very decentralized departments. For a while now, I know that many supervisors have allowed their subordinates to unofficially work in a hybrid manner because that’s the kind and humane thing to do. I’m sure those supervisors will continue to do so as much as they can.
Also, most U of T staff is fortunately part of strong, capable unions who have put in legal protections for hybrid work arrangement (officially called “Alternative Work Arrangement” or “AWA”).
I was approved for an AWA, and I can tell you that AWAs, while they are better than nothing, are not very flexible to begin with.
You have to designate specific days of the week to come in on a regular basis, so if my in-office days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and I have a video shoot on a Monday, but not the Tuesday or Wednesday, that means I would have to be in the office on my WFH day, and then be in the office again for no reason for two other days.
It’s an extremely flawed policy to begin with that doesn’t really lend much flexibility in practice, not to mention that your AWA needs to be approved by someone usually more senior than your supervisor, so they could just reject it and make you go in more often.
While it would require a hard fight with the unions before U of T can force all staff to come to campus 5 days a week, this RTO mandate is a sign that the hybrid work model is no longer being supported by U of T, and pessimistically, I would argue that it’s only a matter of time before hybrid work is only available to people in the upper echelons.
I’ve been working at U of T for over 5 years now, starting as a graduate student. There are many things I love about working here, but this RTO policy is a very disappointing move by the university, and I wish it had taken a stronger stance on DEI as a leading Canadian university than following the footsteps of corporations and the Ford government.
It’s a sad time to be a U of T staffer right now.
Other great comments on Reddit re: U of T’s RTO letter
“Of all the groups that piss me off with this, universities are at the top of the list. When COVID hit, a bunch of students banded together and said, ‘Hey, we can't get to campus, how about a few bucks back?’
The school came back with a long-winded ‘no’.
What they effectively said is that there is no value to the campus experience as part of a university education... but it's super important now when it's not money out of their pocket.
F**king hypocrites. [beeped by me]”
View original Reddit screenshot
“I'm not that senior but I have a bunch of people reporting to me whose work lives will be pretty significantly changed by this memo and I had no idea.”
View original Reddit screenshot
Disclaimer: Everything I wrote here reflects my own views as a U of T staffer and alumnus who cares about how our institution’s policies can affect real people and set examples for others. I’ve quoted others, but interpretations and opinions are entirely mine.
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