Sean Cummins: ‘I’m tired of people saying that working from home is better… it’s not’
Industry leaders are scared to voice support of returning to the office post-Covid, according to Sean Cummins, founder of independent agency, Cummins&Partners.
Speaking to Mumbrella, Cummins said it is unfortunate that the topic has become a one-sided conversation and declared he is tired of the “dogma”.
“When you try to bring the other side in, people say: ‘Well, of course you’d say that, you’re an employer blah, blah, blah’. It’s not about that at all. I wouldn’t care where my people worked – what I care about is my people, their health, their mental health, and their ability to actually separate work from home and work from life.”
Sean Cummins
Cummins said he was prompted by seeing someone “triumphantly proclaim the results are in”, citing 85% of people wanting to work from home.
He said after seeing former Australian of the Year and youth mental health expert Professor Patrick McGorry speak at a seminar last week, Cummins perspective was emboldened by his more eloquent wording.
“He wouldn’t say fast enough how incredibly important it is, particularly for younger people, to go to work, learn at work and have people around them, guiding and instructing. Not this nasty little diatribe of micromanaging or whatever, but collegiate, nourishing interactions that can only happen, particularly in our industry, through face-to-face interactions.”
“My personal point of view is, I’m tired of the dogma. I’m tired of people saying that working from home is better and acting as though it’s incontrovertibly true. It is not. My whole point is separate work from home. It’s a beautiful way of doing it.
“It just needs to be a balanced discussion, and I am for the majority of time at work. I am for flexibility, but I’m not for this whole sense that this is indeed a good thing. It’s not a good thing if you can’t separate work from home.”
Cummins also added that when you go to work “you get to be a different person”, before having the opportunity to then “switch off” when you go home.
“It’s valuable and important for our mental health to reach into different aspects of our capability, personality, our modality if you like, and actually be someone else, and then be able to leave it and be just the regular dad, mum or whatever.”
“We are a better industry, and I only talk about marketing advertising, when we are there socialising, bumping into each other, contesting, and bouncing off each other.”
Does Cummins think this approach will hinder hiring in a tough talent market? He isn’t worried.
“I won’t worry about talent not wanting to work with us,” he said. “I think it’s difficult for me to answer that question because what we provide is a desirable workplace, and if it’s desirable, people want to go in there because every day they feel filled up with a lively experience.
“It can’t be: just come to work and good luck to you. I think it’s incumbent on employers and leaders and managers to make work interesting. It’s not about ping-pong tables anymore. That’s just trinkets. It’s about meaningful connections, little conversations and brilliant moments of collision. So if people don’t like that, they’ll never like that, and they never would have liked that in the first place.
“If people don’t want to work with us because they want to work at home, that is fine, that is their journey.”
Cummins said the agency has always been, and is a “destination agency”, where young people can “fast-track their careers” because of the no-nonsense, flat, and meritocratic approach it takes.
He said this is evidenced through the large number of senior talent in the industry that have gone through his agency that are now either leading their own agencies or doing “wonderful things in the market”, which is a credit to the culture and environment fostered over the years.
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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So you want employees to focus on getting popular now instead of focusing on work ? People skill is more crucial for management and consulting, not for engineers and skilled staff. [comment edited under Mumbrella policy]
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For me it’s a no-brainer, if I had to go to the office I’d loose 2+ hours on commute everyday.
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If working in the office is better for his mental health, then great, he can do that. But he as an employer should know damn well that every employee is different, and for a lot of people, myself included, working from home is extremely advantageous to our mental health. If work can be done to the same standard either way then employees should always have the option to work from home. It’s ridiculous when employers prevent us from doing so, or make us jump through hoops that aren’t even accessible to everyone just for a bit of flexibility. And saying we used to work from the office every day just fine is no excuse. Times change. Businesses need to change with them.
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I’m lazy and love working in the office, once upon a time I just had to show up and look busy. But now working from home I actually have to produce results or people realize I’m lazy!
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This reads as very paternalistic. “I know what’s better for my employees, better than they know themselves”. Tone deaf.
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Just another stale viewpoint that is narrow-minded and dismissive of the realities many individuals face in today’s workforce. The ability to work from home offers flexibility and autonomy, allowing individuals to better integrate their personal and professional lives. This should be celebrated, not condemned.
No one wants to have to be a “different person” when at work. Many individuals find their identity and purpose in work, and the blending of work and home life can actually contribute to their mental well-being.
The past 3 years has shown that virtual platforms can foster collaboration and innovation just as effectively. Many of the best companies are now remote or hybrid. It’s only the ones that are stiff in their ways that can’t adapt and fail to change.
Say goodbye to top talent who has endless choice. You’ll be stuck with green juniors who need in-person guidance working for you.
The future of work lies in embracing flexibility, remote collaboration, and a genuine understanding of the evolving needs of employees. Only then can we create truly inclusive and thriving, creative workplaces.
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Young people have horrifically high rates of mental distress and mental illness–in part because for 2 years they were forced to have nothing but online interactions. They may be more online than us Elder Millenials and beyond, but they’re still human and need face to face interaction. Juniors are also less likely to have their own space or proper space for an office, spending all night and all day in your bedroom is grim.
I reckon the flexibility to spend time in the office with your team when it’s valuable (collaborative work, learning, a bit of deadline chasing, and socialisation/celebration) is an important part of learning how to work. Being forced to be there 5 days a week, especially with long commutes, is outdated and unnecessary, but 100% remote isn’t suitable for everyone either.
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I have zero nostalgia for the days where advertising workplaces run by men offered NO psychological and physical safety for staff – particularly those most vulnerable to predatory workmates and bosses using the power differential and the NDA as their m.o.
If we’re having a debate about hybrid versus full time let’s talk about all the issues including the deep shadow issues. Our industry has so many bad actors still working in plain sight.
Until leaders and founders come face to face with the realities of why the office is unsafe and how they’ve contributed to it, then their words in articles like this will be scoffed at by those who know the pain and embraced by like minds with similar authoritarian tendencies.
Work is something you do not somewhere you go.
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There’s an exclusive social scene in the ad industry. You’ll see cool kids in every agency in their silly circles, spending more time on gossip than the work. Progressing their careers by sniffing instead of anything labour intensive. They’ve had that taken away from them and I don’t think many people feel sorry for them.
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Not sure how a lengthy commute helps your family and health. Congestion on public transport increases disease transmission as does lifts and elevators. Nothing like an office full of flu or Covid to be a family dampener.
Leaving in the dark and arriving home in the dark is bummer for family time with kids. The two or more hours commuting might be better spent with them. Being home with kids when they come home from school saves after school care costs and is priceless even though you are working.
The savings from not commuting might help with cost of living too.
You can remote work from anywhere so you can move to a region and still work. The difference is cheaper housing or rents. Smaller communities have better connectivity too.
The only losers are big landlords owning skyscrapers who charge high office rents.
I think the deconstructed company has arrived.
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This article is tone deaf. It’s coming from a guy who own a business, probably drives there in his big BMW and has parking space and a corner office. So yea I’m sure you’re tired of hearing that, because it’s true and not relatable to most of the readers.
I lose two hours a day on a commute. With two young kids it’s impossible to see them in the mornings and evenings and be involved in drop-offs etc. WFH helped me be more present = mentally healthy. I’m tired about hearing how young people need the social aspect of work. Start by getting off you phones.
As always a balance…mixed with common sense.
Hybrid all the way.
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Sean “My Way Or The Highway” Cummins seems to have a very dictatorial approach to how he runs his agency, he comes across as not being at all interested in how different each individual’s needs are. How about introverts? How about those on the spectrum? I guess they are not welcome at his agency. I’d be concerned if I were one of his clients as he seems to want to live in the past and not embrace change or the future. The agencies/businesses that embrace and understand that life & work has shifted significantly due to the pandemic, and also the more evolved view on work/life balance, will be the agencies/businesses that attract the best talent and provide an environment that encourages people to work in a way that works best for them and, in turn, works best for the agency/business. Those gripping tightly to a “do it my way or else” approach will soon be relegated to history.
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If I got a dollar every time I’ve heard someone say “I’m going home to get some work done”.
Which sums up where we’re at.
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I’m sorry, being around people doesn’t give me an “awesome energy experience”. A lot of people are boorish and intolerable, much like these tone deaf comments. Have you never heard of an introvert? We don’t get anything positive out of social interactions, much prefer working from home and our alone time.
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Agreed Alex.
And there are some telling narratives appearing in this opinion piece. Like the “bouncing” off people in the office.
I’m pretty sure that working across clients remotely has always been an expectation for suits and creatives even whilst on location shoots. Hand in hand with the late night calls and emails. The reviews on Glassdoor tell the real picture on this workplace anyway.
And how many times have we heard that Sean was across every client by working remotely between New York, Melbourne and Sydney?
The Don Drapers multiple personas allowed people with fractured personalities to lead duplicitous lives. Office devil and home angel. Hasn’t the world agreed that “Times up.”
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Working from an office requires me to waste 2+ hours in transit a day just so that I can be crammed into an uncomfortable, stuffy room wearing uncomfortable clothes, sorrounded with people I don’t like, just for me to use teams and never once talk to someone in person… Yeah WFH is bad /s
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First of all,
I have no idea why you would worry so much about people’s lives!
Worry about yourself Mr Cummins, that’s more than enough.
Second of all, the world will never go back to the traditional office work setting we had pre-pandemic! And therefore, you need to adapt to this new hybrid/WFH setting.
Going forward, people can expect, to learn, share knowledge and have unique work experience “remotely”
Face to face interactions won’t cut it anymore. And sadly, if you don’t adapt, your business will shrink !
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This hardline opinion couldn’t be further from modern reality.
The 8 hour in-office work day was pioneered in the 1900s when employees only had to travel 20 mins to the office. Urban sprawl driven by rising costs and housing scarcity puts more burden and cost on the employee.
I see the benefit of in-office work, but pay employees for the travel time if you want them in each day…then and only then should this debate be given oxygen.
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He might think people want to go in. But if your employer is eroding your wage every year, has an office that only management can live within half an hour of, employs middle management that spend their life talking, rather than doing, loves to fill work time with propaganda meetings, and is all round tone deaf to the people that work for a living – yeah, going into the office is great.
Those of us that see 90% of their coworkers as repellent [moderated under Mumbrella’s comment policy] – nope.
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I dont know why he is thinking that. I would much prefer to wfh full time. Im sick of the traffic commute to and from work the time it takes when i was wfh fulltime was better spent getting to the gym. Or cooking dinner at a reasonable hour. Also i actually took my lunch breaks and went for walks. Every other person i know that wfh prefers to wfh full time. This guy is delusional.
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WFH is good especially if your not on the big money which obviously this bloke is. Most of us are plodders and not going to the office can save people between 2 to 4 hours in travelling time per day plus not buying $5 take away coffees plus food. A fifty fifty split between office and home is perfect
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Dude, construction workers in Australia literally get paid travel allowance, productivity allowance and site allowance. It really isn’t that delusional when you consider the power of Unions in this country.
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The problem is that there are alot of incentives for bosses to get people back into the office but very little that makes it an attractive option for workers. It’s not that work from home is better for the actual work, but it’s better for work life balance, especially when the commute is both time and cost intensive. My personal hope is that we, as a society, become less concentrated in cbds and can spread out, leading to more local interactions and new business being birthed from that, like smaller coffee shops that can be walked to. Cramming hundreds on trains, to mass commute into and out of one place, at the same time, should not be the expectation.
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Oh yeah, absolutely nothing better to separate work life from home to force your employees to only have a life inside of the office and then just do chores and sleep after work because you are forcing them to commute to work every day.
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If there is an ability to do so, people should be allowed to work in a way that suits their lifestyle. This is no longer a 1 size fits all discussion and there are pros and cons to both side, with the enthusiasts of both arguments thinking they are right.
The point is, work is not people’s whole life, but for some people it is the part of their life that gives them the most satisfaction.
Let’s encourage honest and open conversation between people and their leaders to work out a solution that is right for them.
And let’s stop debating this in the media like a victor will emerge, it’s not a black and white message
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Wish people would trying to force workers into the city for work and is mainly for themselves and their benefit if you are happy to work from home and you are productive then what is the issue, stop trying to force others into what you want
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What a load a crap, here is someone who has payed $$ for an office and needs to watch is staff punch a clock. Need to interact with other staff you mean waste time in a lunch room have unmeanful meetings, I no longer have to sit in traffic for 4 hrs a day am more productive get the same work done and enjoy life more. The moment someone tells me back in the office I will be saying bye bye
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A lot of interesting perspectives on the matter, the only thing that can be said with certainty is that there is no one size fits all and it’s very arrogant to think that an individual undoubtedly knows what’s right for everyone.
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Can’t believe we’re still talking about this …
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The problem here is that employers who argue against WFH are simply employers who have been incapable of fostering and developing an online work culture.
Encouraging their employees to communicate online and providing tools and frameworks for them to do it.
Yeah it’s easier to just hope they do it over a coffee, or for them to use their lunch time working or building up professional relationships and work during their personal time. It does t means its a good approach. Or not doable during WFH
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Couldn’t agree more Sean. Good on you for having the courage to say it- and being balanced about it.
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Of course he will say that. He is an employer. He doesn’t have to struggle in public transport, leave early to get parking, rush back to pick kids from childcare and after school care. Stop publishing such one sided pieces
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That’s your opinion. You may think you’re right, but you’re not. You have a few people who obviously don’t thrive, but working in my industry, it has been proven that we can work from anywhere. I can do my entire job remotely. Can’t be outsourced because they don’t have the skills nor the client mannerisms required to do my role. I’m in the office 2 days a week and most of that time we sit in virtual meetings. Absolute fail. Just because you’re invested in commercial real-estate doesn’t mean it’s healthy for us to be in your office when our jobs can be done from anywhere. You’re very wrong on that count.
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Dogma goes both ways Sean. I don’t think many people are saying ‘Working From Home” 100% is better.
I think you’re mis-reading what people are saying, what people are delivering and how people & businesses are managing their time.
The ability to be flexible is what people want – not dogma either way. Most people and businesses are balancing their time between home and the office based on the tasks they need to do, and the output they need to deliver, and how they need to engage with their team.
The best, and strongest agencies, with the most robust cultures, are those that empower their people with flexibility and enable them to get the job done in the best way for them and the client.
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I’m tired of people telling me that I can only be productive if I’m working in the office. I’m not…and I have the data to prove it.
It may not be true for everyone, but it is for me and it really gets wearisome to hear “experts” making blanket statements for whole swathes of the population. Just stop it!
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In his opinion, it’s not.
I’m pretty sure I’m better at knowing what’s best for me, and how best I work… and that’s at home. Unless you want to pay me for an extra couple of hours a day to cover the wasted time that is the commute and make it worth my while…
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I’m so glad someone has the courage to come out and call the bullshit. Flexibility is great – working from home is just so bad for our industry and the people who work in it. What is the end goal for people wanting to work from home? What is life going to look like in the future? Unplug yourself from the matrix people and start experiencing the awesome energy that being around other people brings.
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Winter is here in southern atmosphere. The sun goes up after 7am and goes down at 5pm. It’s freezing cold rainy windy in the morning. But you decided to get up 2 hours earlier in dark cold morning. So you can stand in a crowded train for 1 hour next to some sick person with snot coming out the whole time to practice your immune system. Then another hour back home in the dark. Then cook dinner with hungry stomach and eat at 9pm before going to bed.
Why? You must be going into the city for drug. Do employers think employees love work like drug addictions?
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“being in the office for collaboration and culture, at home for deep work and concentration.”
This is the correct answer.
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Demagoguery aside, the scenario you described can happen right now. Boomers screaming about wfh are dinosaurs feebly roaring at the mammals. Get with the times or be fossilised.
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A blanket statement that remote work is not effective is just plain wrong. While I realize that for some industries it is or has proven to be ineffective, groups like ours (medical education) have discovered ways to come together and be more creative. We find ourselves working more efficiently and stay connected to students across our province.
Our work productivity has increased also as we have fewer distractions than in a busy office in the middle of a hospital. Maybe we are the outlier group.
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I like doing some days of each. Facetime is great for meetings & colab, alone time is great for grinding through tasks that require no distractions.
I think this man is projecting that he doesn’t work well from home.
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The mad thing is going into an office and then just sitting in video calls all day because you actually work globally and none of the people you need to work with are In the same city. Then getting distracted by the other people in the office, none of whom actually have any relevant experience for the things you’re working on. After all that and a few hours of wasted time traveling you have to work more when you get home as it’s the only productive quiet time you can get.
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Of course people in Managerial positions feel threatened of their existence of them are not able to micro manage their subordinates, corporates are currently functioning without the need for this big managers at all now. So it’s natural, to make their role relevant again, they would need employees to come back to office grind under the stern eyes , so the manager can say that he is busy. LoL get Outta here pal. Forcing millions of people, just so that a handful of these managers can feel good about themselves ? No thanks.
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100% agree with Sean. That’s because he is 100% correct. Sure, there are a lot of people who prefer working from home but that’s because they are:
A – lazy, and working from home lets them disguise this.
B- unpopular, and working from home lets them avoid confronting this.
Covid killed the office. But smart organisations are returning in droves while allowing employees flexibility never thought possible pre-covid. Those that are fighting the return to the office are those that add the least when they are there.
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I respectfully disagree. Working from home is better than going into the office. I have worked in office enviroment for good part of my working life, approx 30 years. Last 7 years working from home full time. You are far more productive working from home, less interruptions from engaging in office politics, meaningless chatter, coffee runs etc. Saving 14 hrs travel in stressful Sydney traffic, more time to sleep in. Savings thousands per annum on not having to buy office attire, petrol, running costs of car, or bus fares etc. More time to spend at home. Might be good for employer but not for employee.
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Life is lived in the grey, and the reality is that it’s not about in the office or WFH. It’s about flexibility and finding a way of working that balances the needs of the business and the individual.
On the basis that Mr Cummins is so keen to keep staff work and home life separate, I’d be interested to know whether he mandates a moratorium on emails outside core working hours?
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One of the narratives that I always find quite shocking that has come up again on this comment thread is “of course you think that, you’re management, you just want us to do more work, have to commute, you don’t get it etc etc”.
I’ve worked in this industry for the best part of 24 years in London and in Australia and for the last dozen years in increasingly senior leadership and exec teams. In all that time I have never once heard a conversation about how we can get people to ‘work harder’ or ‘squeeze more out of our people’ or generally make their lives harder. In fact a disproportionate amount of time has always been spent on the teams welfare as there has always an acceptance that our industry is talent driven and its vital to nurture said talent. That has always been done by alongside groups from across the business rather than assuming we have the answers.
If you read Sean’s comment and your main take out is that this is another example of the foreman trying to wring the last ounce of energy from his workforce then I’d suggest a few things:
1) You haven’t read much of Sean’s previous thoughts. He has a clear legacy of concern around mental health and advocating for talent first.
2) You may have been working at crap places that have treated you poorly and you’re projecting that back onto what to me reads like a fair and balanced piece.
3) If you genuinely think you should be additionally compensated having to commute to the actual job then I think you might be slightly delusional.
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Probably one of the same guys who expected his employees to have email on their mobile and answer emails anytime of the night or day, home or not. Sorry, this idea people seperate work from home is great, it’s just the vast majority of employers don’t let you do that anyway. So here’s a thought, stop making employees work once they leave the office, then they can truly seperate work from home!
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I can see it works for some but:
One face-to-face meeting is worth 10 video calls
If you work from home all the time, do you need to be an Australian?
What kind of company culture do you *really* have working from your bedroom or shit kitchen?
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Working from home is better in every way apart from the social aspect, which can be worked around and would be easier to do with saving money and time from travelling to work. All the employer’s are against WFH and these articles are [moderated under Mumbrella’s comment policy] and trying to go against the working class.
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I’m retired now but worked agencies for many years, as a young, single person with family overseas many of my colleagues were great friends. Monday morning and a return to work was something exciting. Interactions, laughs, late nights, I loved it. And I learnt from the wise ones around me, even learned what not to do from the twats. Well said Sean.
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Article completely misses the point. It should be about flexibility and trust. Providing flexibility for workers to choose and trusting them to balance between office and home for getting their job done. It’s easy to switch off from work – turn off your devices when not working…. although I’m sure Sean also likes his people to pick up the phone or respond out of hours, so no doubt has a problem with that too. Cake and eat it comes to mind.
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What a joke. With the rising cost of living and inflation, I don’t want to spend thousands a year on transport and hundreds of hours
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If he’s so worried about the health of his employees then he’d realise the impact coming into the office has vs working from home.
The cost of travel, lunches, time spent travelling all adds up and causes a huge drain on people.
But hey, big business wants people back into the CBDs so they pretend like it’s for the best interest of the employee, which it’s not
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The divide seems pretty clear.
If you are technologically challenged and/or live in the inner city and/or are in a management position and/or an extrovert, of course you think working in the office is better.
If you are a technology native and/or live in the outer suburbs and/or are an office drone who does 100% of their work on a computer and/or are an introvert, of course you think working from home is better.
The most successful businesses will be those that attract talent and don’t get hung up on where people work, by fostering collaboration either in person, or via digital tools. For digital natives, Slack or Teams can be just as effective as being together in person if the company culture is good.
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I dislike offices generally and hate wasting hours every day commuting. In an industry where it’s possible to work remotely well (tech), I absolutely love working from home, I’m getting a lot more done and a lot more job statisfaction, plus I can drop my some off at school and pick him up instead of leaving at 8am and coming home at 6pm.
Yes separation of work and home is a real issue, as is engagement with colleagues, but I wouldn’t say these problems are larger than lost house commuting and how inefficient people are in offices.
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Surfing before work instead of driving empowers me to a new level all day. Absolutely love it, love my life, love my job!
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What’s ‘best’ will vary depending on each person – some will prefer WFH, others will thrive more in the office. As always, balance is key.
Anecdotally it seems most people enjoy a bit of both – being in the office for collaboration and culture, at home for deep work and concentration.
Smart organisations will embrace this once in a generation opportunity to change the way we work and for their staff to have happier, more balanced lives (eg. not sitting on an overcrowded train for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week)
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I think some people need it, and probably some industries too. The argument that young people need that experience to be “complete” I am dubious about. Are you forgetting their social contact is already predominantly online, and that’s their preference? Maybe there’s an innate need for it, but I’d rather have an extra 3 hours a day and social energy to do things elsewhere, where I choose the circle.
Personally, I hate office politics, I like flexibility, I like not having to commute for 2 hours a day. I never want to go back.
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I understand many of the arguments for the office, there’s a lot I agree with, but you cannot say you’re pro flexibility and then argue for a position in which the employer says be in the office for the majority of time.
Flex work also doesn’t mean three days in office, two at home. It could mean an office in which you need to be in 5 days a week but your arrival time might be 10am, or you might leave early, or you might do half days in office and half from a second location.
If you want to have a balanced discussion on it there’s more options than just being in the office and chained to a desk.
[comment edited under Mumbrella editorial policy]
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Isn’t COVID has taught us this can be done? Why some employers fail to learn and adopt? You have problem separating work from life doesn’t mean everyone else has it, learn from others who can manage it well if you don’t know how.
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As an employer, I also catch public transport, leave early to get parking and rush back to pick up kids from school. However, I am happy to do this as the meaningful time I spend with my team easily outweighs commuting frustrations!
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Of course an employer cares about my health. The conversation has changed now that covid is ‘over’.
It’s a crock, employers want control and they’ve lost the argument over productivity, so now it’s about other factors. It’s all about control.
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You are forgetting that introverts LOSE energy being around people.
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The argument that Agencies care about the wellbeing and advancement of juniors went out the window twenty years ago when they started firing seniors and then the mid-weights. As a result, the juniors had no one to learn from, be inspired by and now have to fend for themselves doing three times the amount of work.
Secondly, if Sean wants to work from the office I’d be happy to work from his house, I’m sure it’s lovely.
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If you own the building that you’re leasing to your own company – making money paying rent to yourself – it makes sense you’d want to see floor space and head count ratio working.
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Yeah, nah. Sorry Sean old buddy, old pal, I’ve done me hard yards of 16+ years ‘publisher-side’ and bending over backwards in my soulless office cubicle trying to please clients like you. I was always AMAZING at my job and had the feedback from clients, my superiors, my teams, my colleagues, and young people I’ve given a start in our industry to who have gone on to forge bigger and ‘brighter’ careers than me (and whose progress I’ve watched proudly) to prove it. Was lucky enough to work for an org that navigated the pandemic PERFECTLY for their people (even if it was otherwise a dull and feckless place to work), and was (happily) made redundant after life started getting back to normal. Encountered opinions like yours when back on the interview treadmill for the first time in almost a decade, and as the months wore on the pressing weight of finances ALMOST made me want to drink your brand of koolaid.
But I held out, took a leap, made a SLIGHT pivot, and have ended up at a workplace that has seen me go to the office 3 times in 9 months, where our SLT & ELT are averaging about the same and have fully embraced hybrid working too. The kicker here ? We’re #1 in our market Australia-wide by a MILE, and continue to grow. 100% WFH certainly isn’t the solution and we have a large chunk of our workforce interracting face-to-face with customers and onsite. But the reality is for anything ‘back-office’, anything executive, creative, essentially ANYTHING ‘white-collar’, media, advertising, communications etc that doesn’t involve interacting with joe-public … it IS a no-brainer, and while the office will always have a place as a ‘touch point’ that merits going in on a few very rare occasions- productivity is better from home, the vast majority of normal folk DO prefer it, and your mental health is BETTER working from your own space, without Garry the pest from Sales able to ‘desk-bomb’ and physically breathe down your neck because his mum didn’t have the heart to tell him he WASN’T the most important person in the world growing up, and no-one ACTUALLY cares about his targets or his clients more than anyone else’s.
If you like your office, that’s fine, good luck to you. Just realise you’re in a minority, and try to avoid forcing your staff to join you. They, their families, and their mental health support people will thank you for it 👍
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Lively debate. Appreciated both Sean’s and Lara’s POV’s. The # of days/wk in the office will work itself out. Employers have the right to make mandates and also change their minds with more information. The benefits of collaboration and connection in the office are right on. But, is the other biggest benefit really that you can change your persona in the office? Everyone changes a little bit in different environments and with different people, probably mostly unknowingly or out of necessity (timid needs to be more outgoing, etc.) But if one of the biggest drivers to be in the office is that you get to be a different person from at home, get a different stage to be play a different role, that seems like a whole different psychological issue.
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A lively debate. The benefits of being in the office to collaborate and connect yes The # of days/wk will be in debate and employers have the right to mandate and change. But why would one of the other biggest perks be that you have a place to be a different person 5 days a week? What kind of person would that motivate? And why? Everyone changes a little in different environments out of necessity or natural reaction. But, if the biggest reason to go back to the office is so that you can intentionally act on a different stage in a different role no.
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That’s great you agree with Sean, but that doesn’t make it 100% correct, he’s probably in the range of being about 50% correct, and it depends on a massive range of factors… What industry you work in, how far you live from the office, whether you have small children, your personality type (introvert / extrovert), your role in the company and level of face-to-face engagement that requires etc etc.
I’m a project manager working for a digital agency, my clients are in NSW, VIC and Tassie (i.e. I’m not gonna meet them in the office anyway), I live approximately 1 hrs drive from the office, I have 2 children under 5, I’m an introvert and I’m much more productive without the distractions of other people talking to me at the office, however I don’t get lonely working from home either, as my partner’s full time WFH also.
Those are my circumstances, and I’m measured by the projects my team delivers, so there’s no room to hide laziness in my industry, as we have deadlines and budgets to stick to.
Perhaps it’s easy for people lazy people to hide their productivity in your industry, but don’t paint that brush on the rest of us mate.
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Only sensible thing I’ve heard newsworthy in years. Working from home is a false pretense, agree with this man 100%. Young ones, GO BACK TO YOUR BRICKS AND MORTER, or suffer the consequences in years to come. Wake up please.
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Experience has shown me that WFH full time decreases productive networking, ad-hoc and quick conversations, mentoring and learning. A balance is best.
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And I am tired of people saying that working in the office is better. Usually they have an agenda…
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Yikes your comment is quite ablest to say the least.
WFH gives people who may have once not thrived in an office, now a chance to perform well under the conditions they like. Someone with CFS or hey even a broken leg would struggle to get into the office, but now can save time and do the exact same work at home without the extra hassle and exhaustion from commuting.
WFH flexibility is able to give all sorts of talent the chance to do well vs just the talent Sean is talking about.
Working in an office does have its perks of collaboration but at the end of the day, that’s really the only perk once you factor in travel time and costs.
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In our industry, we have always attempted to look beyond the superficial data and find a more insightful nuance. In this case, it is not the survey result that says ‘85% of people want to work from home’ as this is too simplistic – we need to search for the why. And the single greatest reason behind this is often ‘too much time wasted commuting’ at over 70% of all responses (Yes, another survey result). People just don’t really want to spend 2-3 hours every day, or 10-15 hours every week in traffic or on a bus or train. That’s well over 500 hours per year.
A deeper insight might then come directly from the correlation of how far people live from the office.
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What all the advocates of a work from home fail to realise, is that things will change. Yes, you can work from home, but if you can work from home, so can someone overseas for a fraction of the cost. When the pendulum swings back to an employers market (and it will), I’m pretty sure I know who will be in the firing line. Be careful what you wish for.
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Well said, completely agree
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I can do f ‘all at home just as well as doing f’all at the office, so why waste time travelling to the office to do f’all, that is being inefficient and non productive, better to be productive achieving f’all rather than non productive achieving f’all, I should be in a senior management position don’t you think ? I’m available for an obscene amount of money, get back to me
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I kind of agree with Sean.
I see many people disagreeing with his view based on what a day looks like or how a week plays out. The comfort of not commuting. The financial upside of not paying for a train ticket. The productiveness of not running into sidebar conversations whilst topping up your water glass. Etc.
But I think Sean is pointing at bigger picture issues. How workplace cultures are formed and sustained. How young people coming into the workforce learn from others. How a place of work can be a positive contributor to mental health. These are super valid things to consider. They’re not just important for ‘management’, they’re important for everyone. He’s talking about the world we work in today, and are creating for the future, in a responsible way. I expected to hate his opinion but I didn’t. It’s responsible and it needs to be said.
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Absolutely right
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100% Agree
When you engage with others & interact there purpose & in depth conversations of ideas and your train of through process get you to dialogue to open your through of thinking there a better way of seeing something you never saw before
Work to engage
Home time Family & friends your time
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Well said! Totally agree after a life time of working “with others”. Who,on earth can think everything that’s needed to perform effectively can be achieved by themselves at home without inputs from others.
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Why is he paternalistic. And even if so, is that wrong? He obviously cares for his charges.
And why do you put that comment in quotes when that’s not what he said?
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When I work from home I get to relax and be in a good mood and not waste time commuting. When I’m at work I’m miserable. Guess he wants me miserable 🤷♀️
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No one wants to work in an office around strangers, they wanna work at home around family, get with the times dude
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Opinions are like [moderated under Mumbrella’s comment policy], everybody has one and clearly the author has one. Working from home is better.
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Does he though?
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If you want to be ‘paid’ a couple of hours for travelling, good riddance finding what you can and living like a hermit.
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That argument follows the idea that people cannot switch between their work persona and home persona dynamically throughout the day.
From my experience people are able to do it quite well. Kind of like how microbreaks are quite useful as a reset for your brain through the day. It’s hard to maintain a facade for a whole day, but if you’re switching between the two, it’s easier to ‘reboot’ each persona as needed.
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It is mind over matter. It is unsustainable to have our physical bodies come together on a daily basis, we have to persist and keep moving forward in the digital age.
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Most peoples current pay level accommodates travel to an office (usually listed in your contract under the default place of work). It’s not individualised, but accounts for ~10% of the total package. So currently you’re being paid for travel time you’re not doing if you’re WFH right now… your employer could choose to reduce pay for those not commuting.
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I love it, the youth had issues with lockdown because they weren’t able to leave their house and socialise.
They can leave their house now, they don’t need forced socialisation at work.
This whole “everyone needs socialisation” speaks to me of a bunch of extroverts that want to blast some poor sods ear off about their weekend or their newest (terrible) idea over the water cooler.
There are things that being in person can help with, and if you don’t have an appropriate work space at home I’m all for giving you the option to go work in an office.
But “we must go to work to socialise” is the worst attempt at pushing your own preferences I’ve ever heard.
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It should be all about measuring outcomes that are realistic first and let the employees work out what is best for them. In an creative ideas space then social interactions are where the best outcomes are achieved. A tax compliance person not so much.
The mental health of employees is paramount as without tour employees you don’t have a business.i have done a combination of both for the last 20 years and prefer WFH but my experience is that you still need social interactions just like in the office. That requires innovation in thought so that video calls have a social component as well as the business and that is accepted by all. In a previous company we used to catch up at a coffee-house once a fortnight to just chat. We all travelled and it was good to just catch.
Bottom line is that it is horses for courses and that is what Sean Cummins is saying.
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After 30 years of establishing your career that is true but not for young people starting out on theirs. There is also a big risk as well that you no longer mentor these young ones entrenching ageist norms I.e. they move into management, they don’t know you and so you are the first ro go.
There needs to be genuine research in this are about the totality of the WFH impacts and also how to do it well.
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Working from home is maybe not everyone’s favourite. But for me it’s perfect. But I can also understand that there are other characters who prefer more face to face contact with Co-workers and clients.
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Spot on comment.
Rebel. Social aspect? Have your friends over so we can all WfH and chat as we would chat in the office with people we don’t actually care about outside work related issues. WfH ftw.
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Well, he is from Marketing.
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Never heard that before. Must just be your contract, eh?
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Never ever seen a “commute package” in by contract with companies I worked for. I smell BS here. Good try though
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Of course, all employers are non human robots that teleport to work and don’t have families or anything outside of work.
Employers are people too Ofcourse!
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Yea, but you show up when ever man. I gotta show up so I gotta show up early and I’ll bet you salary so your travel time is covered unlike mine.
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Good, timely article, as we excavate ourselves out of the COVID-19 Landslide. Decades of sociological, psychological & anthropological studies are yet to reveal its impact on all aspects of life for all ages & stages of human activity.
I must agree with Sean Cummins. There are direct career-building benefits of working with others in the workplace (and yes, I also know there can be bullying, gaslighting etc) but there can be intangible benefits too, on the social & personal level, as referred by Sean.
People can benefit from ‘collegial support’, ‘mentoring’ & ‘modelling’.
As a 1960’s American saying put it ‘Different Strokes for Different Folks’!
A. Psychologist
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I totally agree!
I can’t think of anything worse than not being able to switch off after work. I know many who worked from home during Covid and the most common comment was “it’s always there, you can’t switch it off, you think about a work related issue and next thing your back at the compute.”
Surely this can’t be good for your mental health?
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Sean Cummins is [moderated under Mumbrella’s comment policy], every studies shows that working remotely is better.
It is better for multitude of reasons, better for the planet, improve performance of the workers that are professionals and introverted, cost less for the employers because they can have smaller physical offices, and much more…
We lived in a world that were at the advantages of extroverted people, now remote work is better for introverted people. In fact I think that cies should offer the choice to work at the office or from home, so extraverted people can go work at the office an leave introverted people to keep their peace working from home which allow them to improve their performance. It is the responsibility of the employers to evaluate case by case employees and then if an individual is not performing well in remote to tell him to come back at the office.
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Why do you work 5 days a week 8 hours a day at work? People use to work 100 hours a week at work. 40 hours is good but bad for the industry.
What is the end goal for people wanting to work 40 hours? What is life going to look like in the future? Unplug yourself from the matrix people and start experiencing the awesome energy that being around other people brings for 100 hours a week.
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Or reap the consequences.
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Some job and some workers require work from home. Nowadays age time does its job.
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This makes no sense
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So disappointing that many of those totally against anything other than WFH (mostly “Anonymous”) seem to demonstrate having read nothing beyond the headline. Those which talk about “balance” and those which demonstrate having read the whole piece (eg “Alex”) are contributing constructively to better outcomes. I came from a first job in a non-communicative science industry into junior account management in a mid-sized agency. One week in and I was rejoicing because my boss understood my semi-formed thought when I was barely 2 sentences into a corridor conversation. Halleluja! I agree travelling from Baulkham Hills to the city then was less of a commute than many have to make today. There is certainly room for a WFH component, for SOME roles in this industry. But never forget, traditionally creative teams of a writer plus a graphic designer swiftly evolved because 2 minds to a brief/challenge, bouncing off each other face-to-face, produce more innovative concepts than those individuals continuously working apart – these days throw in a strategist as well. We are not called a “communications industry” because we are skilled at keyboarding and staring at a screen.
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