Australians could soon have the legal right to work from home.

The Fair Work Commission’s review has me chilling the bevvies, getting the snacks out. I’m all set to watch this unfold.

My take starts with something Nick Huber said. Nick said with pure astonishment in a Twitter/X post — most people don’t want to be an entreprenuer. They want a 9-5.

Before this revelation he thought his employees were like him. So he created employee renumeration and rewards based on encouraging entreprenuerial behaviour. Didn’t work. Nothing.

But when Nick focussed on the the employment context, making relevant employment conditions great, that was a win.

Most people prefer employment. I respect that. I’m jealous.

Building a business is hard. Failure is a constant but fortunately unreliable companion.

Here’s another setback perhaps for many employers.

Enshrining WFH rights in legislation will take the discretion out of negotiating work from home policy — employer by employer, employee by employee.

My view is philosophical. Ideally what drives workplace agreements are values that reflect our desire to treat others how we’d like to be treated. Within a set of business objectives, to be sure.

What does that look like for both employer and employee?

Depends. Many employees will win with WFH rights in ways that benefit them, and consequently their employer.

But back to that pesky discretion. Ability to negotiate for many employers goes out the window the moment work-from-home rights are incorporated into Australian industrial awards. For some it may be a good thing (throwing shade at the less awesome employers), for many it’s not.

Each workplace has its own implicit and declared position on ethical and integrity challenges and values.

With WFH, employees will now also have the opportunity to demonstrate their position.