Gary Martin, CEO of the Australian Institute of Management WA has published an interesting opinion piece in the daily newspaper titled “Could paid commuting time help lure back office workers?”

The article has highlighted an important debate.

“A standard one hour return commute each day, for five days a week, 48 weeks a year, consumes a whopping 240 hours of time which is equivalent to 10 days and nights. So a big chunk of our time is spent commuting,” Mr Martin told Oliver Peterson on Perth Live.

Mr Martin highlighted the main reason why staff have not wanted to leave their working from home situation that they’ve had since the beginning of Covid is due to the costly commute that takes up their time and money.

“In Japan 90% of people actually get a travel allowance to go into the office each day – it is not required by law but it is an incentive.”

“I should point out that people on public transport do start work during their commute. They use their emails and answer calls – so there is some work as you’re travelling.”

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