I have, for many, many years, been fascinated with the idea of remote work. Since Mike Elgan wrote about the New Bedouins in 2007 I yearned to be part of the revolution. Now, of course, due to COVID-19 it’s the new normal.
There’s an interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald that posits the five day office week is dead, at least in Australia. That’s not to say that everyone will be working remotely from now on, merely that workers won’t be spending all their time in the office in the future. In a survey, 42 of 50 of the major companies in Australia said that they were adopting permanent hybrid working plans where employees would spend 2–4 days in the office and the remainder working remotely.
Despite the widespread adoption of remote some companies are eager to get back to the ways things were. In some of these, the workers are customer facing so have them in the office makes sense. In others, though, it’s simply a rearguard action. Here’s what Telco Optus’ HR VP Kate Aitken has to say on the matter“”
“Optus believes co-location fosters collaboration and innovation; you can’t just ‘dial-in’ culture,”
Notice that it’s the usual talking points—already debunked—that those loath to give up control always use.
In the end, it won’t matter. Many workers, perhaps even a majority, simply aren’t gong back to the office.