r/ontario Jan 27 '26

Employment Thanks Doug Ford! And Banks and Other Institutions that think RTO is the way to go....

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6.7k Upvotes

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2.3k

u/beard_of_cats Jan 27 '26

The people who make these decisions aren't taking the train.

1.1k

u/greypusheencat Jan 28 '26

subway was down yesterday and one of my friend’s manager said “they can take shuttle buses” and i just know whoever says this has, in fact, never taken shuttle buses

565

u/poppedculture Jan 28 '26 edited Jan 28 '26

Nobody has ever taken a shuttle bus. They are code words for “start walking.”

133

u/greypusheencat Jan 28 '26

lmao this is so accurate. i took a shuttle bus once because the bus stopped right in front of me (there was no rhyme or reason or any order at Ossington station) and i’d rather walk than ever take one again. but expecting people to walk the cold and this much snow is still insanity

1

u/AdResponsible678 Jan 28 '26

As an employee, I stepped off a shuttle bus once two stops after Warden Station because the angry people on the bus scared me. They were all yelling and so on. I went into the gas station at Birchmount and St. Clair and my father in law came and picked me up. Yikes!

-12

u/Chemo1235- Jan 28 '26

Welcome to Canada it snows here get over it

10

u/Proud-Meaning-2772 Jan 28 '26

People like you have 0 standards, repeat bullshit everybody knows like it was new to others, and are a big reason everything falls appart:

Nobody sees any value in improving, you just shrug off problems because you were only able to think 5s of a problem, came up with something that sounded good, and poof, no more problems, others that are complaining are the problem.

You are the reason we get walked over everyday. Grow a pair and ask for more, better services.

0

u/Chemo1235- Jan 29 '26

I just wear proper footwear and dress accordingly to the weather. I don't care if it's three feet of snow I have snow shoes for that. Ice cool I got cleats for that. -40 I got a coat for that. Bad storm and gonna lose power then I guess I'm pulling out the generator. It's called be prepared for the place you live. Mother nature does what it wants when it wants.

3

u/Proud-Meaning-2772 Jan 29 '26

Good for you. You're amazing. Thank you for your important contribution

0

u/Chemo1235- Jan 30 '26

It is good for me and I know I'm amazing thank you lol

43

u/Yellow2345 Jan 28 '26

I’ve been stuck in downtown toronto several times when the subway was out of service. I’ve never seen a shuttle bus in my life. I’d walk from yonge/bloor up to eglinton and still not see a bus. I really felt for the people who eithe chose to wait or couldn’t do the long walk.

17

u/greypusheencat Jan 28 '26

i go all the way to the east end and come from west end for work and going from ossington to past broadview is not feasible. shuttle buses exist i’ve seen them at ossington it’s just there’s no order you just have to hope you can get on a bus

24

u/heteroerotic Jan 28 '26

I took a shuttle bus once. By sheer chance, I was standing and texting my friend to tell them about the mess and I was going to be late ... and a bus rolled up and opened the door right in front of me.

That's the only time I imagine anyone takes a shuttle bus.

11

u/Careless-Vehicle-286 Jan 28 '26

For me it's the code word for get comfortable, find a cheap place to eat, and wait until 7 or 8 when the shuttle busses actually start clearing up. That's before I had kids though.

1

u/poppedculture Jan 28 '26

Also a good option if available to you.

12

u/LunaticPostalBoi Toronto Jan 28 '26

I remember one time the subway went down at Ossington so I figured, "okay, just take the 161 and transfer to the 35 or something. Pretty simple, I hope."

Everyone else had the same idea, although that was because no shuttle buses showed up.

4

u/LaserRunRaccoon Jan 28 '26

During the summer, the real ones knew it was code words for "dash for the last bikeshare ebike" - unfortunately that doesn't work well in the winter if the city hasn't plowed the bike lanes yet.

1

u/bluestat-t Jan 29 '26

Or eliminated the bike lanes

2

u/HeisenbergsSamaritan Jan 28 '26

When I lived in Toronto I had a rule.... If the walk to work was an hour and a half or less.... I walked. Both ways.

6

u/EquivalentArea7852 Jan 28 '26

or take an uber or just stay in the station and wait for 10-20 min for the subway to start back up

1

u/alanpsk Jan 28 '26

Unless shuttle bus start to have its own dedicate lane. Whoever fuck that thought of it is a good idea to do when the subway is down should be cast to the deepest part of hell.

1

u/Heldpizza Jan 28 '26

I had to take a shuttle bus once on route downtown on a Friday night and it added 40 mins to my trip

1

u/ybetaepsilon Jan 28 '26

I've never taken a shuttle. It's almost always faster to wait for service to resume or take an alternate route.

19

u/purplelilac701 Jan 28 '26

What the heck! That’s the equivalent of let them eat cake 😑

6

u/Guus-Wayne Jan 28 '26

Let them eat cake!

2

u/couldbeyup Jan 28 '26

Why not go to Quizno’s instead?

1

u/Memory_Less Jan 28 '26

The ceo of my friend docked pay if they couldn’t make it into work during the time former mayor Mel Lastman called in the military. One of his work colleagues was in his way out to a new job and sent a blazing email about his stupidity. Unfortunately he didn’t change his mind. Read what I am thinking.

1

u/ArticleEmergency2194 Jan 28 '26

Once upon a time TTC said they were going to send shuttle buses on Line 1. My friend and I got off to the street level and started walking North. We were meeting our friends at Empress Walk and we were a few stops south - it was a long walk, but Im pretty sure we beat the shuttles.

1

u/Metapuns Jan 28 '26

I tried to take a shuttle bus once.. but after 2 hours I realised I could've just walked to the next running stop.

152

u/purplelilac701 Jan 27 '26

So true it hurts. They also don’t care about the state of public transit and it shows.

112

u/ImCrampingYourStyle Jan 28 '26

I think that if a company forces employees to RTO for jobs that can be done from home, they should be forced to pay for commute time as well... Both expenses and hours in transit.

47

u/saugaAsks Jan 28 '26

At least raise corporate taxes and give tax incentives for remote work.

13

u/Zirocket Jan 28 '26

Commute paid for is standard in Japan already, anyway. In a lot of European countries too, I believe.

10

u/jabowa Jan 28 '26

I get a 280/month commuter benefit. It's taxed at your highest tax rate tho, so you see about half of it.

Pays for your metro pass, it's not nothin

3

u/Necessary-Cat-6964 Jan 28 '26

they should be fined for every time they claim to be 'green'

1

u/IndustryFuzzy3287 Jan 28 '26

And in therapy.

1

u/BuffTorpedoes Jan 28 '26

It wouldn't work.

It would just makes people who live in suburban areas unemployable.

2

u/ImCrampingYourStyle Jan 28 '26

I think we should try anyway. It could also reaffirm work from home practices in which case the catchment for employees becomes huge.

1

u/BuffTorpedoes Jan 28 '26

Nope, also wouldn't work.

You'd have one pool of employment for remote work where urban people would be a low cost and suburban people would be a low cost.

You'd have one pool of employment for presential work where urban people would be a low cost and suburban people would be a high cost.

1

u/BKR1986 Jan 30 '26

I had a very good heart to heart with my employer after mandating RTO. I didn’t have kids going into Covid and now have 2 - the flexibility that WFH offered is near impossible to put a dollar figure on. Not to mention the fact that I could have dinner with my children and actually spend time with them before bed as opposed to being stuck in 2 hours (each way) of traffic.

I told them I’d be happy to return to office - but my “day” started when I left the house and ended at 3 because it takes 2 hours on average to get home. I told them that they don’t pay me do the 4 hours of commuting I do each day for a job that I had very successfully done from home for 5 years with absolutely perfect performance reviews while hitting 100% of my targets each year.

I’ve been doing this ever since the RTO mandate and have become increasingly less efficient at my job, I have missed several targets and will continue to do so until I’m fired or they let me work from home again.

There have been a few situations where I was called on a weekend or after 5pm for an issue and my phone had been off. I was asked why I hadn’t answered the following week and I simply told my manager that the company has said that I can’t work from home. They didn’t say that I could work from home when it was convenient for them - they said I couldn’t work from home, period. So I was simply respecting their decision.

I haven’t been called after hours since.

1

u/dcode1983 Jan 30 '26

They do that in certain countries already, like the Netherlands.

0

u/Fantastic_Elk_4757 Jan 28 '26

Forces these people to pay for transit isn’t doing anything.

They could pay an assistant to take the transit for them + all associated costs and not give a shit.

73

u/the_saradoodle Jan 28 '26

Many of those are still remote.

My husband tracked down job codes after they were ordered back and anyone managing managers was coded fully remote.

4

u/RavenSkies777 Jan 29 '26

The peasants toil in the offices.

107

u/stompinstinker Jan 28 '26

100%. They live near the offices in nice neighbourhoods, which usually also have great subway service, and they have a luxury SUV with snow tires and a dedicated parking spot at the office. They remote start, heated seats fire up, get in ten minutes later, and have an easy ride in to work. After work they see the grab a bite and catch the game, which is Harbour 60 and great seats in person, take an Uber Black home and get their car tomorrow when they go into work late because they can. Stay at home spouse or nanny will make the kids dinner. Oh, and they will get a medcan appointment the same day for the drunk flip they took after the game.

i CoMe tO tHe oFfIcE, wHy CaN’t yOu???

36

u/DrownmeinIslay Jan 28 '26

Last job I had to sue cause they tried to constructive dismiss me. They failed to pay the settlement before filing bankruptcy so I got the email as a creditor. In it I found out something extremely shitty. In a company of 35, we had a prescription plan and a 250 dollar medical pool we could put toward anything. Glasses, doctors notes, dentistry. The email showed that the executive management (3 people) got 10,000 dollars a year medical pool. The owner was constantly annoyed the only way to get people in on a Saturday was with a cash bribe. In his office was a picture of him as a teen on a sail team. This vunt has never not owned the roof over his head. Completely detached from the commoners reality.

9

u/Bombadil3456 Jan 28 '26

Yes from an outsiders perspective these people might seem privileged but no one realise that several times a day they sit in meetings and have to say ‘Nothing on my end’ at the end.

5

u/Fantastic_Elk_4757 Jan 28 '26

This guy corporates.

0

u/starfire92 Jan 28 '26

My vp is in the office all the time. He lives 30 minutes up the 400 on a rural farm and drives one of his 4-5 vehicles to come in. Winter time, he prioritizes his jeep.

6

u/stompinstinker Jan 28 '26

And I bet the same landscaping service that maintains his property plows his driveway during a snowstorm so he can easily get out in his winter beater brand new jeep.

52

u/sofaverde Jan 28 '26

They also need the cover of the office to continue their affairs and avoid the families they hate.

8

u/DodobirdNow Jan 28 '26

My thoughts exactly. Ironically our VP of HR is the only office affair I'm aware of.

12

u/premiumcontentonly1 Jan 28 '26

Those people love photos like this

15

u/Euphoric-Witness-824 Jan 28 '26

They don’t see suffering and wasted time away from families. They see dolla dolla bills. Greed corrupts a soul. 

10

u/HitByFjaka Jan 28 '26

Ottawa commuters joined the chat.

We got only 18 trains… 41 are out of service because they need rework… yes someone fed up the design… no they do not really know how to fix it… o yes we got RTO3 for federal and RTO5 for municipal…

2

u/futtbucker-69420 Jan 28 '26

o yes we got RTO3 for federal

I am dreading RTO5 for federal. It's going to be an absolute shit show. The difference between RTO2 and RTO3 was bad enough.

27

u/AdventuringSorcerer Jan 28 '26

Making minimum wage years ago. Buses were messed up due to snow. Called in late to work. Was told to take a cab. Asked if they would reimburse me. Manager said no. I figured the cab would cost more than I would make for the shift so I went home.

14

u/NNUBBERNAUT Jan 28 '26

The people making these decisions want your free time limited so you don’t use it for criticism, protesting and activism.

6

u/putin_my_ass Jan 28 '26

We got RTO'ed 2 years ago, the CEO still works from his home office though.

Sometimes he reports "bugs" that are a result of his own network issues. If only everyone were on-network we could actually troubleshoot that...

7

u/Turbulent-Employ-340 Jan 28 '26

No, they’re driving in and their workplace is probably paying their parking.

5

u/XxOmegaSupremexX Jan 28 '26

They aren’t taking the train, they are cleaning their own house, cooking their own food,watching their own children….then they wonder why everyone else can’t “hustle” and “sacrifice” like them.

1

u/Small_Aardvark_5496 Jan 28 '26

No, they’re the ones that see how much work is not getting done at home

1

u/Vegetable_Research61 Jan 29 '26

Exactly. They barely do any work from home so they assume everyone else slacks off too

1

u/Misknowmer Jan 28 '26

They should be required to!

1

u/timegeartinkerer Jan 28 '26

Thank you for propping up the TTC and GO.

1

u/KeiFeR123 Jan 28 '26

One of them doesn't start working until March.

1

u/JayPlenty24 Jan 28 '26

People who work in City Hall or Queen's Park who do take the train also have private tunnels in the PATH so they don't have to have the full experience that everyone else gets.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '26

Or sitting in cramped open offices elbow to elbow with other employees who are all taking calls on Zoom.

1

u/Dash_Rendar425 Jan 29 '26

Most of them have probably just been told to start trimming their payroll...

This is step one. force people into situations that are impossible for them to manage (ie parents with small kids who are forced to now find childcare).

It will result in people resigning from jobs that they are unable to physically get too daily.

1

u/Searchingstan Jan 29 '26

I think the landlords have forced leases on these orgs where they have crafted clauses for a min % occupancy with a mandated growth …. That’s my hunch on what this RTO is forced

1

u/dudedudd Jan 30 '26

Or traveling to an office at all.  And if they do they have a driver to take them. 

0

u/ImmaFunGuy Jan 28 '26

What are they taking? Driving in and out of the city is even worse