So far my team is still 100% working from home. My office address was changed with no consultation with me from 3600 Steeles in Markham to 16 York Street downtown Toronto, so I'm hoping that 16 York Street will be 100% full by the time they get around to asking my team to return to the office, should they decide to do that. BTW that makes no sense for our team as we work with different teams across the country.
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Potentially Closing/selling the largest IBM location in Canada could have a lot to do with layoffs.
What does this have to do with layoffs?
Is the Toronto, Wellington St. location (near Hockey Hall of Fame) still around? And is 120 Bloor still around? Bloor was the weirdest location - no one at reception if you forgot your badge - walk into this dark-lit space with a bunch of meeting rooms and then cross over to another area with a hallway with all mirrors (akin to a secret corridor). Place was empty and dark-lit when I was there years ago. 3600 Steeles Ave. was an interesting place - where you couldn't access all the floors depending on where you were in the building due to the non-practical architecture- had to walk all the way to the end to get up the highest floor and the wartime displays with all those old typewriters made me feel like I was in a museum as I walked along the first floor past the large totem pole in the reception area. Notably absent in all those pre-historic IBM displays was the IBM Hollerith Machine though (for obvious reasons). Spent most visits in the basement at the large media theatre that smelled like a typical hockey locker room. If they sell Steeles Ave - it's a huge property - they'll make a good fortune.
16 York is busy at least some of the time - people I know complained that the AC can't keep up when the office is full. Almost no one gets assigned seating at York, it's all hot-desking so check before you go.
The Spadina office is no longer IBM - it was acquired when IBM bought Algorythmics (sp ?) and after much fumbling IBM sold the company and that lease went with it.
As for Steeles location, they are currently emptying it and moving the people into the software lab at Warden & 7. Once Steeles is fully emptied they will sell the land off to condo developers, as is the Toronto way.
As a result the software lab is getting quite full and groups are having a hard time adding seats near their existing areas, making the point of colocation quite diminished.
Some of the most expensive real estate in Toronto and nobody goes in. York St, Spadina Ave., Bloor St., Steeles Ave., + software lab.
You can always move to 8200. That place is a ghost town. No one is really listening to this work-from-work mantra.
It is pretty much empty. Most people who have been told to go back to the office, just don't. IBM certainly has not done anything about it. May be 2024 will be different as IBM is still looking to get rid of people!
But at the end of the day, if all the people band together and stay working from home, what is IBM going to do? Time to rebel?