This is going to upset people. I know that before I start typing.
Victoria's new work-from-home legislation, which takes effect in September 2026, gives employees the legal right to request flexible work arrangements from day one of employment. It's a progressive piece of legislation. It's good policy. And I support it entirely.
But if you're in your first or second year of your career, I think exercising that right fully could be one of the worst decisions you make.
Before You Close This Tab
I'm not arguing against WFH. I run a recruitment agency. Half my team works remotely on any given day. Flexibility is a core part of how we operate and what we advocate for with our clients.
This isn't about what's fair. It's about what's strategic. And those are different conversations.
The data tells an uncomfortable story. Remote roles in Australia disproportionately skew towards higher earners and more senior professionals. People who already have networks, reputations, and established skill sets. They can afford to be invisible in an office because they've already been visible for years.
If you're 23 and six months into your first proper role, you don't have that luxury.
What You Lose by Not Being in the Room
Osmotic learning is real
The most valuable things I learned in my early career weren't taught. They were overheard. Sitting near a senior account director while they handled a difficult client call taught me more about stakeholder management than any training course. Watching a colleague navigate internal politics in real time gave me pattern recognition I still use today.
You can't overhear a Slack message. You can't absorb body language on a muted Zoom call. The informal, ambient learning that happens in an office is invisible until it's gone.
Visibility drives opportunity
Promotions don't go to the best performer. They go to the best performer that leadership can see. That's not how it should work, but it's how it does work. When a manager is deciding who gets the stretch project, the interesting client, or the conference trip, they think of the people they interact with regularly. If you're a name on a screen, you're at a structural disadvantage.
Senior people can overcome this because they've already built relationships. Junior people can't because they haven't.
Feedback loops are slower remotely
In an office, a quick "hey, can you look at this?" takes 30 seconds. Remotely, it's a Slack message, a wait, a scheduled call, a screen share. The friction adds up. Early-career professionals need fast, frequent feedback to develop. Remote work adds latency to every learning cycle.
The Counterarguments (and Why They're Partially Right)
People will say that good managers should make remote work equally effective for junior staff. They're right. Good managers should. But most managers are average by definition, and building your career strategy around the assumption that your manager will be exceptional is a bad bet.
People will say that neurodivergent employees, people with caring responsibilities, and those with long commutes benefit enormously from WFH. They're absolutely right. This isn't a one-size-fits-all argument. It's a provocation aimed at the specific subset of early-career professionals who default to full remote because it's comfortable, not because it's strategic.
People will say that the office is just performative presence. Sometimes it is. But the solution to bad office culture isn't avoiding the office entirely. It's finding a workplace where in-person time is actually valuable.
What I'd Actually Recommend
If you're in your first two years, push for hybrid. Three days in the office, two from home. Be deliberate about which days you're in. Choose the days your manager is there. Choose the days when team meetings happen. Make your in-office time count.
Use your remote days for deep work. Use your office days for relationship building, impromptu conversations, and making sure people know who you are and what you're capable of.
After two or three years, when you've built your network and your reputation, shift the balance if you want to. By then, you've earned the social capital to be effective from anywhere.
A right and a smart move are not always the same thing. You have every right to work from home. But rights are about what you're allowed to do, not what will serve you best.
This Isn't Forever
I'm not telling anyone to chain themselves to a desk for a decade. I'm saying that the first 18 to 24 months of a career are disproportionately important for building the foundations that everything else sits on. Networks. Mentors. Pattern recognition. Professional instincts.
Those things are built through proximity. Not exclusively. But disproportionately.
Victoria's WFH legislation is a genuine win for workers' rights. Use it wisely. Just don't confuse having the right to do something with it being the right thing to do at this particular moment in your career.