When I returned to work as a senior ministerial advisor in Canberra, Australia’s capital, with a two-year-old and five-year-old, I thought, ‘What could go wrong?’
I was in Parliament House from 6.30am until well past 11pm. Flexible work was a very new concept at that time and it certainly didn’t exist in parliament. After three years of that juggling act, I knew something had to change. I needed a different kind of workplace, not just for me, but for my family too.
The truth is, flexible work didn’t start with the COVID-19 pandemic. The desire for flexibility has long been there, particularly for working parents and carers. Julia Hobsbawm, a friend and author of The Nowhere Office, puts it perfectly: The lockdowns didn’t invent flexible work. They simply revealed how much we needed it.
The new non-negotiable
A global survey by the World Employment Confederation backs this up. More than 700 business leaders across private and public organizations were surveyed, and 83 percent said that after the pandemic, employees value flexibility around where and when they work just as much as their pay. Flexibility has become non-negotiable and now, it’s forcing policymakers to rethink the rules altogether.
Back in the early 2000s, I was fortunate to work under a boss who was well ahead of his time. When I returned to work after having my children, he told me: “You do what feels right, we’ll work around you.”
That’s the thing about flexible work. It doesn’t just keep talented people in the workforce, it lets them thrive at work and at home.
That level of trust changed everything for me. But the culture around me hadn’t caught up. I still remember leaving the office at 4.45pm for after-school pick-up and feeling the silent judgment. The side-eyes from colleagues who assumed I was checking out early, rather than shifting my hours to log back in after my children’s bedtime.
That kind of judgment doesn’t see the emails at midnight, the calls taken on the school run or the mental load working parents quietly carry. And while we’re doing a better job of normalizing flexible work now, there’s still a long way to go in removing the stigma.
A flexible culture
When I founded my consultancy, I did it with flexibility as a core part of the business model, not just for myself, but also for my team and our clients. A virtual workplace wasn’t just more sustainable or cost-effective. It allowed people to show up fully, in work and in life.
One of my team members, a brilliant working mom, has been such a big part of our company’s growth. From the very first meeting, she was upfront with me. She said, “I need flexibility because of what’s going on at home. If I can’t have that, I’ll have to walk away from the job.”
We made it work and today, she’s one of our most valuable team members. She’s told me more than once that without that flexibility, she has no idea where her kids – who really needed her at that time – would be today. That’s the thing about flexible work. It doesn’t just keep talented people in the workforce, it lets them thrive at work and at home.
Businesses are tailoring their approaches to different roles, and one size no longer fits all.
And it’s not just mothers who benefit. Flexible work gives fathers the opportunity to truly show up at home, not just as helpers at the end of a long day at an office, worksite or factory, but as equal partners in parenting. It means they can do the school drop-offs, stay home with a sick child or make it to that midweek music recital without needing to explain themselves or feel guilty about it.
That kind of visibility and presence matters – to kids, to partners and to the culture we’re building around shared care.
For those without kids or caring responsibilities, flexibility still makes a huge difference. It might mean skipping a draining two-hour commute, carving out time during the day to exercise, feeling free to duck out for a quick doctor’s appointment, or the ability to simply enjoy more time with loved ones. It gives people room to breathe.
New ways of working
Today, hybrid work is increasingly common. According to WTW’s ‘2024 Flexible Work Arrangements Survey’ of more than 1,200 global organizations, 50 percent of employees now work in a hybrid arrangement, 31 percent are fully onsite and 19 percent are mostly remote. Businesses are tailoring their approaches to different roles, and one size no longer fits all.
But we’re also seeing some pushback. In Australia, there was public backlash when the federal opposition proposed ending working from home for public servants – a proposal that was quickly scrapped. At the same time, we’ve seen new ‘right to disconnect’ laws come into effect, reminding us that flexibility needs boundaries too.
Atlassian’s 12,000 employees now work from more than 10,000 locations around the world. Not only has employee satisfaction gone up, so has recruitment.
Globally, companies are experimenting with new ways of working. Atlassian’s Team Anywhere policy is a great example. It allows employees to work from any country where the company has a legal entity, provided it suits their role and time zone. As a result, Atlassian’s 12,000 employees now work from more than 10,000 locations around the world. Not only has employee satisfaction gone up, so has recruitment.
Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, Julia Hobsbawm noted in her latest report that the new Labour government has introduced legislation through its Employment Rights Bill to make flexible work the default. It’s a sign that some countries are serious about embedding flexibility into the very fabric of the workplace.
It’s time we had that conversation here too, and leaders need to be part of it.
Redefining success
Is the resistance to flexible work really about productivity or is it about legacy?
Many large companies are still holding on to expensive office real estate in the heart of our cities, unsure how to make it work in this new era of work.
Maybe it’s time to rethink the purpose of those spaces. Could empty desks and half-full buildings be transformed into something our communities actually need, such as housing, local services or creative hubs that bring people together in new ways?
The future of work doesn’t mean everyone working from home. It means giving people options and the trust to choose what works best for them. Because when we lead with trust, people give it back in spades.
Let’s create the kind of work culture we’d want the next generation to step into.
As leaders, we don’t have all the answers but we can start by listening. Ask your team what they need to do their best work. Understand what might be getting in the way. Then shape policies that reflect the different realities people are navigating, not just the loudest or most familiar ones.
Flexibility isn’t something to be feared or tightly controlled. It’s an opportunity to support people in showing up fully, both at work and in life.
We can shift how we measure success too. Not by who’s at their desk the longest, but by the impact they make. And we can be open to rethinking the old systems we’ve inherited, especially if they no longer fit the world we’re living in.
We’ve already shown that flexible work is possible. Now, let’s create the kind of work culture we’d want the next generation to step into – one that values output over optics, people over presenteeism and flexibility as a fundamental, not a favor.
