Billionaire Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar’s shocking WFH confession

Atlassian’s billionaire co-founder Scott Farquhar has made a shocking admission about exactly how much time he spends working from the office.

Atlassian’s billionaire co-founder Scott Farquhar has made a shocking admission about exactly how much time he spends working from home.

The 43-year-old co-chief executive of the Australian software giant said this week he only goes into the office once every three months.

“I work from home all the time and I come into the office about once a quarter,” Mr Farquhar told 60 Minutes in an episode that will air on Sunday.

Asked to clarify by surprised reporter Tom Steinfort, Mr Farquhar said: “Every three months.”

Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar said he only goes into the office once every three months. NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

What makes the admission more surprising is Mr Farquhar lives just 6km as the crow flies from Atlassian’s ritzy CBD office space, in a Point Piper mansion he bought for $130 million late last year.

The private sale of the four-bedroom house was believed to be the most expensive in Australia.

The Australian this year estimated Mr Farquhar was worth $15.56 billion, making him the seventh richest person in Australia. He fell one place behind fellow Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, whose fortune was estimated at $16.06 billion.

Mr Farquhar is the seventh richest person in Australia. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Mr Farquhar’s admission that he hardly goes into the office was made as Zoom chief executive Eric Yuan, in the US, ordered staff back into the office for at least two days a week if they lived within 80km of work.

The order was despite Zoom becoming an essential working from home tool during the global Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.

Mr Yuan argued staff needed to work in the same office, in San Jose, California, so they could debate ideas. Zoom made people excessively polite, he said.

“Quite often, you come up with great ideas but when we are all on Zoom, it’s really hard,” he said during the company’s August 3 meeting.

“We cannot debate each other well because everyone tends to be very friendly when you join a Zoom call.”