Now that the pandemic has subsided, several companies who had earlier adopted a ‘work from home’ or ‘hybrid’ policy are asking employees to return back to the office. One of the strong advocates for ‘work from office’ is Infosys founder Narayana Murthy who believes that people working from home are less productive.
However, Atlassian’s billionaire co-founder Scott Farquhar, who also happens to be Australia’s 7th richest individual, is all for work from home. According to Daily Mail, he has allowed his employees to work from home so that they can be more productive at work and simultaneously live a happier life.
In fact, Scott Farquhar himself goes to the office once every 3 months. His decision stems from the fact that housing in Sydney, where the company is based, is ridiculously expensive and it takes a lot of time for an employee to reach the office because of the traffic.
He feels that instead of paying a hefty amount behind housing in Sydney, his employees could stay in beach-side apartments a little away from the city where their families could have a good life. The hours that go behind travelling back and forth from the office are also saved.
“A lot of our staff now live remotely. Those people don’t have a commute to and from work so they save hours a day. And then they can bring their best selves to work because they can organize their work in and around all the other things that are going on in their life. We expect people to be able to work from home, from a cafe, from an office but we don’t really care where they do their work, what we care about is the output that they produce,” Farquhar said.
Top companies like Meta and Tesla have asked employees to return back to the office. WFH or WFO, which one would you choose?