The flip side of the Great Resignation

The so-called "Great Resignation" has recently taken up a lot of headline space, with many self-appointed experts providing plenty of fact-light assessments about the effect of the pandemic on people deciding to leave their jobs.

Much less time has been devoted to understanding those who want to stay put in their jobs, especially those employees who were forced by the pandemic to work from home and have now decided they should be allowed to keep working from home indefinitely.

For most workplaces, practical compromises about balancing working from home and working from the employer's premises can be reached most of the time. However, the Fair Work Commission (Commission) is now at the beginning of the pipeline of termination claims arising from situations when these practical compromises may be a bridge too far.