🟠 News Club - Working out working from home

As our governments try to figure out ways of boosting Australia’s productivity, the right to work from home has come storming back into the headlines. It’s sparking more conversations - and questions - around power and the nature of work…

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Working out working from home

If you thought the work-from-home debate had settled down, think again. What started as a pandemic necessity has morphed into a contentious political issue, and Australia is at the epicentre of a global battle over who gets to decide where we work.

Before we launch into it, we should say that for heaps of workers, working from home is not an option. While reading deeper into this, I was surprised that the Productivity Commission recently said this conversation applies to just a third of jobs. That means the vast majority have to be somewhere to do their roles - teachers, health workers, retail and hospitality workers, construction workers, and so many more. That makes sense - they are the biggest sectors in our economy after all... 

But for those who have roles that could be done from home, the genesis of the latest flashpoint is Victoria - but that hasn’t happened in isolation. It's part of a much bigger story about power dynamics between employer and employee, productivity, and the future of work.

So, to our Club Picks to become better acquainted:

1. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan recently announced plans for Australian-first laws giving workers the right to work from home at least 2 days a week if they can "reasonably" do their job remotely. She frames it as economic policy to boost productivity and close the gender wage gap. Here’s the Premier’s press release outlining the plan.

2. Critics say this wasn't policy-driven - it was pure politics designed to get people talking. The Financial Review (paywall) reveals that Allan's advisers cooked up the idea just over a month ago, then focus-grouped it extensively. The results were clear: Victorians loved it. Labor sources say they "obviously don't have the ability to legislate IR matters, and it's not great public policy, but props to the employer that tries to challenge this." [And our politicians wonder why we’re a cynical lot…]

3. As for the business sector taking it on, Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Comyn is one who’s called Victoria's push "unnecessary and redundant" - he says "you can't legislate or declare or decree a productivity dividend, you earn the productivity as a nation". Companies see mandated flexibility as threatening their ability to drive performance from their teams, as Comyn and several other corporate leaders told the Financial Review (paywall).

4. And on team performance - the research is nuanced… Hybrid work can boost productivity and cut quit rates by 33%, especially for women and long commuters. Fully remote work drops productivity by 10%, while office time has benefits for learning and collaboration - so the evidence points to balance, not mandates. For a dive into the wellbeing research, The Conversation published this comprehensive piece last week.

In an interesting bit of timing, Allan's proposal arrives precisely when the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward employers. Despite the Coalition’s backflip-with-pike moment in the election and the unions' push for 4-day workweeks, many business leaders want their people back in the office. 

Either way, this debate is here for a while yet. 

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