Basil Zempilas, the mayor of the City of Perth, has hit out at those workers who continue to work from home after a new report from WFH Research revealed Australia ranks as one nation with the highest numbers of people working from home in the world.
Since the Covid pandemic, when working from home for those who could, city centres -cafes, restaurants and retail – have felt the lack of customers who once all worked in the city. Of course, working from home is only possible in specific office-based and white-collar work. Working as an ambo, truck driver, cleaner, and surgeon from home is impossible.
The Global Survey of Working Arrangements collected over 42,000 observations from workers across 34 countries and found that full-time Australian employees skipped the office for home 1.27 days a week in April and May. The survey also found that Aussies want that average number increased to 2.23 days.
Zempilas addressed the issue on Thursday’s episode of Channel 7’s Sunrise, saying that these workers are “hurting” their city.
“If you work from home and not in your office in the capital city that you live closest to, you are hurting your capital city,” he said.
The former sports commentator and TV presenter says workers could also jeopardise their careers by choosing to ditch the commute to work.
“Here’s another newsflash: if you want career progression, if you want to go up the chain at work, how do you reckon you can do that if you’re staying at home and don’t know the boss and don’t know the work ethic?”
Ahead of Australia, the average days spent working from home were Canada, the UK and the US.As for the lower-ranked countries, Taiwan, China, and Malaysia reported only being away from the office for 0.6 days a week, while South Korea, Japan and Greece recorded low numbers.
But what were the main factors for workers choosing to stay at home? The three main factors were avoiding the commute, saving money on lunch and fuel and flexibility in hours.
Last June, a study of 28,000 full-time workers, including 1,042 Australians, found they could save an average of $216 a week by working from home.
An investigation by Daily Mail Australia in June this year found that $20 has become the standard price for an office lunch in capital cities.
