Aussie CEO issues huge WFH warning: ‘Every job at risk'

Yahoo

10-02-2025

An Australian CEO has issued a dire warning for employees hoping to continue working from home. The WFH tide has well and truly begun to turn, with more Aussie companies reeling back their pandemic policies and getting staff back into the office full-time.
Capital Airport Group and Canberra Airport CEO Stephen Byron is one Aussie boss calling on workers to return to the office. He was recently asked about how companies could get people back to their desks, particularly in the Canberra CBD where retail vacancies are the highest.
Bryon said WFH was a legacy of the pandemic and argued it meant workers weren't able to be part of the team or the culture, or given an environment for learning and mentoring.
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'We're tribal as people, we work better in teams, we work better collaboratively, we understand what we're trying to achieve,' Bryon told an ACT Property Council breakfast, according to Riotact.
'The truth is, if you want to really work from home, every single person's job is at risk of being outsourced overseas.'
Iqbal Singh, founder of financial advisory firm Innovative Consultants, shared a similar sentiment last year.
He said Aussie workers could "absolutely" be replaced by Indian workers for a fraction of the cost, estimating the jobs could be done for around 10 to 15 per cent of current costs.Byron said Canberra, in particular, had 'a lot at risk' from the work-from-home trend and argued that remote public service appointments undermined the notion of a national capital.
He argued there was a lack of leadership from governments and managers on work from home, and said mandating work from home in some departments had to stop.
'Managers need to manage people and show leadership and mentoring, and they need to say, I can look after my team as a team, not as an individual, and I'm probably going to employ people who live in the same city,' he said.
Commonwealth public servants currently have some of the most generous work-from-home rights in the country.
The Australian Public Service Commission enterprise agreement, signed in late 2023, allows uncapped working-from-home days for Commonwealth employees, which covers 174,000 workers across 103 agencies.
Amazon, Dell, Tabcorp and Flight Centre are among the major companies pushing for staff to return to office this year. In August, the NSW Premier's Department issued a directive for public sector employees to return to work primarily from the office.
Despite this push, recent research by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEBA) found more than a third of Aussies were still regularly working from home.
Office vacancy rates across Australia's major cities have remained largely stable over the last six months, the latest Office Market Report from the Property Council of Australia found.
CBD vacancy rates have slightly increased from 13.6 per cent to 13.7 per cent, driven by increased supply and positive demand above historical averages across the four major cities.
Meanwhile, non-CBD vacancy rates have held steady at 17.2 per cent.
Despite the positive signs, this is still the highest CBD vacancy rate recorded since the mid-1990s.Sign in to access your portfolio