Office Jobs and WFH Policies: Early 2024 Status Check

jrowls on 01/02/2024 - 15:06

My employer is currently heading toward a full-time return to the office. I keep hearing from the higher-ups that 'everyone is doing it now'.

For reference, I'm a consultant in a relatively small company, 99% of the time our jobs are desk work only (occasional fieldwork). We were previously 3-4 days office, 1-2 WFH, which I much preferred.

Thought I'd reach out and do a little vibe check with the fine and frugal folks here on OzB. First time doing a poll here (I think?) but not my first time conducting a poll. Hopefully this works correctly.

Discussion starters:

  • What's your workplace doing?
  • Has it changed recently?
  • What's the vibe among the staff?
  • In [present time], would you look to change jobs if required to be in the office full time?
  • What industry are you in? What's your role?
  • What would your ideal scenario be?

Poll Options

  • 488
    A. My employer/boss/team is completely flexible (office attendance at employee's discretion).
  • 92
    B. My employer/boss/team requires minimum 1 day per week office attendance.
  • 256
    C. My employer/boss/team requires minimum 2 days per week office attendance.
  • 387
    D. My employer/boss/team requires minimum 3 days per week office attendance.
  • 38
    E. My employer/boss/team requires minimum 4 days per week office attendance.
  • 114
    F. My employer/boss/team requires full time office attendance.
  • 72
    G. My employer/boss/team doesn't have a set approach, determined per individual agreement.
  • 8
    H. My employer/boss/team doesn't have a set approach, determined by seniority/position.
  • 101
    I. The question doesn't apply to me whatsoever; but I wanted to participate in the poll.
Education & Work

Comments

    • coffeeinmyveins on 01/02/2024 - 16:32
      +121

      Found the middle manager who feels powerless now he can't stand over people in his team.

        • Hardlyworkin on 01/02/2024 - 22:19
          +50

          Your little arms don't allow for typing?

        • downhillar on 02/02/2024 - 10:49
          +15

          So you've never worked in an office and never would, but you believe everyone else should have to because…?

          • smartazz104 on 05/02/2024 - 08:52
            +2

            @downhillar: No, he's admitting that as a middle manager, he doesn't do any work in the office, just micromanagement.

        • coffeeinmyveins on 02/02/2024 - 12:32
          +7

          Please. I’ve never worked a day in an office in my life and hope never to. Couldn’t think of anything worse.

          Right, so you're a tradie or something who thinks people who work on a computer are lazy and don't actually do any "work"?

          I fail to see how you can have any opinion on the matter.

          • Gnostikos on 02/02/2024 - 19:20
            +20

            @coffeeinmyveins:

            I fail to see how you can have any opinion on the matter.

            Tee Rex Arms is a textbook example of the Unified OzBargain Law of Inverse Opinion Conviction to Opinion Justification Ratio.

            The stronger and more adamantly vocal an OzBargain user is about their opinion, the lower the likelihood will be that they can justify, explain or rationalise why they hold that opinion to others.

            It generally goes like this:

            • An OzBargain user makes an incredibly absolutist one sentence statement, sometimes apropros of no real prompting (the bolded part is key, they're almost always incapable of typing more than one sentence per comment).

            • Another user asks the OP where this incredible conviction and self-assured sense of superiority comes from?

            • The OP refuses to elaborate, indirectly insinuates that everyone else is an idiot for failing to understand their self-evident genius and then disappears into the OzBargain ether to sh*tpost another day.

            • The OP is subsequently but not always negged into oblivion but rather than concluding that mass disagreement could indicate that they're possibly wrong, they instead adopt a JV-esque attitude of harnessing the power of negative votes to further embolden their belief that they're in fact always correct and everyone else is somehow always wrong.

            • whyisave on 03/02/2024 - 08:05
              -2

              @Gnostikos:

              OzBargain user is about their opinion

              You're assuming a 'user' is a breathing person nowadays.

              It's been proven for a long time now,
              that automated bots have been used in Reddit,
              Twitter (eg. during Covid-19 times),
              4Chan, etc… basically, you won't even know these days,
              whether you're talking to a person or a machine.

              • quick-dry on 03/02/2024 - 18:31
                +3

                @whyisave: CCP bots trying to raise the value of office real estate? lower our WFH productivity?

                they've been buying intersts in CBD cafe's and this will fund bribes to get a new port built?

                • whyisave on 03/02/2024 - 19:07

                  @quick-dry: Bots are used by many competing interests,
                  bots are used everywhere., and also nowhere.

        • dvsbastard on 02/02/2024 - 13:46
          +1

          Yeah, but have you ever worked a day from home?

        • jrowls on 02/02/2024 - 13:51
          +2

          This just in: people have different preferences and interests.

        • JDogg1329 on 02/02/2024 - 15:41
          +7

          Funny how everyone spouting the "Back to reality" propaganda have never worked in an office lol

        • frostman on 02/02/2024 - 20:58
          +7

          Is this you almost a year ago?

          https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/13761959/redir

          You seem to be miserably bitter at WFH.

          Are you:

          • A boomer that worked their whole life in some corporate job in a 9-5 job?
          • A miserable tradie that works out in the sun/cold 5 days per week and eats their lunch on the sidewalk whilst sitting on a willow esky?
          • A bum at home jealous that others at home are ranking in $$ / hour?
          • A business owner working from 4am - 7pm doing 99 hours / week?

          Which is it?

          • eek on 05/02/2024 - 10:48

            @frostman: Whichever teet it is, I just want milk that tastes like real milk!

        • nikey2k27 on 03/02/2024 - 22:02

          i did it 2 years it was mostly shit

    • MandMs13 on 03/02/2024 - 00:43
      +5

      Little bit jealous maybe? Sounds like someone who wants to do the same, yet isn't employable enough to leave the terrible company they work for now to get some WFH treatment.

      I was WFH before covid and would never want to go back to an office. They're frkn miserable! Plus add an hours travel each day, applicable travel expenses, and sitting in a sterile, bitchy, 80's style corporate environment is not my thing.

      I do go in one per month i guess just to break the monotony and be reminded that times have moved on, and old corporates should too.

      • Roe Jogan on 04/02/2024 - 09:24
        +3

        thiss was the case for me but recently joining a higher paying job (low six figure) the requirement is i need to be at the office 5 days a week for 4 months than 1 day WFH which is not enough, than after 8 months i get 2 days WFH which is too long away, i hated the idea but went for it, honestly i Miss WFH so much, this shit sucks, everyone sneezing, i feel my nose get stuffy from the shitty air con in the office, everyone blowing their noses, they put the air con on super cold and if one points out its cold it stays that way, as you cant choose a tempreture to please everyone, lots of talking where i cant do my work, constant phone calls and interruptions. its shit

        • Calvin27 on 06/02/2024 - 15:58

          That's why you make sure your office days are when you are sick and sneezing like mad. Make an extra effort to go in and spread that stuff around. Insist on in person meeting with whomever is driving that policy.

          • Roe Jogan on 08/02/2024 - 19:17

            @Calvin27: im looking to leave this position, im on the lookout for WFH at least 2-3 days a week from the get go, im miserable in this position, im ready to take a pay cut

  • 87percent on 01/02/2024 - 15:11
    +6

    You can work from where ever you want. If you want to work from home, office, some other country

    • reactor-au on 02/02/2024 - 08:22
      +1

      This is me, and every time I sit in traffic for 5 minutes I loathe the idea of going back to an office.
      Although I'm one of maybe 5 out of 30,000 that is allowed to work out of country permanently.

    • OZBargainer in SA on 02/02/2024 - 09:15
      +1

      If a job can be accomplished purely by WFH, many employers are opting to offshore it to cheaper employees. I'm not saying that's OK, just food for thought.

      • Dreamcast on 02/02/2024 - 09:21
        +33

        Ahh, there it is, the most stupid argument of all for return to office.

        Most office work can be accomplished purely from home and covid has shown this. Returning to office doesn't mean your role cannot be performed from home. This has never and will never be the factor for offshoring work. Even if work cannot be performed from home, if a business wants to offshore, they'll offshore.

        • leeboy168 on 02/02/2024 - 18:07
          +2

          But work and business in general is largely made up of a network of relationships!

          That's like saying most relationships can be long-distance, but boy it better be good, because you're missing out on some key ingredients to what it means to be in a relationship! (Friendships too, not just romantic). I can only enjoy the digital version for so long before I need the real thing.

          Imagine how weird it would be all your life if you've only ever seen or talked to your girlfriend / wife / kids / father / mother / uncle / aunty / brother / sister online!

          In 1999 Morpheous taught us that it is better to suffer in reality than to live in a digital fantasy!

          • Vomo on 03/02/2024 - 11:17

            @leeboy168: It’s nice to see people in person, I actually enjoy that part of work

      • miicah on 02/02/2024 - 11:37
        +4

        , many employers are opting to offshore it to cheaper employees

        So why weren't they doing that before WFH became a popular thing?

        Hint, it's because it was never an option

        • gromit on 02/02/2024 - 17:56
          +1

          For many it was something they simply hadn't thought through fully before and Covid really gave them the chance to see how it works. Even government departments in Canberra now are sourcing remote contractors in other states where previously this was not something they would even consider. Quite a few private sector are leveraging off shore more.

          • ESEMCE on 02/02/2024 - 18:08
            +1

            @gromit: Not an example of offshoring, but yeah sure.

            • gromit on 03/02/2024 - 10:32

              @ESEMCE: correct not offshoring, but it shows the seismic mindset shift that is happening even in government. Even government are starting to realise local employees are no longer an absolute requirement and private enterprise is one step further ahead. I am on 3 projects at the moment. 1 has 1 member in india, 1 in Sri Lanka, 1 in NZ, 1 in Melbourne and 2 in Sydney. 4 years ago this would have been unthinkable where I work with lucky to have maybe 1 or 2 remote staff with specialist skills. People that think things aren't changing for remote and off shoring are kidding themselves.

        • geoffs87 on 02/02/2024 - 19:01

          before wfh became popular

          This is a slide I created in 2022 of overseas companies operating in Bangalore - all of which had well established patterns before WFH became popular…

      • R4 on 02/02/2024 - 17:49
        +2

        Nope. The other thing about offshoring is that there's this expectation that there's this endless supply of ultra-cheap workers just waiting to be hired. The company I contract for has operations in Manila, Chennai and Kuala Lumpur - low cost centres. We're crazy busy and just cannot get the people in Australia - they don't exist. So the idea is to use these low cost centres, but the problem is that they also don't have the people. Company wanted to hire 12 engineers in Chennai. Chennai said that they don't have them - not with the skills that we need. We had a whole bunch of guys lined up in Manila for a project - most of them have buggered off to Saudi Arabia for loads more money. If more money was on the table, maybe we could hire more people overseas but then there's no cost saving. Also most of the work given to LCCs is monkey see, monkey do guff as the skills over there are not really up to the hard stuff. We've even tried to get work done in Aberdeen and Houston and they also don't have people.

        Strange times.

        • Jolakot on 02/02/2024 - 20:38

          What are you doing that's so specialised that there aren't people here to do it at any salary?

          • R4 on 02/02/2024 - 20:52
            +1

            @Jolakot: Electrical, control and instrumentation engineering design in mining and oil and gas. For many reasons, we're currently rarer than hen's teeth - but the main problem is lack of new blood coming into the profession.

            • Jolakot on 02/02/2024 - 21:12

              @R4: How would someone get into that role, are there training programs available?

              People have this odd belief that hard to hire professionals can be offshored for 1/4 the local cost - if they were any good they would have already moved onshore for a 4x pay increase and better living standards.

              • R4 on 05/02/2024 - 22:37

                @Jolakot: Having completed a trade apprenticeship is a big help - when I got into this, it was kind of a prerequisite. There are TAFE courses in electrical engineering that are a good starting point. All the big resource companies and EPCMs have cadet programs, which combines on the job training with part-time TAFE. Four years of that plus a few years of experience and then you can get onto the contractor gravy train and get set up for life.

        • backupper1 on 03/02/2024 - 21:14

          i see that Saudis are going all out to woo the talent from all LCCs by paying top money, extensive social media campaigns that depict that they love LCC people & cultures and making infrastructure suitable for them; probably because they have tasted luxurious lifestyle first time in their history and want to maintain it by getting in skilled labour to do all the work in post petrol industries and earn them money.
          Definitely that will be poaching people that AU companies would want at LCCs.
          the real gold are either absorbed in USA or they stay back in high paying jobs. ANZ usually get 2nd tier or lower candidates even in outsourcing because USA companies usually pay a lot even in their LCC locations. so that explains their capability to do only monkey 😂 work and difficulty in hiring more people for AU companies’ outsourced roles.

      • azero on 02/02/2024 - 17:54
        +7

        They did, and turned out 1 onshore can replace 3 offshore, but 3 offshore cost as much as 2 onshore.

        So we ended up paying more and having lower quality work and a mountain of missed deadlines.

        But luckily for us, they cant ask us to come back to the office since half the team is now in india. WFH FTW.

      • reactor-au on 03/02/2024 - 08:57

        I get it, my company does use a lot of developers from India through consulting companies. However, I'm actually the reverse- I'm earning dollars and the company is based in an emerging markets country so it's not always the case they are looking for the cheapest.

      • field1985 on 04/02/2024 - 23:59
        +1

        The early 2000's called an asked for it's anecdote back. Seriously, for the last 5-10 years onshoring is more of a trend because companies are realising the huge long-term cost of offshoring (loss of customers, loss of IP, cybersecurity risks, reputational damage, etc).
        Same thing is happening now with the rush to "the cloud". Businesses will regret outsourcing their IT hardware and systems administrators to AWS and Azure, who are already turning the screws on pricing (heroin dealer method, first hit's free, then once you're hooked/entrapped, increase prices and increase prices).

    • MrTruffle on 02/02/2024 - 17:09
      +2

      We wanted to allow staff to work in other countries but the issue is them getting a visa to allow it legally. ie cant just move to Japan and work for an Aussie company for more than 30 days. We even have parent company in Japan and to allow that they'd need a new contract with that parent company and be subject to Japanese tax etc.

      so not sure how others who work are working in other countries unless for less than 30 days or illegally?

      • crentist on 02/02/2024 - 21:34
        +1

        Why 30? Is that stated somewhere? I thought it's just up to the tourist visa limit, ie 90 days.

        I'm uh, asking for a friend, who might have done closer to 90

      • reactor-au on 03/02/2024 - 08:59

        Dual citizenship, permanent residency, working for foreign companies while in your home country, digital nomad. Many ways.

    • Roe Jogan on 04/02/2024 - 09:27

      literally my dream job if you can work from another country

  • DashCam AKA Rolts on 01/02/2024 - 15:11
    +59

    Got to be able to justify all that CBD office investment.

    • Bobby Hill on 01/02/2024 - 19:28
      +10

      And have to listen to the commercial property owners who are funding all the WFH propaganda.

  • Fredfloresjr on 01/02/2024 - 15:13
    +2

    Back to office unfortunately, I have been the best actor in 'pretending' when I WFH.

  • KiKH on 01/02/2024 - 15:13
    +54

    WFH 2 days a week, and I will never work in a company that doesn't do WFH ever again.

    personally, I would jump ship asap if my company abolished WFH.

    • jrowls on 01/02/2024 - 15:35
      +9

      Yeah, that's what I've been trying to tell management, but there's no traction with some of them. I haven't made my mind up yet about what I'll do next but I know several colleagues wouldn't raise it with management but would definitely (at least make plans to) leave.

      • hothed on 03/02/2024 - 20:00
        +7

        Vote with your feet and quit.

        They forced my wife back to the office, even after pleading for flexibility to pick up 1 and 2 yr old from daycare.

        She found a job way more flexible and 20% higher pay.

  • Benoffie on 01/02/2024 - 15:15
    +2

    For those working in my immediate family:

    1 - flexible so long as in office for mandatory tasks that require a human to handle it (like mail outs) - public service
    2 - half half scheduled wfh - utility
    3 - whats wfh (teacher 🤣🤣🤣)

  • Drakesy on 01/02/2024 - 15:19
    +45

    Pretty sure the only ones pushing office based are those that have families at home/need to have an excuse to leave the house, at least in my case.

    Its pretty sad when productivity for many companies stayed consistent if not increased when everyone was forced to work from home.
    Ngl the office based environment is very distracting not to mention costly to the employer to maintain

    • onetwothreefour on 01/02/2024 - 15:31
      +3

      that have families at home

      Wouldn't those be the people who would prefer to WFH so they can be there when kids get home from school etc?

      • star-ggg on 01/02/2024 - 15:33
        +39

        It's the ones that hate their families

      • ESEMCE on 01/02/2024 - 15:40
        +12

        That's my WFH day.

        Wake up,
        Log into PC to sync files ~8gb/day ~20 minutes sync time over both Dropbox and Sharepoint
        Make Coffee for wife (and me)
        Maybe have breakfast, maybe not.
        Start work
        Drop off kids at school
        continue work
        Pick up kids from school
        Continue work

        I like that day, but happy I don't have to WFH every day anymore.

        My workplace is pretty flexible, it's a small team, so trust level is high. If you're not pulling your weight at home, it's going to be noticeable very quickly.

        Other companies I collaborate with (including those in Australian offices of International corporations) seem to be from home more than 90% of the time.

        • Benoffie on 01/02/2024 - 18:11
          +8

          That's it. My hubby has some batch runs he has to do on the server and previously he had to go into work at around 4am to have it completed before everyone else started.

          Now, he gets up at 5am, starts the run from home and is done on those days by 2pm.

          I understand why some people think others should be in the office but the reality is, there are some crap jobs that have people working those 7pm-7am hours that honestly, could and should be done from home.

        • pformag on 02/02/2024 - 15:15
          -3

          so you are getting paid to take your kids to school.

          • ESEMCE on 02/02/2024 - 15:35
            +8

            @pformag: No more than you're getting paid to talk about your weekend/what's for dinner with your Colleagues, or stop to check out the hottie as they walk past the work site.

            My employer has 2 choices;
            1) I work from home with 5 minute interruptions to do dropoff and pickup, and work for as much time as any other full day in the office (likely longer as I start at the time I'd normally commence my commute)
            2) I arrive to the office at 9am then depart at 2:45pm
            or I guess
            3) train another employee and suck up the lost time and productivity for the first 3+ months

            It's a pretty easy decision for them and I have the runs on the board to show that the work continues to get done.

          • Jolakot on 02/02/2024 - 20:42
            +1

            @pformag: No, they're getting paid to do a job. If they're still employed after all this time then they're clearly doing that job, so the employer is getting their money's worth.

            Besides, that extra 2 hours a day from skipping the commute more than covers stuff like that.

          • hailingstars on 02/02/2024 - 23:48

            @pformag: No, you make that time up when you get back or by starting work early. Didn't -1 by the way.

    • jrowls on 01/02/2024 - 15:37
      +20

      Ngl the office based environment is very distracting

      Agreed - I don't want to be there to develop the work culture. The 'culture' is the stuff that stops me from concentrating on work! lol

    • Nebargains on 02/02/2024 - 14:53

      Its pretty sad when productivity for many companies stayed consistent if not increased when everyone was forced to work from home.

      At a time when there was this huge element of fear that if you go on public transport or into an enclosed space (like an office) that you might get covid and at a time (particular in 2020) when the lines at centrelink were huge. Who wasn't working their ass off to make sure they kept their job? I know I did.

      I think the longer we go into this the more complacent some people get as that fear has well and truly worn off.

      Im pretty comfortable with flexible arrangements FWIW, I just don't think the office is as bad as the Gen Z laptop class make it out to be.

      • Jolakot on 02/02/2024 - 20:48

        My partner worked at centrelink during covid - there weren't any lines, it was the quietest it had ever been. They retrained staff to process applications, until they ran out of applications to process. Never a better time to be unemployed.

        • larndis on 02/02/2024 - 23:51
          +2

          Maybe the 'lines' were online rather than people physically lining up at an office, but they were certainly there - an extra million people claimed unemployment benefits in 2020. There were many extra staff pulled in from other departments to process applications, and many (most) other tasks had to be put on hold. If your partner avoided dealing with that they were bloody lucky!

          • Jolakot on 05/02/2024 - 13:05
            +1

            @larndis: That's exactly what I said, they were retrained to process applications after the in-person work became appointment only (mostly for people with special needs or vulnerabilities).

            After a little while they ran out of applications to process and had to move to something else, like taking calls or assisting other departments.

            The lines, physical or virtual, were the shortest they had ever been. Turnaround time was the shortest it had ever been. Precisely because they had so many people processing them.

        • smartazz104 on 05/02/2024 - 09:00

          Should've put them all on call centre duty… /s

    • ddilrat on 04/02/2024 - 01:22

      Imo the productivity stayed consistent only while staff remained consistent. As soon as we had a few people leave and be replaced it was almost impossible to get back to usual productivity while all working remote

  • kerfuffle on 01/02/2024 - 15:28
    +1

    I go into the office whenever. Work in tertiary education

    • tharlow on 02/02/2024 - 03:29
      +2

      Best job in the world! Plus super Super benefits

    • moar bargains on 02/02/2024 - 12:52
      +1

      Same same. I reckon we may have had this discussion before as well.

      I go in whenever I like, or whenever there's a requirement to (F2F meeting or something). That's been an average of about 1 day a week for the last year or two.

    • OhToTheZee on 03/02/2024 - 08:45

      Academic or professional staff?

      • kerfuffle on 03/02/2024 - 10:57

        Professional. We do have academics that only teach remotely for our online students

        • OhToTheZee on 03/02/2024 - 11:07

          The uni I work at requires 3 days in office for professional staff

          • kerfuffle on 03/02/2024 - 11:14
            +1

            @OhToTheZee: Mine's technically one day a week, but 🤷🏻‍♀️

  • Wiadro on 01/02/2024 - 15:30
    +9

    2 days of work in the office
    3 days of "working" at home

    • MakkhiChoos on 04/02/2024 - 15:53
      +1

      What do you mean by “”

  • onetwothreefour on 01/02/2024 - 15:32
    +1

    My employer has increased it from 2 to 3 days in the office.

    • jrowls on 01/02/2024 - 15:35
      +2

      That seems a fair balance. I was very happy with 3.

      • onetwothreefour on 01/02/2024 - 15:59
        +9

        3 days from home seems fair to me considering we've been doing it for years now.

        • jrowls on 01/02/2024 - 16:21
          +3

          Agreed - anywhere on the 2-3 day spectrum (such that it is) is fair for both parties imo. If you've gotten used to / planned life stuff around one thing though, it's definitely unfair to have the rug pulled out from under you.

          • onetwothreefour on 01/02/2024 - 18:43
            +5

            @jrowls: Yep, people have changed their lives around WFH. They've moved further away, partner's have taken on extra shifts, kids don't go to day care as much etc now it's slowly being taken away. Losing money, losing time with families etc.

    • coffeeinmyveins on 01/02/2024 - 16:33
      +4

      Just watch, it'll be 4 soon.

      • onetwothreefour on 01/02/2024 - 18:41
        +5

        Then 5, dinosaur bosses can't let go of their old ways.

        • kraigg on 03/02/2024 - 06:16

          Dinosaur bosses, and dinosaur (mis)managers who have to find ways justify their own positions.

        • smartazz104 on 05/02/2024 - 09:01

          If they had less shame they'd make it 6.

    • akl977ad on 03/02/2024 - 17:41

      I remember when previous work increased it to 3.

      It was ignored by even the senior executives. End result they gave up asking.

      People just don't rock up to the office, don't bother even applying just don't turn up.

      So practically the only people in the office is the HR people.

      Noone got any reprimand, even today (have friends still there), everyone who have left at their own will

  • offthetap on 01/02/2024 - 15:35
    +1

    i'm fully remote

    • FiDad on 02/02/2024 - 09:53

      Same for me. Wifey goes to office once a month.

  • star-ggg on 01/02/2024 - 15:38
    +10

    My company went from 2 to 3 days in office this year. Ironically, my output is less now than before. Used to be 2 meaningful collaboration/socialisation days in office and 3 days of focused work. Now the extra day in the office is a write off cause I can't focus.

    • Usernames on 02/02/2024 - 09:28
      +7

      Completely expected since WFH is more productive. I get nothing done in the office due to all the distractions, and based on what others are doing, neither does anyone else. Senior managers must feel more productive though, since they can strut around, have coffee meetings and look over shoulders at the work they don’t know how to do which is now open on a screen but really was actually done at home when their employee could focus.

      • Nebargains on 02/02/2024 - 14:48
        +4

        For every person who says they are more productive there is another one who says they are more productive but in reality is just so so.

        I work with people like that, I work with people who are absolutely killing it WFH and probably work too much because they never stop and turn the computer off. But I also work with just as many people where their output is questionable when they WFH but would say they are more productive.

        Personally I don't find the office any more or less productive.

        • Usernames on 02/02/2024 - 19:46
          +2

          Sounds like you need to step up your productivity ;). Seriously, though, lack of proper performance measurement for knowledge work, and lack of trust, are a couple of reasons for the push to get back to the office. Performance still isn’t being measured properly when people are in the office, but managers feel more comfortable because they can see people sitting at a desk.

  • scrimshaw on 01/02/2024 - 15:39
    +7

    ATO in NSW: 2 out 5 days required to be in office. Might be increasing to 3.

    you know we live in a weird timeline when even the CEO of Zoom actually dislikes the concept of working from home and critiques his own product for being terrible at building trust between employees.

    https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/08/leaked-audio-rev…

    • reactor-au on 03/02/2024 - 09:02
      +7

      Agreed, MS Teams is better. 😆

  • sudiph on 01/02/2024 - 15:42

    Work in IT consultancy, so depends on client. At the moment fully remote (likely till June)

  • geekcohen on 01/02/2024 - 15:54
    +4

    I am fully remote after a job move mid 2023.

    I used to be 1 day a week in my previous job but I have heard that they have now been ordered to do 3 days a week in the office for other employees.

    Sadly, I am hearing more and more about having to be in the office and the odd day WFH for other people I am speaking too. Any new jobs ads are saying that as well.

  • benstella on 01/02/2024 - 15:57
    +2

    Full time IT role on a contract basis, company calling for each and every employee to work 3 days in office.
    Planning to do IP tracking, not enough seats if everyone comes on single day so hot desking, leaving it to staff to plan when to come. Some staff use to come once in a week or fortnight depending upon role/meetings. Most of the staff works on contract basis due to flexible work hours. Old contracts don't mention any condition to work from office. New contracts mention flexible work conditions but may be required to work from office or client premises as per requirement.

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