More often in English
What is the link between working from home and the languages used at work? A new study from Statistics Canada shows that, although the use of French remains higher than English when teleworking, “people working from home tend to use English more often at work than other workers, and were also more likely to use both official languages at work. To carry out their analysis, the researchers analyzed 2021 data for workers in the Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau and Moncton regions.
Shift to teleworking
Louis Cornelissen, analyst at Statistics Canada’s demography center and author of the study, notes that teleworking does not affect all types of jobs uniformly. “It is known that teleworking is more common in various sectors such as office jobs, finance, insurance, professional and technical services, architecture, information industry and culture,” says- he in interview. These are areas where the use of English at work was more pronounced before the pandemic. With the rise of teleworking, we are seeing a shift towards the use of English in this remote working context. »
Differences by domain
Thus, in the Montreal region, 56% of people working from home mainly used French at work, compared to other workers who mainly used French in a proportion of 75%, notes Statistics Canada. This difference of around 20 percentage points intrigued Mr. Cornelissen. “We attempted to control for these differences to account for job characteristics. We found that job type was responsible for 15 percentage points of this gap [les trois quarts]. This means that there is a 5 percentage point difference [le quart] which cannot be explained by the type of job or the field in which the work is carried out. »
New to follow
These five points of difference in favor of the use of English in a teleworking context require further exploration, points out the expert. “Where does the gap come from? It’s hard to say. One hypothesis is that there might be differences in the nature of work that influence language use, although this does not appear to be the main reason. A better hypothesis is the possibility that a person will start working remotely for an employer located elsewhere in Canada or elsewhere in the world, which represents a novelty to monitor. »
Special situations
Teleworking still remains primarily a local phenomenon: four out of five teleworking workers in Canada work for an employer located in their locality. This means that one in five teleworkers works for an employer who may be located elsewhere in their province, or in another province or another country. “It is likely that these workers would be more likely to work primarily in English than their counterparts working for employers based in large cities with a strong French-speaking presence,” notes Mr. Cornelissen. The bottom line is that we do not fully understand the implications of the new reality of teleworking. As such, there are no clear indications of changes in language use at work. But it is possible that special situations arise, which are worth exploring. »