Inside the bitter war over working from home

Forget squabbles over whether rugby league or Aussie rules is the better sport, now the great Australian debate is all about jobs. 

More precisely, if working from home or trudging into the office makes for more productive employees. 

Until COVID-19 struck it was a non-argument, but when the pandemic forced everyone to isolate, a nationwide barney blew up. 

Even some politicians are backing flexible work crusaders, pitting them all against the traditional, and very unimpressed, corporate guard.

"Working from home isn't just good for families and working people, it's also good for productivity," Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen said.

Not even the experts can agree on what's best. 

Some say flexible arrangements, that is, the home office, create happy workers and therefore help businesses boom. 

Others reckon that's nonsense, and that bosses have every right to see their staff in person every day. 

Adam Beaupeurt from Byron Bay reckons he's got balance figured out.

"If you want to put your feet up for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, the funny thing is, you actually can," he says.

But Beaupeurt's not just a worker, he's a work-from-home employer.

And he loves leading his business by example.

"Sometimes I'll pop to the market if it's on. Do some exercise," he said.

"I think the idea that productivity can only be achieved by stamping in and out your time card seems a bit old-world."

Jack Kapoor thinks it's all new-age rubbish.

"Doing grocery shopping, going to the beach, that is impact directly on the business productivity," he said.

"So as ruthless as that may sound, the reality is that time is actually being charged to the business, which is not being utilised for the business."

Kapoor's office, in Sydney's CBD, is, to state the obvious, no Byron Bay.

It's cramped with employees, with their eyes glued to their screens, just the way Kapoor likes it.

"If his business thinks that the productivity is not impacted by Adam choosing that lifestyle, thumbs up, well done, Adam and the business have found both a great sweet spot," he said.

"But in general, if everybody works from home, well, I think that will be very difficult to run a business, um, truly because the collaboration will truly fall off."

Working from home in the harbour city of Newcastle seems, on the surface at least, to be a taste of the good life.

But with lawyer Katherine Guilfoyle, it's more a dose of reality that flexible work can get complicated.

"I don't work Tuesdays, I work Saturdays. I will often wake up very early before everyone else in the home and I'll get up and do a couple of hours before the kids and my partner wake up," she said.

"So my primary place of work is at home.

"However, for client conferences, I hire an office.

"And of course, sometimes I'm at court."

Guilfoyle is a mother to two young kids, so to spend as much quality time with them as possible, she now works remotely, but not how you might anticipate.

Guilfoyle still uses childcare, because while very cute, the two can also get their mother very side-tracked.

In the debate over what's more productive: working from home or ordering workers back to the office, sheis a bit of a realist. She can't mimic Adam Beaupeurt's beach walks any time soon.

"Nor is she much interested in grinding away in a no-frills office like Jack Kapoor's solar energy firm.

Guilfoyle sits on the fence.

"I actually loved working from the office. I loved being able to walk down the hallway and have a strategy discussion with a colleague," she said.

"So working from an office with lots of colleagues is actually something I do miss."

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