If you’re over 55 and too tired to make it into the office, these two Fair Work decisions are required reading | Van Badham

The industrial tribunal is where the human experience of fatigue and the mythologies of outdated management cultures are brought into sharper view A decision last week about work-from-home accommodations carries implications far beyond the modern workplace and into the realm of a refreshingly material understanding of existential limitation. It was only in July that Australia’s Fair Work Commission rejected the request from a full-time council employee, Steven Polak, to reduce his days in the office from two a week to one.

Polak argued that as he was over 55 and experiencing a work-related fatigue his obliged commute was exacerbating. Fair Work sided with his employer, accepting the council’s argument that substantial turnover in his team and a dearth of long-serving employees were reasonable business grounds to oblige the continued maximisation of Polak’s in-person presence. That decision just three months ago stands in notable contrast to last week’s. Here, a 63-year-old Victoria University student adviser, Michele Duffy, sought approval to work