Winnipeg | Wawanesa Insurance HQ | 92.2M | 23F

[Doogie5]

That’s a big building for staff to work from home

[Wpg_Guy]

Wawanesa in the skyline

[Komatiite]

Originally Posted by Doogie5

That’s a big building for staff to work from home

Seems certain that RTO is inevitable within a couple of years.

[Winnipegger]

Originally Posted by Komatiite

Seems certain that RTO is inevitable within a couple of years.

Full RTO is inevitable? Maybe for only the most conservative and outdated corporations and governments. But more and more indicators seem to be suggesting that employees are winning in their fight for more flexible working arrangements and having some sort of hybrid of working some of the week at home is winning.

Full or hybrid work from home arrangements are quite possibly one of the easiest and cheapest ways to maintain employee happiness and business competitiveness while simultaneously reducing city congestion and infrastructure depreciation and reducing carbon emissions. The fact that so many corporations are trying to fight tooth and nail for return to office despite claiming to want to be more "environmentally friendly" or "attract talent" shows that they don't actually care about these things the moment it inconveniences them.

We can all see through their thinly-veiled promises of pizza parties, social events, flex-space, and "exciting work environments" that await those who return to the office, knowing that these promises are really nothing more than a desperate plea to fill up already-leased office space to keep the massive global commercial real estate industry from utter financial ruin.

Office workers had the biggest potential increase in quality of life and reduction in household expenses dangled in front of them during the pandemic, and largely proved they could be just as effective at home as in the outdated office environment. I don't expect such a large privilege to be so easily revoked without a decent fight, nor should it.

By all means, build your beautiful glass towers and ask employees to come in. But don't be surprised when the world continues to blow past GHG emission targets, congestion continues to increase, worker morale remains low, and wages that could once be spent at local restaurants and stores are now again being diverted to international corporations who own the parking lots in many of our cities.

[Komatiite]

Yeah, WFH has its benefits but let's not forget companies work in their own interest - not their employees' and not society's. You don't drop whatever amount this cost and not expect employees to use it. Time will tell.

[bomberjet]

They are going to lease space out IIRC. Maybe somewhere in the recent thread pages on here.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Komatiite

Yeah, WFH has its benefits but let's not forget companies work in their own interest - not their employees' and not society's. You don't drop whatever amount this cost and not expect employees to use it. Time will tell.

Companies work in their own interest as do employees. They can encourage employees to come to the office. Forcing them to come in when they don't want to doesn't usually play out all that well for the employer. Canada is an employer's market. There are always enough people out there willing to fill all those workstations and even for less pay. Don't expect quality.

[Highwayman]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Companies work in their own interest as do employees. They can encourage employees to come to the office. Forcing them to come in when they don't want to doesn't usually play out all that well for the employer. Canada is an employer's market. There are always enough people out there willing to fill all those workstations and even for less pay. Don't expect quality.

Honestly I think it's hilarious that some seem to think they have some right in where they work. Yet some of those same people cry when they cannot afford Groceries etc.

A Job is not a right. It's like telling your teacher that you don't want to go to school and that's that. You'll get a big ole F for participation. Same should go for work at home. If your job was in the office before spring break covid. Then that's where you work. As for this special teams attitude. Suck it up.

You folks that want to just live in a bubble at home need to watch the crappy movie Surrogates. As that's what you will all end up like. Unshaven, obese, zero ability to have meaningful relationships outside your house. Eventually decades pass and you will all be afraid to open the front door for Amazon Delivery lol.

Also you say you dont want to see downtown fall further. Well I can promise you if you just want to live your forever life in the suburbs , downtown will get worse.


Freaken Millennials

[WinCitySparky]

^

[The Jabroni]

Oh geez, are we getting generationalist/classist now? Let's not embark on "nObOdY WaNtS tO wOrK aNyMorE" path, at least not on this topic anyway.

You can plug your ears and not listen all you want, but there are obvious factors that are at play here.

Anyway, I'm glad this new building is almost done. Occupancy or not, time can only tell at this point. We're already beating a dead horse here, but now it's time to get that hotel finished once and for all.

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by Highwayman

You folks that want to just live in a bubble at home need to watch the crappy movie Surrogates. As that's what you will all end up like. Unshaven, obese, zero ability to have meaningful relationships outside your house. Eventually decades pass and you will all be afraid to open the front door for Amazon Delivery lol.

That sounds amazing. Where do I sign up?

[esquire]

Old generation Stockholm Syndrome on full display right there. How dare the young'uns insist on improved working conditions, haha.

Back in my day I commuted two ways a day, five times a week, paid for parking/bus out of my pocket, and by gum I liked it!

[Winnipegger]

Originally Posted by Highwayman

Honestly I think it's hilarious that some seem to think they have some right in where they work. Yet some of those same people cry when they cannot afford Groceries etc.

A Job is not a right. It's like telling your teacher that you don't want to go to school and that's that. You'll get a big ole F for participation. Same should go for work at home. If your job was in the office before spring break covid. Then that's where you work. As for this special teams attitude. Suck it up.

You folks that want to just live in a bubble at home need to watch the crappy movie Surrogates. As that's what you will all end up like. Unshaven, obese, zero ability to have meaningful relationships outside your house. Eventually decades pass and you will all be afraid to open the front door for Amazon Delivery lol.

Also you say you dont want to see downtown fall further. Well I can promise you if you just want to live your forever life in the suburbs , downtown will get worse.


Freaken Millennials

Peak boomer mentality right here. Of course where you work isn't a "right", nor is having a job at all. Rather, its about the market, competitiveness, and the balance between workers' bargaining power and employers' bargaining power. There's a lot of tension between the two, but quite frankly most employers and society as a whole has good reason to embrace working practices that result in lower commute times (good for workers, infrastructure, tax dependency, and the environment) and less need for office space (good for employers).

Saying "you worked in the office before COVID so you should work in the office after COVID" is equivalent to "we've always done things this way. Why should we change anything?" which is another common boomer mentality many experience in the workplace.

I agree that no one is entitled to a specific work place - if your employer demands you return to the office, you can comply or quit, your choice! But at an aggregate level, there is this whole dynamic at play where office workers are demanding better work life balance at no extra cost to the employer, and some employers are embracing that while others are resisting.

[esquire]

I have to admit if downtown Winnipeg was more enticing to come back to I'd probably be more keen on going there for work more than a couple times a month as I do presently. But it's worse than ever (the late 90s are like a long-lost golden age compared to what it is now), commuting costs more than ever and is a bigger hassle than ever with so many streets clogged with construction, and there is just nothing appealing about it.

[GreyGarden]

Originally Posted by esquire

Back in my day I commuted two ways a day, five times a week, paid for parking/bus out of my pocket, and by gum I liked it!

Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'

For many companies, especially in the knowledge economy, their employees and talent is where all their value is. They compete with each other for people and part of the way they do that is offering competitive working conditions/arrangements.

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by GreyGarden

Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'

...and you tell the young people of today that...and they won't believe you!

[WhipperSnapper]

Workers don't owe themselves to the company store. There's no benefit staying in one place for a entire career anymore. There's no longer retirement plans and one needs to move about to move up the corporate ladder. It's to the worker's advantage to continually hunt for something better and not settle for what they have or was offered.

The executives that got there moving up the ladder are too old to keep up with technological trends and younger executive by and large got there through nepotism. It took a pandemic for them to realize that virtual gatherings, for most situations, is far more productive and efficient.

This pursuit by some executives to get people back in the office is not about production or efficiency. It's simply about filling up spaces. This full office or hybrid model pursuit will reverse to all virtual once these leases being to expire. The majority of market experts are predicting 30 years to reabsorb vacated office inventory.

[Biff]

Originally Posted by Wpg_Guy

Wawanesa in the skyline

Remember this is a skyscraper page, so I am bringing this up as a purely aesthetic skyline comment - no reply's about "I prefer street life to skyscrapers".

We really need to work on filling the gap between P&M and the new grouping of buildings around True North Square. My opinion would be to fill up the surface lots on Graham as a first step. Portage could also use some height from Portage Place east ward but we know that the buildings planned in the new PP proposals will be in the 15 to 20 storey range. It really won't show up in the skyline.

Very unfortunate that SkyCity did not go ahead. it would have lined up where the CMHR is in this shot.

We need something on the 2 lots on Graham, and something on the Dollarama on Portage.


...and this gap is not just visible from this vantage point (Garbage Hill)

[esquire]

^ 300 Main packed some real skyline punch, at least from that angle. It filled in a huge gap. So did Hydro. Even Wawanesa shows up nicely from there.

I agree with Biff's takes, but I would also like to see something taller go up north of the Richardson Building. It's just lowrise Exchange District buildings, then boom, it soars up to Portage and Main. Would be nice to see a couple 15-25 storey buildings go up along Main between Lombard and Disraeli.

[Biff]

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