Canada’s federal government recently joined corporate behemoths Amazon and Disney in announcing a mandatory return (at least part-time) to the office. While these public servants work through this transition, employers in Canada continue to face an uphill battle in getting their own employees to do the same.

A new study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds that as employers grapple with a tight labour market – which tends to favour employees – decisions about forcing a return to the office now represent a risky proposition.

For those who currently work from home at least some of the time, one-in-three (36%) say they would return to the office full-time with no qualms if the request were made.

That said, over half would either return but consider switching jobs (31%) or likely hand in their notice (21%) shortly after being ordered to come back to the office.

Many Canadian workers are adjusting to a new reality as the forecasted short-term trend of working from home has become a long-term reality. With this comes different experiences. Four-in-five (84%) who work on site say their connection to colleagues is either good or great. This, compared to half of those who set up their office at home (50%).

On the other end of the benefit spectrum, four-in-five who work from home (81%) give a positive appraisal of their work-life balance, compared to 54% whose job requires them to be on site.

Notably, while there are positive and negative aspects to both work arrangements, productivity does not appear to be overtly impacted. Nearly the same number of workers say they are productive both on-site (77%) and at home (81%).