Business View Magazine | October 2020

15 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2020 Adrian Foster, Mayor of the Municipality of Clarington, Ontario: “I think there’s going to be a happy medium, going forward. In our office, we’ve had discussions around “why would we bring people back?” because this is the new norm. And we’ve come to the realization that, for one thing, humans are social creatures – there’s the meeting after the meeting that was frequently really important. And the creativity and relationships that are made in the office and around the water cooler. So I think we’re going to see far more flexibility. I believe there has been a change but I still see a need for people to gather face to face. A lot of things we held dear, there was a good reason for. “On the other hand, we’ve seen tremendous flexibility from the Union and that was a benefit to us. People were doing jobs that they didn’t expect to be doing but guess what? They didn’t want to lay anyone off because there were jobs available. And if someone really doesn’t want to take a sick day and they aren’t feeling well, then work from home. I think there will be some real benefits. If I’m expecting you to work 7 ½ hours, I’m not sure if I really care whether that starts after you get your kids to school, or if you need to show up at work at 8:30 or 9. So I think some good changes can come out of this.” Win Blodgett, President of Holland Pump Company: “For one, you have to trust your employees. I talk with a lot of CEOs about this issue and some of them don’t think it will work Power Question Given the way businesses have pivoted during COVID-19, how prevalent do you think remote work will be going forward?