Neighbourhood seating to replace book‑a‑desk system, says report
Shared Services Canada is scrapping its desk “hoteling” model for Ottawa-Gatineau employees and moving to a neighbourhood‑based seating plan as the federal government tightens its return‑to‑office rules.
The change is detailed in an internal email obtained by the Ottawa Citizen and marks a major shift in how one of Ottawa’s largest IT employers organises hybrid work.
According to the report, the department will reorganise its National Capital Region offices so that teams and directorates are grouped together in defined zones, with satellite co‑working locations closed and most staff given assigned workstations while some shared desks are retained. The aim is to give each group a clearer physical “home base.”
“The neighbourhood model will give us the chance to work more closely together while supporting consistent and efficient ways of working,” assistant deputy minister Jacquie Manchevsky wrote in the email, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
Recently, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) launched a pilot project to track whether federal public servants are meeting in‑office attendance requirements, as the federal government moves to more strictly enforce its hybrid work directive.
RTO rules and space constraints
The neighbourhood model is scheduled to take effect on Sept. 8, roughly two months after the July 6 date when most federal public servants must work on site four days per week instead of three. Executives are required to be in the office full time, up from four days a week, as of May 4, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
At the same time, Shared Services Canada’s operations and client services branch will stop using Archibus, the software used to book desks. Dropping Archibus effectively winds down the infrastructure that supported hoteling, where employees reserved shared workstations only when they needed to be in the office.
According to the report, in 2024 at least 50 per cent of staff in nearly 40 core public administration departments and agencies lacked an assigned workspace, with Shared Services Canada at 92 per cent without a dedicated desk.
Worker pushback to office mandates
Many frontline employees are unhappy with federal return‑to‑office mandates, with IT professionals among the most vocal critics, according to Ottawa Citizen. They argue their work can be done from home without any loss of productivity, sharpening questions about the value of additional commuting and rigid presence rules.
Manchevsky acknowledged the sensitivity of the shift in her note to staff. “I recognize that workplace transitions like this can bring a mix of emotions, and I want to thank you for your patience and understanding as these changes take shape,” she wrote, according to the report.
The workplace changes are unfolding alongside job‑cut warnings.
More than 1,000 Shared Services Canada employees have recently been told their positions are at risk as part of a broader federal plan to reduce thousands of public service jobs.
