Resistance to work-from-home points to the fundamental problems with jobs themselves.
So this is a bit of fun.
As I’m sure you know, a lot of us are working from home (WFH) these days.
A recent Roy Morgan survey reckons that a third of the workforce are now doing their jobs from home.
Working Women (33%) are slightly more likely than men (32%) to be working from home during this period and there are significant differences between age groups.
… There are also significant differences between people working in different industries. Over half of people working in Finance & Insurance (58%) and Public Administration & Defence (51%) have been working from home and just under half of those in Communications (47%).
What a revelation. Only 13% of the agricultural industry has gone WFN. (If your home is also a 40,000ha cattle run, does that count?)
We also know that, by and large, Aussie are loving it. No more commutes. No more pants. What’s not to love?
A recent survey by Dexus showed that 78% of WFH’ers were enjoying the whole experience.
But you know who’s not loving it?
The bosses.
Many of Australia’s bosses believe company culture can be built only in an office environment and expect most staff to be working back in the office after the pandemic ends.
A new survey of C-suite executives by Australia’s largest landlord, Dexus, found 79 per cent of respondents expected that after the pandemic most of their staff would be working in the office most days of the week.
While there were positive takeaways from staff working remotely en masse, there were three main sticking points for C-suite executives.
The first was not being able to nurture company culture effectively… the second major hurdle was the ability to generate new business… and the third major challenge was the lack of observational learning.
Classic.
78% of people like working from home. 79% of employers don’t want you to do it.
So Aussies have realised that they like having more autonomy over their time. They like being able to wear whatever they like. They like having flexibility around their other family and life commitments.
But these are exactly the things you give up when you have a job.
Because the bosses don’t value these things. In fact, they actually get in the way of doing business.
And I’m not bashing the bosses here. It’s a massive challenge keeping staff motivated and engaged.
But the problem here is with the nature of jobs themselves. When you sell your time to someone, the incentives get messed up. You want to put in as little energy and effort as possible for the money you get. Your boss wants the opposite.
You don’t want to wear pants. Your boss thinks it’s important for office moral.
And this is it. When you sell yourself for money, you have to accept doing things you don’t like.
…like going into the office.
So the problem is just jobs. Far better to create independent wealth and live entirely on your own terms.
Now, if only there was some kind of fairy godmother with a toolkit of strategies for creating independent wealth through property investing.
Oh wait. There is.
(It’s me, idiots.)
DB.