3 months ago
14
It was a personal best record for me: three days straight working from home in my favourite tracksuit. If I had my way, I would never leave my home office. My nifty mid-winter work from home strategy was in full swing. All I had to do was take off my Pokémon beanie and fingerless gloves for online meetings, then straight back into the winter woollies and the chocolate spread sandwich that was waiting on the desk for my 9.44am break. What a joy to not have to put up with the outrageous behaviour of my work colleagues.
Those colleagues, who in the interests of work harmony must remain anonymous, seem to have no problem with slurping up a breakfast bowl of granola at the desk opposite me. Or forcing me to the other side of the office to avoid their loud phone conversations about grocery shopping, school pick-ups and who last fed the goldfish. Then there are the times when I race to the photocopier with an urgent job, only to find someone standing there with several weeks’ worth of printing splayed out across the bench. Some days it feels like I am the only person in the office with a sense of self-awareness and a willingness to compromise for others.
Office colleagues can be the best, and the worst.Credit: Istock
But no matter how bad those moments with my most annoying colleague get, I have a survival tactic: I sit back, breathe, and remember that tomorrow is a work from home day.
For a work for home devotee like myself, there should be no turning back from this widely accepted practice. Yet governments and employer groups continue to struggle with the concept despite evidence of the clear social-economic benefits. More worryingly, they seem unable to come together for a focused national conversation about the future of work in Australia.
In 2024, the New South Wales government formally called on public sector workers to “principally” return to office environments. Meanwhile, in Victoria the state government has announced a proposal to enshrine working from home rights into law. Along the way, employer groups continually raise concerns about the impact of remote working on productivity.
Loading
But the community has sent a clear message about its embrace of working from home. In 2015, 30 per cent of adult workers regularly worked from home, and by 2023 that number had grown to 37 per cent. Despite an uneven uptake across professions – with 60 per cent of managers and white-collar workers establishing remote working arrangements, compared to only 22 per cent of other professions, like those in frontline services – it is a concept that is now central to our work culture.
And the reasons for this popularity are clear. Families can reap major economic benefits from reduced commuting costs and increased opportunities for workforce participation, particularly by women with young children and other carers. These opportunities help to redress major social and economic disadvantage and are far from the suspicions of those who suspect lazy workers want to see out the working day from the couch.
Work from home also echoes a broader social trend, marked by everything from the increased use of social media to connect with family and friends, to rising rates of online shopping, we are using technology to retreat from public life to our private realms. And in a chaotic world with more than its fair share of existential crises, from climate change to major global conflicts, the instinct to find shelter and isolate in our homes can be strong.
From me, the draw of working from home largely revolves around the psychological benefits that can come from abandoning a relentless 9 to 5 office routine, including the mental health benefits of being able to drop a stodgy public mask for more time as my authentic tracksuit-wearing self.
So, you can imagine my utter confusion on that momentous record-breaking day – in my home office and right in the middle of my 11.23am triple-layer sponge cake break – that I was suddenly gripped by an urge to peel off my tracksuit and go and see my colleagues. I was perplexed. Why had I suddenly become pro-office? Had I lost all sense of self-preservation? Was it guilt about enjoying a relative work luxury or the increasingly spicey aroma of my tracksuit that was sending me out the door?
Loading
As I put on a crisp clean work shirt to wear into the office, I noted a strong sense of relief and realised that, like 94 per cent of recently surveyed Australians who said they would like to work at least some of their hours at home, I would benefit from a healthy balance between public and private work options. After all, the known pitfalls of worshipping the home office can also be significant, from the mental health risks associated with too much isolation and the potential to disconnect from colleagues, to the breakdown of boundaries between work and domestic life that can leave you living one long day of tasks and responsibilities.
Despite the resistance of some, employers have a growing body of information on how to create work environments that support their employees’ wellbeing and access to emerging evidence of the positive productivity outcomes that can come from hybrid work models. We have a great opportunity to step away from simplistic and polarised debates about working from home in favour of a more balanced conversation about balancing productivity, connection and personal wellbeing.
I got into the car with a sense of excitement about what I might encounter in the office: spontaneous conversation, eye contact – maybe even fruit – and the change to think about the colourful contributions to my working day made by my colleagues, the granola and their goldfish.
Rosie Beaumont is a Melbourne-based writer.
The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.
Most Viewed in National
Loading
