Aussies reveal how productive they are when working from home

Working from home always sparks a big debate and Bondi-goers have shared what they’re really doing when their bosses aren’t watching.

The right to work from home has become a contentious debate in Australia, and news.com.au has hit the streets to find out if Aussies are really productive when they’re not in the office.

Amazon, Dell, Tabcorp, the NSW Government, and Flight Centre are some of the major companies that announced a return to office mandates in 2024.

There’s a growing fear among workers that working options will be scrapped and hybrid and remote workers will find themselves back at their desks in unflattering lighting.

One of the growing reasons bosses are claiming they want Aussies back in offices is the fear that “productivity” is suffering.

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The question is, are bosses paranoid? Or are workers dropping the ball when they’re in the comfort of their own homes?

Interestingly, when news.com.au headed down to Bondi to get some answers, people were very upfront about their productivity when they were working from home.

One woman said she was “definitely” productive when she worked from home, while another claimed she was “hundred per cent” productive when not working in the office.

One lady in a hat said she was “more productive” when she worked from home and away from the hustle and bustle of the office.

“I am more productive in a quiet place. I can’t work with a group of people around me,” she explained.

She did admit it has taken some trial and error to get her WFH set up foolproof. For instance, she stopped working at the kitchen table because it was a high-traffic family zone and people kept interrupting her.

One boss explained that he thinks he and his team did a “pretty good” job working from home during the Covid-19 lockdowns, but he doesn’t think being at home full-time is a “solution” for workers.

Aussies share their WFH behaviours. Picture: news.com.au

She said she’s more productive when she isn’t in the office. Picture: news.com.au

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One Aussie who works from home full-time said she likes to “chuck on the washing” every now and then, but, for the most part, she is firmly in her “work zone” and her productivity is high.

Meanwhile, a therapist who works completely remotely said he is able to stay motivated because he runs his own business. However, he added that being at home also means you are not in an environment where people can “inspire you”, which he believes is a shame.

“Like even just like, thinking, ‘I don’t want to look lazy because there are other people here,” he said.

He said he stays motivated because he runs his own company from home. Picture: news.com.au

He said full-time WFH is not the ‘solution’ for workers. Picture: TikTok

Recruitment expert Roxanne Calder has previously told news.com.au that the “perspective from employers” is that they would prefer for workers to return to offices full-time.

She explained that, while employers are still “happy” to accommodate working from home and flexibility, the general gist is that they’d prefer it if they didn’t have to.

Ms Calder argued that employees often mistake the fact that bosses want them to return to the office because they want “control” over them. She said it just comes down to the environment that produces the best work.

“People confuse it with control, it isn’t about that, it is a superficial assumption. It is about the productivity level, collaborations and humans need humans,” she said.

Ms Calder said that employers are always chasing high retention rates from employees, and they will only get that if people come into work and find “purpose” and forge friendships and relationships with their workers.

“If you’re isolated and working from home, there’s always the chance you’ll start looking for something else,” she said.

Working from home has been happening since the 1960s and 1970s, but it used to be called “remote work”, with Ms Calder claiming title switch to “working from home” isn’t a positive thing.

“Maybe it is the word home, we need to change it. It’d help if we didn’t say ‘working from home’ the connotation to employers is working from bed,” she said.

Originally published as Aussies reveal how productive they are when working from home