Three weeks ago, the NSW Government called its staff to return to the office (RTO) at scale. Many public servants hate the idea as they don’t want to commute, and fear their work-life balance is threatened.

On the other side, Sydney’s hospitality sector cried tears of joy and the Victorian Government couldn’t help themselves, with a few cheap shots fired that mocked their neighbours’ policy.

“Any public servants from New South Wales who like flexibility in their workplace should consider moving to Victoria,” a spokesperson said.

Forcing staff back into the office in a prolonged skills shortage is a big gamble. Job seekers might shun state government as an employer and join private sector companies that offer more generous working from home (WFH) policies.

The public sector in NSW might see staff retention figures worsen in the coming year. That’s just speculation at this point. As your friendly neighbourhood Stats Guy, I am rather pleased that one of our eight states and territories made the call to force staff back into the office.

While I suspect NSW’s RTO mandate was a bad call, I together with the other states will sit back and see whether or not the NSW plan turns out to be a success. I would like to see much more experimentation with policy on a state level.

Let’s take turns.

It’s Victoria’s turn to do something bold and untried next, then Queensland must implement an unproven but potentially groundbreaking policy shift. We just slowly work our way around the country until we eventually reach Tasmania.

All joking aside, we will be........

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