Signs of things returning to normal for people working from home

SAINT JOHN, N.B. -

It's now been more than a year since financial advisor Erin Eagles was, like many Maritimers, sent home to work at the beginning of the pandemic – and although she still spends most of her time working remotely, there are signs things of a return to normal.

"I always give my clients the option of Zoom or in person now, where I wasn't giving them the option of that before because I was overly careful," says Eagles. "Now there's a lot more requests, 'I want to see your face, even if it is wearing a mask in your office'."

With vaccination rates on the rise, rules and restrictions have loosened in the Maritimes – and that means that more people could soon be returning to the office, at least part of the time.

"I think I'll always have an office, how much time I'll spend there might be a little different," says Eagles. "SunLife has enabled us with a lot of tools to do, even life insurance policies and things like that totally online when we couldn't do that before."

But some workers may be uncomfortable with going back to business as usual, which is why chambers of commerce throughout New Brunswick have launched a new initiative – distributing free rapid-test kits to small and medium sized businesses.

"This is designed to really help people to have a little bit higher level of comfort when they're out interacting with people, when they're out interacting with businesses," says CEO of the Saint John region Chamber of Commerce David Duplisea. "It also allows businesses to have that extra level of comfort as well."

An extra level of comfort knowing that they can test asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic workers, catch it early and potentially stop it from spreading inside of an office setting.

It's a program that Duplisea says has already seen a lot of interest.

"There's well over a 100 businesses in the province that have already signed up, so the uptake on it is quite substantial so far," says Duplisea. "We're excited to see where it goes."​