Productive or bludging? What Aussie employees really think about working from home

A fascinating gender split is emerging in attitudes towards working from home, an Aussie university study has discovered. But there’s one boss behaviour that everyone loathes.

Working from home mandates are not going to be successful because some employees feel better off in the office while others do better at home, a new study has found.

Despite widespread acceptance that a hybrid home/office model suits most workers, a University of Queensland survey of nearly 400 workers has found some men in high-stress jobs with little autonomy feel better off working at home.

Women, however, are more likely to be in the low-stress low-monitoring group that feels better off in the office, researchers found.

But workers agreed on one thing – they don’t want to be managed too closely by their bosses, with the survey results also showing excessive monitoring leads to anxiety and depression.

The findings come as the Victorian government has proposed a law requiring both private and public sector workers the right to two days a week of remote work, provided they can “reasonably” do their job.

The proposed law has been widely criticised by employer groups.

Researchers from the University of Queensland interviewed 386 Australian workers from a variety of industries and professions, with 57 per cent in managerial positions, 14 per cent clerical workers and 8 per cent labourers or drivers.

Dr Caroline Knight from the University of Queensland led the study into how workers feel about being in the office versus being at home.

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They found those who had high-stress jobs with high monitoring and low autonomy fared better at home than in the workplace.

Others with low-stress jobs requiring little monitoring said they felt better in the office because they had more autonomy and support.

Other workers with low monitoring and high empowerment worked well in both the office and home. Others who had low autonomy and high monitoring felt negative about their work regardless of the location.

The study found some men prefer to work from home, especially those in high-stress, low-autonomy jobs.

The participants were 60 per cent female and 40 per cent male, and two-thirds were between 40 and 59 years old. They worked between 10 and 80 per cent of time at home, with most doing around two days a week away from the office.

Lead author Caroline Knight said the results showed there is no “one-size-fits-all solution”.

“This is important to know within the current public debate over whether work from home days should be mandated or fixed,” she said.

“Our findings suggest mandates are probably not going to work because there’s a lot of variation in where people work best – depending on things like autonomy, social support, workloads and how closely they’re monitored.”

Dr Knight said the study “clearly shows excessive monitoring of employees does not work”.

“It’s important to be aware of how much support (employees) are getting when working from home,” she said.

“Hybrid work is not a one-size-fits-all and employers need to approach it with flexibility.”

The study was published in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour.

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Originally published as Productive or bludging? What Aussie employees really think about working from home