Already and this is the daily This is the daily ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It is Friday, the ninth of August.
I'm billy, i'm zara.
Today is a Friday, and for many people who typically work in an office, that means there is a good chance that some of you will be working from home today. But are the days of working from home over? In case you missed it, this week New South Wales public sector employees were directed back to the office by the New South Wales government. It is triggered a strong debate about what flexibility looks like in today's post pandemic world and if going back to the pre pandemic working life
is really realistic. In today's deep dive, we're going to discuss exactly where we are at with work from home. But first, Sarah, what is making headlines today.
South Australia Liberal Opposition leader David Spears has stepped down a decision he said would quote give the next leader the best possible opportunity to succeed at the state's next election in twenty twenty six. Spears said that resigning as a leader is quote in my best interests and that of my family, but he will stay on in his
role as the member for Black in South Adelaide. Liberal members said he will support the next opposition leader for the state and that it was a privilege and honor to serve.
The Reserve Bank Governor Michelle Bollock has said that the RBA will not hesitate to raise interest rates again to combat inflation during a speech in Sydney on Thursday. It comes after the RBA announced on Tuesday that the cash rate would remain unchanged of four point three five percent for the sixth consecutive time. Despite keeping the rate the same, Bollock said yesterday in an address that there is considerable
uncertainty over Australia's economic future. She also said quote, I know this is not what people want to hear, but the alternative of persistently high inflation is worse. It hurts everyone.
The Weld Health Organization has announced it will send over one million polio vaccines to Gaza. Sanitation and health in the region has declined significantly amid the Israel Haamas war in Gaza, including the recent detection of polio in water samples. Polio is an infectious disease that mainly affects children under
five and can cause paralysis. The who's Director General said that absolute freedom of movement is needed for medical workers to administer the vaccines to around six hundred thousand children safely and effectively.
The beach community of Lahina in Hawaii is celebrating the recovery of a one hundred and fifty one year old banyan tree, one year after it was burnt in the Maui wildfires. Planted in eighteen seventy three, the front street banyan tree is the oldest of its kind in Maui and holds cultural significance for the community. Following the Maui wildfires in All last year, which damaged twenty five thousand trees, a local team of volunteers have helped the trees recovery since.
One local official told local media quote, you see a lot of long, long branches with hundreds of leaves back on the tree, and some of those branches are even producing fruit.
Billy. The debate about work from home versus work in the office is a big one people feel very strongly, and so before we get into the emotional response to it all, can you just start quite broad by telling us what happened this week and why we're talking about it.
So this week it was announced that the new South Wales government would require every person in the public sector to return to working from the office, so essentially ending work from home for the most part. Obviously there are always exceptions and there's always flexibility for different arrangements, especially for those with care responsibilities, but for the most part
they want people back in the office. Now. When I first saw this in the news and Tuesday morning, the reporting said that workers would need to be in the office every single day of the working week. But when the new South Wales Premier Chris Mins did a press conference, he actually said that the policy will be for workers to be in the office quote primarily and predominantly.
So not necessarily every single day, no.
So predominantly basically majority of the days. So I think you can take it as three out of five you have to be in the office. Like I said, there will always be exceptions, but that will be the standard rule. Now, public sector is a term that you might hear thrown around a lot, but I thought it might be worth actually explaining who they are.
I think this is helpful.
Yeah, So if anyone doesn't know. It just means that anyone who is employed by the New South Wales government. So that includes staff in government departments. So think of something like the Department of Education or the Department of Health. All the people who work for those departments they now need to be working in the office. The public sector does also include things like public hospitals and public schools, so teachers, nurses. Of course, those workers can't work from home,
so this doesn't affect them. It's just affecting those people who can work in an office for them to go back. Minn said in his press conference that about eighty five percent of public servants don't work from home, so this new policy is affecting about fifteen percent of the workforce.
I mean, that sounds like a small percentage, but I think the reason that that's being spoken about so much is because the New South Wales public sector employs four hundred thousand people. So even fifteen percent of that, we're talking about a lot of people here who have had a bit of a big change when it comes to their working arrangements.
Yeah, they're a huge employer in New South Wales.
Yeah, okay, And so what was Chris Mins's reasoning behind this decision. How did he come out and explain this call.
He really emphasized the word teamwork that kept coming up in the press conference, and he said that all of the research available shows that the best way to foster teamwork is by having people in the same location, and that being the office. And he actually said that this decision was made in large part because of young people.
I'm not sure that would be a popular part of the announcement.
Maybe it's one of those things where you don't know what's best for you, I think is his point. But he said that the public service hires a lot of university graduates and that for your first job out of you need to be one where everyone is working from home.
That can make it difficult. And he said that when the grads don't have access or don't have immediate access to people that have decades of experience who they can learn from, then it becomes hard to build a really productive team where young people are learning from the experts in the room around them. I mean, I think we all know that messaging someone over Slack isn't the same as just turning to the person next to you.
And I see obviously a very nuanced topic, but it is something that I can see even in our workplace that we have so many young people who choose to come in on a daily basis because you can create those relationships both with people your own age, but then also looking upwards that people you can learn from.
Yeah, our offices may be an anomaly. We're like a weird group of people who are.
We weird anyway. So that's the social elements and the learning elements. What else did Chrismin say?
So another key reason is the economy, and he really emphasized this. So over recent months there have been a few different reports come out about how the Sydney CBD and I would say that this is consistent across CBDs across the country, not just.
We've definitely heard this about Melbourne a lot.
Yeah, so what they're saying is that they have been very quiet compared to pre pandemic levels. There aren't the work is there. It's not like this bustling city that it was, and that is having a hit on the different small businesses in the CBDs. So I say Fridays for an example. As we know Fridays have traditionally they've always been this key time for after work drinks with colleagues or with friends. But now Fridays are a really popular time for many people to work.
From home, have that long weekend vibe.
Yes, and so that's meant that workplaces are a lot quieter on Fridays and that just has this flow on effect. So that then means that people aren't going to drinks after work and that causes bars and pubs to take a significant hit. Some businesses in Sydney have said that they have lost up to twenty five percent of profit
on Fridays when compared to pre pandemic levels. So that's a significant amount of profit that they're losing out on and that has meant that there has been this push from business owners and business groups for the government to do something about this and to somehow incentivize and encourage people to get back into the office to help the economy. And so this decision has been praised by business groups. So it hasn't been that popular with workers, but it
has been popular with business groups. Also, another industry that has taken a hit from work from home policies is commercial property developers. It means are even in our office we have had a vacant office below us for.
A very long time, two years now. I'm a big concent and that something is very wrong with them.
Yeah, they have not been able to find renters, and so that is another industry group that has really praised this decision. There is however, a slight problem and that there isn't actually enough space right now that is being rented by the New South Wales government for the public sector for all of these workers to suddenly come back into the office right.
That strikes me as something that perhaps should have been considered before making an announcement like this.
Was that addressed, Yeah, well, I think the point is that this decision isn't effective immediately. There will be about a six month rollout period for the New South Wales government to find new office spaces so that there is enough capacity to bring all of these people back. New South Wales Premier Chris min said that they are looking at different office spaces in Sydney' CBD and Paramata and he said that, like I just said, there is a
lot of commercial office space available. It's just about them.
Moving in downstairs. We'll see them there, okay. And so I feel like we spent quite a bit of time talking about what the business perspective is. What Chris Mins's perspective is that, I would argue, is quite distinct from the experience of your average worker, who perhaps might not take to this announcement too well. What has the response been.
So many opinions as is the case, Yeah, let's look at the workers. If our comment section on the Daily ODS is anything to go by, I would say it hasn't been the most popular. Our top comment on the daly os was one that said quote work is an activity,
not a place. I also spoke to someone who works in the public service who got this memo that they needed to go back to the office, and their perspective was really interesting because they actually moved to regional New South Wales during the pandemic and they had this arrangement with work that they were able to work from home for the majority. I mean, I think they don't have to go into the office like more than once every
three months. So they were really able to set up their life to fully work from.
Home, presumably in a more affordable area.
Yes, exactly, and now being told to go back into the office up to three days a week is just not feasible, you know, if you account for all of those travel hours that is more expensive, and I think in the cost of living crisis, that's another thing that is really being raised by a lot of workers. We also polled our audience and about ninety percent said that office policies should be hybrid, so allowing for both work from home and in office, which is worth pointing out
is similar to what the new government is suggesting. Only six percent of respondents said that office policies should be a mandate to work in the office full time. We also asked them if they would reconsider working for a company if that company required you to always be in the office, and about sixty percent said that they would. So will be interesting to see if the public sector we'll be able to continue to attract and retain staff with this new policy.
Yeah, I mean, as we explain more of it, I do think that there was a bar a clickbait around at the beginning and hearing you explain that you know, Chrismins isn't demanding that five days a week you're back in the office from tomorrow, that it is this phased in procedure and that there is still this hybrid nature to it. But I imagine that if you've had an agreement and you've moved out to the regions, this would
be a huge blow. And we know, of course for working parents working from home has been a life saver for them.
We're also nearly five years since the pandemic started and nearly five years into when working from home became much more of a regular thing for so many people, and so I think the drastic change is what really was quite jarring for a lot of people.
Yeah, and I think that for workers, it's been working just fine. And so if you're now turning around and saying that thing that's been working just fine for the last four or five years is no longer working just fine, I imagine there would be some questions. Billy, you flagged earlier that business groups are generally happy with this announcement, right, Yeah.
I think it's fair to say that they are really happy with this decision. Business Sydney is one group who came out and praised the premiere for his leadership. They said that they have quote consistently called for the government to take the lead in ending work from home arrangements and that it will be huge encouragement for the private sector in its efforts to bring their people back to
the workplace. So what they're saying there is that the new South Wales government has taken the lead and that hopefully private companies, for example the Daily Ours we're a private company, will now follow that lead for making a mandate for people to work in the office.
Based on our comment section, I'm not sure we will be following suit, but it will be interesting to see whether this does become a trend. I know that we've seen, you know, CBA and some other banks try to lead on this, but it didn't necessarily create this follow on effect that perhaps some of the business groups were looking for.
Yeah, and one other group that was happy was Property Counsel of Australia. They also said that quote more workers means more life, more investment and more business for our cities.
And obviously their vested interest is in property, so that would make sense on that behalf too. Now, Billy, if people haven't been able to work from home today and they are on their commute to work listening to this podcast, what do you think they should listen to next? What was your favorite TDA podcast from this week?
Wow?
Great segue, Thank you.
I'm definitely biased. But on Tuesday I did an interview with an economist about what was going on with the falling stock markets this week. I was so confused and I needed an expert to explain it to me. I wanted to understand, if you are not someone who invests in shares, and if you are someone who also doesn't own a property, how does falling stock markets actually affect you? And is it something that you need to worry about?
And he explained it to me so well, and I would highly recommend to that.
Well, there you go.
What about you, Zara, what was your favorite episode this week?
I think my favorite episode, which seems like a weird word to describe it, but was the episode we did on The Men on Trial for nine to eleven. This is such a crazy story to me, and there are so many twists and turns, and I think so many of us feel so removed from what happened in two thousand and one because it was so long ago, but you know the fact that there are these lasting implications in the legal system. I just found it absolutely fascinating.
We will put a link to those episodes in today's show notes if you would like to go and have a listen. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Daily Os. Have a good Friday if you're in the office or if you're working from home, and we will see you again on Monday. My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Kalkottin
woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.