Thousands of employees are heading back into the city on Monday for the first time since work-from-home orders began in March last year. covid19
Three-quarters of city workers are reluctant to go back to their workplace full-time, new research has found, as CBD businesses begin the slow process of bringing workers back to the office after prolonged coronavirus restrictions.
But 32 per cent of people would like to work mostly from home and 42 per cent would like to have some regular days at home. Another 18 per cent would like to be able to work remotely when needed. Management consultant Mark Geels is looking forward to getting back to his desk and seeing his colleagues but expects to continue working from home in some way for the foreseeable future.
"Every meeting has to be planned. Rarely are they just spontaneous, and that's what you really miss out on." “This requires a mindset and policy change after years of managing the momentum of a strongly growing economy,” she said. Professor Buxton believes the emptying out of commercial buildings will be temporary, saying the greater threat to the CBD was the loss of international students and short-term renters in high-rise apartments.
Before the pandemic hit, students comprised 45 per cent of the residential population in central Melbourne at the time of the 2016 census, many of them international students. Ms Hunter said there would be a period of transition before it became clear which behavioural changes became permanent.