Australian property billionaire Harry Triguboff has laid into bosses around the country for continuing to allow employees to work from home in a post-pandemic landscape.
It was part of the health advice to do as much work as possible from your humble abode last year to prevent people using public transport and other services.
Now that the pandemic is a much lower risk, Aussies have been allowed to return to their offices and CBDs are vibrant, bustling places once again.
Advert
However, there have been loads of companies hold onto the work from home model because it gives staff greater flexibility and a better balance.
While plenty of people will be happy at that idea, Mr Triguboff reckons it's problematic.
The real estate developer and Meriton founder spoke at an Urban Taskforce event last week, where he said: "We have to also stop this work from home. You can have figures that they will work. I say they only work half the time."
According to The Saturday Telegraph, he also labeled bosses who promote WFH balances as 'parasites'.
Advert
Interestingly, while there can be some mental challenges with working from home all the time, it does have its benefits.
A review of multiple studies done last year and published in the BMC Public Health found people who worked from home experienced less time pressure, less role conflict, greater autonomy (resulting in less exhaustion), and improved sense of personal well-being as they were no longer in a stressful office environment.
The authors highlighted one study that concluded: "Anderson measured the effect of WAH [work at home] on the mental well-being of government employees (all participants were WAH > 1 day per fortnight), and found WAH had a positive effect on well-being (feeling at ease, grateful, enthusiastic, happy, and proud) with less negative effect on well-being (bored, frustrated, angry, anxious, and fatigued).
Advert
"The study also found individual traits of openness to experience, lower rumination, and greater social connectedness moderated the relationship between WAH and positive well-being, and a strong level of social connectedness (outside of work) was related to a less negative effect on well-being."
It's not all roses and happiness though when you work from home.
Some of the studies found there was an increase of social isolation when employees worked from home, which is to be expected when you don't get to spend eight hours a day with loads of people.
Featured Image Credit: Meriton Apartments Photographer (Creative Commons)Topics: Australia