Images of workers queuing at a bus stop so they can get to the office have exposed a major flaw in the argument to end working from home.
The long queue emerged in Melbourne on Tuesday after a non-fatal self-harm incident at Murrumbeena Station halted train services.
Workers were instead forced to take the bus between Caulfield and Westall.
A frustrated commuter took video of the long queue before sharing the footage with a sarcastic caption on Reddit.
“Working from home kills productivity,” it said.
‘Absolute chaos today. My company is becoming increasingly strict when it comes to office work.’
The caption was a comment on companies in Australia ordering their employees to return to the office, with some bosses claiming that working from home is hurting productivity.
One social media user revealed they had to wait in line for up to 50 minutes before they could board a replacement bus.
A Reddit user uploaded a video on Tuesday of a huge crowd of commuters queuing for Melbourne’s public buses, debunking the myth that people are still primarily working from home
The long waiting time sparked discussion about whether returning to the office was actually more productive than working from home.
“It’s honestly why I WFH mid-week. The roads are quiet, the office is quiet. It’s so peaceful,” one person wrote.
“The office is the least productive environment,” wrote a second.
“What’s most frustrating is that the people making these RTO decisions never have to deal with long commute times and the impact on their lifestyle,” wrote another.
One of them sarcastically argued that ordinary workers were selfish for not thinking about the needs of their wealthy CEOs.
“That’s tough, but think about our billionaires who are failing to make commercial real estate investments in the CBD!” they wrote.
One social media user noted that companies seemed to be encouraging their employees to come into the office on certain days – and that this had led to them being given an unsavory nickname.
“Someone told me a while ago that office workers are TWATs during the week,” they wrote.
‘It made a little more sense when I further explained that it stood for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.’
Others supported the call to bring workers back to the office.
‘Some people are good at working from home. And I think those people are completely unaware that some people aren’t,” one person wrote.
“As someone who has led a remote and in-office workforce, this is absolutely part of the issue surrounding this discussion. It just doesn’t work for everyone,” another added.
“It also depends on the tasks, even for people who can work well remotely, there may be tasks where face-to-face is even better,” says a third.
The caption was a comment on companies in Australia who have ordered their employees back to the office, with some bosses claiming that working from home is hurting productivity
A survey found the majority of Australian CEOs want staff to return to the office full-time by 2027, meaning an end to the popular work arrangement for millions of employees.
The KPMG 2024 CEO Outlook survey shows that 83 percent of 1,300 global CEOs predict the era of working from home will end within the next three years.
The survey found bosses will take a firmer stance on WFH in 2024, after 64 percent of top executives predicted employees would return full-time the year before.
The investigation came after tech giant Amazon and Australian gaming company Tabcorp became the latest companies to issue mandates forcing staff back into the office – with Australia’s largest tech company slamming the move.
Head of Atlassian’s distributed working model Team Anywhere, Annie Dean, said tough office mandates are “not the solution” for Australian workers.
Australian workers’ right to work from home is not protected by law.
Depending on personal circumstances, employees have the right under the Fair Work Act to request a flexible working arrangement from their bosses.
Australians can request to work from home or work non-standard hours if they have caring responsibilities, are pregnant or in other specific situations.
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