My year: the engineer has no intention of returning to the office.

“Just transitions between meetings or going to people see is very time consuming.”

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My Year is a weeklong series in which Montréal residents from all walks of life talk with Brendan Kelly about how they lived through the extraordinary year 2021. Today: Catherine Deburghgraeve, Aerospace Engineer.

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For many, working from home is a temporary pandemic. But others like Catherine Deburghgraeve hope it will be a permanent change.

Deburghgraeve, who is a control systems engineer at a large aerospace corporation in the South Shore, was sent home to work at the start of the pandemic in mid-March 2020, along with millions of others. Like most of us, he thought that this new state of affairs would only last a few weeks, but he soon realized that it was going to last much longer.

First he worked on the kitchen counter, then the kitchen table, and finally, in the fall of 2020, he installed a permanent office space in his basement.

There may be many people in Longueuil’s two-story cabin, particularly with three teenage children and a husband, but she feels that she has fallen into the work environment that best suits her. His company surveyed its employees and gave them three work options: completely at the office, completely at home, or a hybrid model. Deburghgraeve chose the stay-at-home option.

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“In the summer of 2020, I said it was going to be long, let’s adapt to that, and changing my mind, that I would have to stay at home for a long period. So I just accepted the project and now for me it is a fact that I am more happy to be here than in the office, ”said Deburghgraeve. “The first three or four months were a bit more difficult because you were always anticipating, okay, maybe we’ll come back next month. But when you get that out of your head and say, okay, I’ll be staying here for a long period, so let’s think about the permanent office downstairs, and when I saw that that would be the way it would be working. for at least several more months, then I hugged him and it occurred to me that this would be my preferred way of working. “

He said that what he likes about working from home is “efficiency and flexibility.”

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The offices and the production center of your company are huge. Walking to the office from the parking lot takes 10 minutes, and there are often five to 10 minute walks between meetings.

“Just transitions between meetings or to go people-see is very time consuming,” Deburghgraeve said. “Now I can finish my meeting at 9:59 and be on time for my 10 o’clock meeting. So this is where I think I gain efficiency. “

You also prefer to text if you have a question for a colleague. When he was at the office, he would walk to his cubicle and waste 10-15 minutes chatting.

“For flexibility, I like to run, if it’s a sunny afternoon I just take off my shoes, take off for an hour and then work later, and I’ll still be home when the kids come in,” Deburghgraeve said.

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The work-from-home lifestyle fits her in part because she doesn’t need the social interaction that comes with the office.

“I see some people need it,” he said. “I am happy not to. It is your personality. I have a couple of close friends and we eat dinner once or twice a month. So I see people outside of work. My children play sports. So I met the parents at the hockey rink. I’ve never made close friends at work. My social life is outside of work. “

Deburghgraeve goes to the office if there is an emergency meeting or to do tests that cannot be done at home, but estimates that he has only been in the office three or four times in the last 20 months.

So given how optimistic you are about working at home, surely there is at least one catch.

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“Snacks are easier to come by (at home),” she laughed. “You can’t control yourself because of it. The fridge is sometimes too close. “

Deburghgraeve said she has no trouble making sure she stays focused on work. You can cook dinner during your lunch break, but you have no trouble making work the priority.

“You can’t do your job if you spend your time doing something else,” he said. “It is expected to deliver a lot in 40 hours. I’m talking about flexibility. If I go for a run, I’ll work a little later at night. But the fact that you have to deliver a certain amount in 40 hours does not change. So if you do something else, you have to work at another time. “

For Deburghgraeve, he feels that this was the right time in his life to do this.

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“I couldn’t have told you two years ago that I wasn’t happy in the office,” he said. “If it’s something you don’t have (working from home), you can’t say you’re missing it. But yes, I am happier here than at the office. The youngest in my group are eager to return. It also depends on your configuration. If you live in a three-and-a-half bedroom apartment, then your office is also the living room and the kitchen, then that’s a different story. “

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