According to reports, an unexpected demographic supports returning to the office 5 days a week.
A recent survey by news.com.au, showed that 35% of people support working in the office five days a week. This is only slightly higher than the 31% who believe one to two days of remote work is ideal. They were among 1,870 Australians who took part in the survey.
What was surprising about the responses was the fact that 45% of the respondents who believe full-time work is ideal are retirees. Results found that 56% of respondents above the age of 75 want workers to come onsite five days a week.
According to the survey, only 29% of Millennials (1981 to 1996) and 23% of Gen Z (1997–2012) employees prefer the traditional five-day onsite work.
Employment Hero’s head of people and culture, Liam D’Ortenzio, told news.com.au that older generations’ preference is likely because for them, in-office presence meant productivity, collaboration, and visibility. He added that younger generations have proven it feasible and often more efficient.
Growing office-return mandates
The findings show that return-to-office mandates are increasing across Australia and worldwide in large organisations like Amazon, Dell, and Tabcorp. Recently, President Donald Trump ordered US federal employees back to the office, which affected more than 228,000 workers who telework.
Locally, findings from Robert Half found that since June 2024, 39% of employees have been mandated to return to work five days a week. The report noted that the higher the number of days in the office, the more dissatisfied employees were.
An Australian media agency has permanently moved to a four-day work week after testing it out on a trial basis.
Four-day work week
In an msn.com report, staff at independent growth agency Claxon, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, will move to a four-day work week, with slightly longer hours across the four days.
Employees will have Fridays off without any reduction in salary but will still be on-call in case of emergencies.
Daniel Willis, Claxon founder and chief executive, said the decision to implement a four-day work week was more than just boosting staff morale and that it was a move to improve culture and enhance productivity and performance.
Along with the new working arrangement, staff can also work a hybrid model with two days from home, and they can choose their own hours between 7am and 5pm.
Also read: It’s official – work location does not impact performance | Executive PA Media
