One of the things that could be argued that cost Peter Dutton the last election was his stance on working from home by getting people back into the office full time as part of his election promise. This did not go down very well with a lot of people as the culture of hybrid work looked like it was here to stay for the foreseeable future. While it’s common for some jobs to be fully remote or hybrid, it wasn’t until Covid did it really kick this into overdrive when going into the office was no longer possible at all. The aftermath of Covid meant some things, like hybrid work, was here to stay.
There are positives to hybrid work, for example, allowing a better work-life balance or providing convenience to young families to juggle things like school pickups and appointments. Other things include avoiding a long commute and some people even prefer working from home because it provides a distraction free environment for them to get their work done more effectively. However, there are also numerous negatives to hybrid and remote work that should be addressed.
We typically spend about forty hours a week at our jobs. When we venture into the commute, the office or work environment, the factory or shop, we may consider these as mundane and repetitive places. But it’s here we also engage with people at levels we aren’t going to get in an online-only setting. For example, in some previous jobs I’ve worked in the past, there were times when I developed friendships with people in other teams that I wouldn’t normally interact with if not for working in the same space as them. Natural connections would be built and soon enough through consistency, I would have made a new friend that I could see outside of work hours. I could see their face and experience their mannerisms and they became a person that went beyond an email pop-up or video on my screen.
It’s also in the physical workplace where professional mentorship and efficiency can be enhanced and where skills can be learnt, more so than online in some cases. In the tech industry, for instance, people are celebrating the use of AI saving them time from being interrupted by colleagues, in that, AI tools can now provide the advice for a task that would normally come from a human. There has been some push-back on this though (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2026/04/bug-free-workforce-ai-disrupting-teams/) with the counter-argument being that it’s through asking questions and organic communication is a strong team built and therefore a better project outcome. It’s also through these methods does the transfer of knowledge from experienced workers to newer workers take place, something which occurs less frequently in isolation.
People are living more alone in a single household and for those of us that do, the workplace is the opportunity where many engage in social interaction for our day. Even if we’re introverted or shy, we are still social beings, we are not designed to live and be alone at all times.
We are living more and more isolated lives, and Covid only seemed to amplify this.
Especially in Western countries, people have fewer friends, fewer people are getting married and starting families, and our social skills appear to be getting worse thanks to our reliance on technology to communicate. Mental health issues are increasing. Younger people, especially, seem to rely on online friendships and communities now more than ever for connection. And with the rise of AI, people have been leveraging this technology for an alternative in social connection.
Despite this, we’ve quickly discovered over the years that everything can be done in the comfort of our own homes: you can work online, order your groceries to be delivered to your door, socialise and spend leisure time on our phones and computers. All without needing to leave the house. The conveniences and comforts of life continue to be on the uptick year on year.
I am reminded of a quote by writer Kahlil Gibram. When talking about houses, he said:
Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master?
Remote work has its place, but the negatives should be weighed equally with the positives, at the very least.
For centuries it has been in our species to go out to explore and adventure, even in the day to day. Going out into the world our day-to-day and interacting with those we come across has always been part of the role of an individual in the community and what that contributes to the community as a whole.
It’s the cafe worker we share small talk with in the morning, and their business we contribute to, or the person we hold the lift door open for, or the team member we give advice to. It contributes to this social fabric which cannot be achieved through the comforts of our home.
And consequently, when our lives atomise through insular living, the results are felt in our community at even greater levels – small businesses suffer from lack of patronage (another thing we saw during Covid lockdowns) which impacts business confidence, economic growth, and new job creation.
At the time, it was debatable whether it was wise for Dutton to make the claims about scrapping work from home policies to the extent he did, especially during an election campaign, without being reasonable in his assessment.
However, one thing is for sure. We are not lab rats, designed to live out our entire lives in our homes for convenience.
What are the cons of working from home?
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