This billionaire tech CEO is just fine with staff working wherever they want to – and only goes to the office once every three months

• A software CEO told Australia's "60 Minutes" he only goes into the office once every three months.
• Scott Farquhar said Atlassian was keeping a work-from-anywhere policy introduced in 2020. 
• Its embrace of hybrid arrangements comes as some big tech firms try to enforce strict RTO policies. 

While many tech bosses are desperately trying to force their minions back to the office, one CEO is swimming firmly against the tide.

Scott Farquhar, the billionaire founder and CEO of Atlassian, said he works from home most of the time and only goes to the office about once every three months. 

He told Australia's "60 Minutes" that more than half of staff hired in the past year lived more than two hours from the office – where he barely made an appearance anyway. 

"I work from home all the time," Farquhar said. "I might come into the office about once a quarter."

The CEO, who's worth $15 billion, said the company's work-from-anywhere policy has helped employees cope with the cost of living crisis, and let it widen its talent pool. 

The $49 billion Nasdaq-listed company provides online collaboration tools and software and is one of Australia's most successful startups. It also has offices in India, Japan and the Philippines. 

"I still work really hard and I work with the teams who are around the world and Australia," Farquhar said.

Atlassian rolled out its "Team Anywhere" hybrid work policy in August 2020 during the pandemic. Employees can move to a city that doesn't have an Atlassian office, or any of the 13 countries where it has a legal entity, the company told Insider.

Tech giants including Meta, Google and Amazon have recently put strict return-to-office mandates in place. Google staff have been expected to work from the office three days a week since April 2022, while Meta told staff in June that they must do so as well.

Both Meta and Google told employees it would monitor their attendance. Thousands of Amazon workers have protested the company's RTO push it announced earlier this year. 

Farquhar said there's been no drop in productivity from its flexible work arrangements and that Atlassian employees could "save hours a day" they would otherwise spend commuting.

"Their work is a vocation not a location and so we expect people to be able to work from home, from a cafe, from an office, but we don't really care where they do their work – what we care about is the output that they produce," he told "60 Minutes."

Atlassian was founded by Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes in 2002 after they met at university in Sydney.