KATE EMERY: Productivity Commission report says hybrid work approach is good for the economy

There are some debates best put to rest for good.

Who is the best James Bond?

Is man-made climate change real and do we need greater action on it?

And in Australia we’re a step closer to adding: is working from home bad for the country?

The Liberal Party has been contorting itself like Harry Houdini on this subject, first announcing a crackdown on public servants working from home, then abandoning said crackdown when it proved about as popular as Houdini’s short-lived film career, and now embracing it.

Shadow industrial relations minister Tim Wilson and shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg have become the latest Liberals to distance themselves from the failed working from home crackdown with the enthusiasm of one magnetic north pole encountering another.

Mr Wilson said working from home could be positive because “happy workers tend to be more productive”, while Mr Bragg cited research — including the Productivity Commission’s recent report on the subject — to suggest that hybrid work was likely neutral or positive for productivity.

“In fact, most of the evidence comes down to support the proposition that working from home on a hybrid basis actually is good for people, good for the economy,” he said.

A little bit more of this chat would have been handy three months ago, when the Liberal Party was busy getting its own metatarsals in the crosshairs.

That Productivity Commission report did have a few caveats that suggested working from home can be bad for your career (just ask Peter Dutton), particularly if you are inexperienced. There was also evidence to suggest that people get more creative when they’re physically in a room together.

Anecdotally, younger people miss out in other ways. Twenty years ago when I was starting out in my career, the workplace was where many of us made lifelong friends, found romance and learned how to leave a passive aggressive notes on the communal fridge.

Now a younger generation risks being robbed of the joy of inappropriate office crushes, meetings that could have been emails and knowing what your boss looks like doing karaoke. If the COVID years taught us anything, it’s that flirting via Zoom is harder than it looks.

Hybrid work, where working from home is only part-time, is the logical solution and the one best supported by research. It’s here for the long-haul, so please let’s shelve the debate along with the climate wars and any attempt to mount a defence of the Pierce Brosnan Bond years.

Employers that insist on being able to see the whites of their employees eyes five days a week without justification might soon get a view of their other end instead.

And future generations will wonder why it took a pandemic for us to realise that opposing working from home on ideological grounds was as senseless as insisting that anyone could really hold a candle to Sean “shaken not stirred” Connery.