The Office as One Option, Not the Default

For many business owners, resistance to working from home isn’t really about productivity. It’s about familiarity, visibility, and control.

Work has traditionally been defined by where  it happens, an office, a desk, fixed hours, being seen. When employees aren’t physically present, it can feel like work itself is somehow less real, even when the outcomes don’t change.

But here’s the irony. Most businesses already operate remotely every single day.

Emails are remote work.

Phone calls are remote work.

Video meetings are remote work.

Cloud systems, shared documents, CRMs and payroll platforms are remote work.

If an employee can respond to a customer email from their desk, they can respond from home. If a meeting can happen on Teams or Zoom, the location of the chair underneath the person doesn’t suddenly make the work more legitimate.

We also don’t expect customers to travel to the office every time they want to ask a question, approve a quote, place an order or resolve an issue. We transact with them remotely by phone, email, online portals and video calls. In many cases, the office has already become just one location where work can happen, not the only one. So why does the standard change when it’s employees?

Often, resistance to working from home is really about:

• Trust versus visibility

• Managing outcomes versus managing presence

• Old habits versus modern capability

For some leaders, seeing people work feels safer than trusting that the work is being done. But visibility has never guaranteed performance and absence has never guaranteed disengagement.

At the same time, working from home isn’t a silver bullet and pretending it is can be just as unhelpful as rejecting it outright.

There are genuine scenarios where WFH may not work well, including roles that are inherently physical or location based, poorly defined roles with unclear expectations, inadequate systems or technology, early career employees who benefit from closer guidance, performance or conduct concerns that require more structure, or teams where connection and accountability are already fragile.

In those situations, the issue usually isn’t working from home itself. It’s the absence of the right foundations. Clear expectations, strong leadership, fit for purpose systems and open communication matter regardless of where work is done.

The reality is this: Work is an activity, not a place.

That doesn’t mean every role, business or person should work remotely all the time. But dismissing WFH outright often ignores the fact that remote work is already embedded in how modern businesses operate.

The more useful question isn’t “Should people work from home?” It’s “What outcomes do we need, and what’s the best way to enable them?”

When the focus shifts from where people sit to what they deliver, flexibility stops feeling risky and starts feeling practical.

NOTE: Following the Modern Awards Review 2023-24, the Fair Work Commission is currently developing a working from home term for the Clerks-Private Sector Award 2020. Documents and information for this case will be published here as they become available.