This study was originally published by Melbourne Chamber member University of Melbourne and can be found via the Melbourne Institute. 

Over the past two years, employers have been imploring a greater return to the office, but workers are resisting, preferring the flexibility of working from home. 

Taking the Pulse of the Nation (TTPN) survey data between April 2021 and June 2023 reveals that while disagreement over hours worked in the office and from home has narrowed somewhat, the wedge remains large. 

Australian workers and employers have become used to hybrid work 

Almost all workers (94 per cent in June 2023) would like to work at least part of their work hours at home, and 64 per cent would like a hybrid arrangement where they work both at home and the office.  

Employers largely agree, with 60 per cent of workers reporting their employers would permit hybrid work. This increased from 49 per cent of employers permitting hybrid work in April 2021. 

Employers are twice as likely as workers to want workers full-time in the office 

While employers have ceded to hybrid work arrangements, dropping from 17 per cent in April 2021 to 13.5 per cent in June 2023, they are still twice as likely as workers to want workers in the office all the time.  

Workers want this arrangement 6.2 per cent of the time. On the other extreme, over the past year, both workers and employers have converged to wanting fully remote about 25 per cent of the time. 

Worker and employer visions for the workplace have evolved differently 

Workers and employers only agree 37 per cent of the time on the number of hours spent working from home, and this has been constant for the past two years.  

In April 2021, 31 per cent of workers reported they disagreed with their employers and would like to spend more time working from home than permitted. 

The disagreement goes the opposite way as well. About 22 per cent of workers wanted to spend more hours in the office, even when their employer would let them work those hours from home.  

This difference widened in June 2023, where 40 per cent of workers wanted to spend more time working from home. These patterns reflect the mismatch between what employers and workers envision for the workplace. 

The wedge between workers and employers on number of days working from home has narrowed but is still large 

Workers who want to work more hours at home than their employer will permit want to spend two-thirds of their work week working from home. Employers would permit one-third of the work week working from home. This 35 percentage point gap represents 1.75 more days at home for a full-time worker.  

The gap has narrowed since April 2021, when workers wanted almost three-quarters of their work week at home, and employers would permit one-quarter (a 42 percentage point gap or 2.1 more days at home for a full-time worker). 

One-quarter of employers offer flexible work arrangements, but workers want to be in the office more 

In June 2023, nearly one-quarter of workers reported their employer would allow them to work more hours from home than they want. These workers would like to work from home 42 per cent of the time (2.1 days per week for a full-time worker), and their employer would permit working from home 76 per cent of the time.  

This gap in work arrangements between employers and workers has been about 34-36 percentage points over the past two years. This implies that these workers would prefer to spend the 1.75 more days (for a full-time worker) permitted by their employer to work from home in the office instead. 

Many workers can perform their work tasks at home, with the past few years showing that workers can successfully perform their jobs without being in the office. However, many employers still would like their workers to be in the office more often than workers would like.  

A full-time worker would like to spend 1.75 more days working from home than their employer permits. Still, roughly one-quarter of workers would rather spend time in the office, even when their employer offers more flexible arrangements. The negotiation over work arrangements has made progress over the past two years, but large gaps remain. 

This Taking the Pulse of the Nation insight was authored by Professor Ragan Petrie, Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, 27 July 2023.