Billionaire Atlassian software boss Scott Farquhar reveals why he really thinks staff should be allowed to work from home

The billionaire co-founder of Atlassian has revealed that he lets his staff work from home so they can be more productive and happier while avoiding Sydney’s traffic congestion and unaffordable housing.

Scott Farquhar, Australia’s seventh richest person with an estimated net worth of an estimated $18 billion, said an employee with children was able to move from a unit on Sydney’s lower north coast to a house near the beach in Wollongong.

“It gives people the freedom to live where they want,” the software giant’s co-CEO told 60 Minutes.

‘We have an employee who used to live on the lower north coast of Sydney, lives in an apartment with his children and was just not happy with the amount of space and the cost of accommodation in Sydney and looked around.

‘And when we announced the ‘Team Anywhere’ capabilities – that you could work anywhere – he moved to Wollongong and lives in a four-bedroom house 10 minutes from the beach.

“His kids play with the neighborhood kids in the afternoon and just run outside and he’s completely changed his life.”

Sydney is so expensive that an apartment in St Leonards, near the train station on the lower north coast, typically costs $1.2 million.

But for the same price, it’s possible to own a home near Wollongong beach, CoreLogic data on average prices shows.

Almost half of Atlassian’s staff hired since Atlassian’s ‘Team Anywhere’ policy went into effect in early 2022 live more than two hours away from the company’s headquarters in Sydney, on George Street.

Mr Farquhar said allowing staff to work from home meant they were spared a long journey, with those who lived 15 miles from the city often spending 40 minutes on a train to get to work.

“Many of our staff now live remotely,” he said.

“Those people don’t have to travel back and forth to work, so they save hours a day.

“And then they can bring the best of themselves to work because they can organize their work in and around all the other things that are going on in their lives.”

Mr Farquhar challenged the idea that homeworkers were less productive.

“Work is a calling, not a location,” he said.

‘We expect people to be able to work from home, from a cafe, from an office, but we don’t really care where they do their work, we care about the output they produce.’

Mr Farquhar, owner of a $130 million mansion in Point Piper on Sydney Harbour, admitted he visited the office only once every three months.

“I work from home all the time,” he said.

“Maybe I come into the office about once a quarter. Every three months.’

Scott Farquhar, Australia’s seventh richest person with an estimated net worth of an estimated $18 billion, said an employee with children who was able to move from a unit on Sydney’s lower north coast to a house near the beach in Wollongong

Mr Farquhar, 43, came seventh in The Australian Financial Review Rich list for 2023 with an estimated net worth of $18.2 billion, followed by Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes in sixth place with a fortune of $19 billion.

Bank CEOs faced a backlash from staff as they demanded a return to the office, while the Covid lockdowns are not a distant memory.

Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn, with a salary of $10.4 million, told his 49,000 employees in May to be in the office 50 percent of the time from July.

NAB CEO Ross McEwan, who was paid $3.89 million, demanded that his senior employees return to the bank’s headquarters five days a week.