The level of entitlement from WFH workers is off the charts | Caleb Bond

Remember back when the boss told you to do something and you’d just do it, writes Caleb Bond.

Once upon a time, if your boss told you to do something you generally did it.

You might argue back if he’s asking you to scale a building without ropes or handle nuclear waste with your bare hands but, within reason, he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Not so anymore. The animals have taken over the zoo – or, more specifically, the home zoo.

Employees are demanding that they be allowed to work from home evermore.

Bosses are trying to get people back to the office and workers are as good as telling them to get nicked.

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn told his staff he expected them to be in the office 50 per cent of the time from this month.

It’s not an unreasonable request. But workers unloaded, complaining it was an unfair demand, and then their union got involved.

Since when has it been unfair for a boss to expect you to show up to your place of employment only half the time?

Commbank staff were actually told a year ago that they were expected in the office two or three days a week and yet thousands openly ignored the edict.

Mr Comyn gave them a nudge and it was suddenly all “woe is me”.

Get off your lazy arse and go to the office. You might enjoy sitting around in your pyjamas all day but the boss would occasionally like to eyeball you and be able to talk to you without having to schedule a Zoom meeting that fits in with your schedule of picking the kids up from lacrosse and building a new retaining wall in the backyard.

You’re not being asked back to the office for a laugh. It’s because that is how your employer believes you can best perform your duties.

Now the federal public service, in its infinite wisdom, has struck a deal with the Community and Public Sector Union that will allow staff to work from home permanently and for as many days a week as they please.

There will be public servants who never meet their colleagues. How on earth is that healthy or tenable – particularly when you work in a team?

Commonwealth Bank CEO,Matt Comyn. Picture: Supplied

And because it has happened at the commonwealth level, the push will now be on for it to extend to other public sector workers in the state and local government systems.

Once that happens it’s all over, red rover. The private sector will have no choice but to follow suit.

Many businesses are now finding that productivity doesn’t actually increase when people work from home. In fact, in some cases, it decreases.

It’s harder to mentor and train staff. It’s harder to foster camaraderie. It’s harder to make contact with people.

A paper recently published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that “remote work negatively impacts workers’ career trajectories”.

In other words, you’re more likely to get promoted if you make the effort to go into the office and meet your boss and colleagues. But I suppose that is some great injustice as well.

The level of entitlement is off the charts.

We are fast turning ourselves into a nation of hermits. And not only will that hurt productivity – it will ultimately hurt us as a species.

Originally published as The level of entitlement from WFH workers is off the charts | Caleb Bond