Images of workers queuing at a bus stop to head to the office have exposed a major flaw in the argument for ending home working.
The long queue had formed in Melbourne on Tuesday after a non-fatal self-harm incident at Murrumbeena station closed train services.
Instead, workers were forced to take the bus between Caulfield and Westall.
One frustrated traveler took a video of the long line before sharing the footage on Reddit along with a sarcastic caption.
“Working from home kills productivity,” he said.
‘Today is absolute chaos. My company is becoming stricter about working from the office.’
The title was a criticism of Australian businesses that have ordered workers back to the office, with some bosses arguing that working from home kills productivity.
One social media user revealed they had to wait up to 50 minutes in line before being able to board a replacement bus.
A Reddit user uploaded a video on Tuesday of a massive crowd of commuters queuing to catch public buses in Melbourne, debunking the myth that people are still predominantly working from home.
The long wait time sparked debate over whether returning to the office was actually more productive than working from home.
‘Honestly, it’s the reason I work from home mid-week. The roads are quiet, the office is quiet. “It’s so peaceful,” one wrote.
“The office is the least productive environment,” wrote a second.
“The most frustrating thing is that the people making these RTO decisions are never affected by long commutes and the lifestyle impacts they have,” wrote another.
One sarcastically argued that ordinary workers were being selfish for not thinking about the needs of their wealthy CEOs.
‘That’s tough, but think of our billionaires failing in their commercial property investments in the CBD!’ they wrote.
One social media user noticed that companies seemed to encourage their workers to go to the office on certain days, and that this had led to them being given an unpleasant nickname.
“Someone told me a while ago that weekday office workers are TWAT,” they wrote.
“It made a little more sense when he was further informed that it meant Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.”
Others supported the call for workers to return to the office.
‘Some people are good at working from home. And I think those people are not fully aware that others are not,” one wrote.
‘As someone who has managed remote and in-office staff, this is absolutely part of the theme around this discussion. It just doesn’t work for everyone,” added another.
“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,” chimed in a third.
The title was a criticism of companies in Australia who have ordered workers to return to the office, with some bosses arguing that working from home kills productivity.
A survey has revealed that a majority of Australian CEOs want staff to return to the office full-time by 2027, signaling the end of the popular workplace deal for millions of workers.
The KPMG 2024 CEO Outlook survey found that 83 percent of 1,300 global CEOs predict the work-from-home era will end within the next three years.
The survey revealed that bosses are taking a stronger stance on working from home in 2024, after 64 per cent of CEOs predicted workers would return full-time the previous year.
The survey came after tech giant Amazon and Australian gaming company Tabcorp became the latest corporations to issue mandates forcing staff to return to the office, as Australia’s largest tech company criticizes the move.
Annie Dean, head of Atlassian’s distributed work model, Team Anywhere, said hardline office mandates are “not the solution” for Australian workers.
The right of Australian workers to work from home is not protected by law.
Depending on their personal circumstances, workers have the right to ask their bosses for a flexible working arrangement under the Fair Work Act.
Australians can apply to work from home or work non-standard hours if they have caring responsibilities, are pregnant or in other specific situations.
Crisis support on 13 11 14 (24 hours/7 days)
Text Lifeline on 0477 13 11 14 (6pm-midnight, 7 nights)
Chat online at www.lifeline.org.au (7pm-midnight, 7 days a week)