• Australia’s knowledge workers are posting higher levels of anxiety and lower productivity than the international average, according to a new study by Slack.
• The latest Future Forum report, released Wednesday, suggests Australia could serve as a blueprint for other nations transitioning workers back into the office.
• But external factors may have coloured the findings, meaning a return to the white-collar workplace may not be the only contributing factor.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Australian workers are reporting higher levels of anxiety, lower productivity, and concerns about their work-life balance as employers transition their workforces back into the office, according to a new figures from communications platform Slack.

In its latest Future Forum report, released Wednesday, Australia is singled out as a “look into the future” of employee satisfaction across France, Germany, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S.

Australia, which has removed stay-at-home orders keeping knowledge workers from the office — notwithstanding sporadic lockdowns sparked by new outbreaks of COVID-19 — is “the only market where we’ve seen consistent drops in sentiment,” Slack claims.

“The market was quicker in its ‘return to the office’ relative to the other markets surveyed, and we’ve seen a slight decline in work-life balance and productivity, and a sharp decline in the ability to manage stress and anxiety, across respondents,” the authors continue.

Survey results, recorded in late April, show Australia’s overall satisfaction with their working environment improved 0.9 points over the last quarter. The global average score jumped 14 points.

The number of Australian respondents who reported feeling “good about stress and anxiety” nosedived 5.9 points over the quarter to 11.3, but the opposite was true internationally, where the score rose 8.1 points to 12.1.

Smaller dips were observed in Australian workers’ work-life balance (down 1.6 points) and productivity (down 0.6 points), with the latter score marginally below the international average, which skyrocketed 15.3 points over the quarter.

The figures, drawn from more than 10,000 respondents worldwide, also suggest Australians are keen to keep hybrid and fluid working environments in place, even after shutdowns.

Just 4.3% of Australian knowledge workers said they’d ideally work to a pre-set schedule, compared to the global 7.3% average. 69.7% said they’d prefer some flexibility in their working days, potentially with set times for meetings, while just over one quarter revealed they’d like to work whenever they want, with zero time constraints.

That preference for remote work overlaps with the large number of Australians considering a new job: 37.9% of Australians said they weren’t considering looking for a new job under any circumstances, the second-lowest figure behind the U.K. At the same time, just over half said they will give it some thought, and 8.7% are actively on the job hunt.

The pandemic changed workplace expectations for knowledge workers, Slack claims, saying companies should “build flexible, connected and inclusive workplaces that meet employees where they are,” instead of snapping back to office-only arrangements.

The findings speak to Slack’s established view that workplaces will permanently transition from the nine-to-five, in-office arrangement — but as a leading beneficiary and facilitator of remote work, Slack stands to gain massively from that change.

Other caveats apply, too, as the reopening of Australia’s offices did not occur in a vacuum.

The survey results were recorded at the end of Australia’s first full month without the JobKeeper payment, which kept thousands of workers on the books through the economic crisis, potentially contributing to reported anxiety and uncertainty.

Elsewhere, the elevated number of Australians considering a new position came amid record-high quantities of new job listings and continual border closures, which have allowed some workers to wrestle contract negotiations in their favour.

Inner-city commercial real estate listings are hardly at pre-pandemic occupany levels, either, suggesting many firms have already adopted hybrid working principles, above and beyond those forced by lockdowns.

Slack would like to see that trend continue.

“It’s the responsibility of leaders to provide the appropriate guardrails to make it work, while offering teams choice,” the report states.

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