To my fellow remote workers, our time is nearly up.
I was lying in bed this morning, 15 minutes before my 8:30am start at work, when I read the insights from the KPMG 2023 CEO Outlook. The global survey found two-thirds of Australian CEOs see all white-collar workers returning to the office in the next three years.
What’s more, 75 per cent of CEOs said they would reward the employees who “make the extra effort” to return to the office with pay increases, promotions and more interesting work.
I tried to picture my life that way – a 45 minute commute, spending $10 on coffee and, most likely, wasting time chatting the day away with colleagues, before hopping on a bus home for another 45 minutes.
If a pay rise was on the line, I guess I could make that “extra effort” (in this economy). As much as I love working from home, it would be easy for me to go to an office. I am a young person living free from kids, pets and a lot of responsibility.
So what about those who take on household and domestic responsibilities? In other words, what about the majority of white-collar working women in Australia?
Although the shift from working in an office to remote work has been difficult for some, it’s been a blessing for others. Parents can pick their kids up from school, families can live in cheaper suburbs further away from the office, and people can enjoy a flexible work-life balance, all the while being as productive as ever at work.
If anything, it’s levelled the playing field for male and female colleagues. We know that women bear most of the household and domestic responsibilities, so shifting to remote work has eased the pressure for a lot of working women to do it all – commute to the office, care for the kids, cook, clean, shop etc. etc.
It worries me that workers will be incentivised and rewarded for returning to the office, if the CEOs fulfil their promise. Because it will be the same group of people who receive the promotions, the raises and the privilege in the workplace. In other words, the majority of white-collar working men in Australia.
The survey says a lot about leadership in the workplace. Unfortunately, most CEO roles – 91 per cent of CEO positions on the ASX 300, for example – are held by men who take care of their own.
If hard-line return-to-office policies return, the Boys’ Club™ lives on.
Remote work has also enabled people to move out of urban Australia to regional parts of the country, with a slower pace of life and cheaper rent. A report from March this year found migration from capital cities to regional Australia averaged 8 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2018 and 2019.
Forcing workers back to the office means forcing people to move back to the city, where the rent is high and the vacancy levels are low. Aren’t we trying to control the housing crisis, not aggravate it?
My thoughts are simple: if the work can be done at home, let your workers stay at home. If your productivity levels remain unchanged since pre-pandemic times, why force people to sacrifice their home lives?
I know how lucky I am to work from home and how lucky I am to enjoy the flexible working lifestyle. Not everyone is afforded this opportunity.
Who knows, I might actually enjoy working in an office, chatting to people, getting coffee, doing what the corporate girlies do?
All I know is that for a lot of Australian women out there, returning to the office means returning to the same workplace hierarchies that have excluded working women for decades.