Do you have to have lunch with your team?

Good morning AusCorp. In this week's edition, we get into why saying no to the team lunch is a career decision, and why consumer confidence has sunk to a level Australians haven't felt in half a century. We've also announced the three workplaces taking home a free onsite school holiday program with KidsCo.

Plus KPMG has hit senior staff with six-figure penalties over the audit leaks, Macquarie is dealing with anonymous letters to its chairman alleging misconduct in investment banking, and Deloitte is the next company to send EAs offshore.

THE BIG CONVERSATION

Nobody is actually declining lunch.

Turning down a team lunch shouldn't be a career decision, but plenty of people check themselves before they do it. The colleague eating alone has usually been in meetings all morning, then it’s debriefs about the meetings and then a walk to the next one. Lunch can also be that gap for life admin, so saying no to your colleagues just can’t compare. None of it is personal.

Everyone talks about showing face, being team players and getting on with everyone. Despite working with everyone every other day of the week, the problem is that patterns get noticed even when nobody says anything. Plenty of careers have stalled because of poor optics. Nobody keeps a record of who came to lunch, they only notice who never does.

The whole debate assumes a lunch break exists, and for a decent chunk of corporate Australia it doesn't. It's eaten at your desk so might save an hour of work after 6PM, or spent on the phone to the school and the bank because they're only open the exact hours you're at work. The rule isn't applied evenly either. A senior manager who eats alone is working through his priority list but a grad doing exactly the same thing is failing to go above and beyond.

The real cost is information. We're all playing some level of office politics, and if you're never there, it means you’ll hear the names being floated and the restructure gossip last, only once it's official and useless. You’ll also never know the when management happens to show up and you miss quality face time. Every team is different and workplace culture even more so, so it’s just up to you to prioritise accordingly.

TAC x KIDSCO. GIVEAWAY - THE WINNERS ARE IN! 🎉

Last week, we teamed up with KidsCo. to give three Australian workplaces a way out. KidsCo. brings fully run holiday programs into workplaces, with qualified teachers, activities and supervision included.

We're excited to announce the three workplaces receiving a free 2-day onsite School Holiday Program from KidsCo. Congratulations to:

• Optus

• Telstra

• Origin Energy

Thank you to everyone who shared their stories. We loved reading each one and appreciate everyone who took the time to enter.

PICK & SCROLL BY THE AUSSIE CORPORATE | LAST WEEK’S TOP PICKS

• KPMG has slapped senior staff with six-figure penalties after internal investigations into the Optus-Telstra audit leaks scandal. LINK

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has created a new Office of AI within his department as he unveils a single national AI framework and tighter expectations for data centres. LINK

• Australia has extended its AML and CTF laws to accountants, lawyers and real estate agents from July 1, significantly expanding regulation while debate over effectiveness continues. LINK

• Macquarie is facing staff unrest in its investment banking division as anonymous letters to chairman Glenn Stevens allege 6 senior Macquarie Capital managers breached company values and whistleblower complaints were mishandled. LINK

Flat White lands every week. The news doesn't. Every weekday morning at 8:00am, we send you everything that happened across Australian business and corporate news in a 2-minute read. Same team. Same voice. Just daily.

THE INSIDE TRACK

THREAD OF THE WEEK - r/AUSCORP

Am I unreasonable for thinking "I don't get paid enough to sacrifice my life for work"?

This seems to be becoming a recurring thing at work. My manager's attitude is very much "we need to fit holidays and life around work, not work around holidays and life."

The latest example was me asking for leave to go to two concerts overseas the week before our Christmas shutdown. A friend managed to get us really good tickets, and they're not exactly events you can just move to another date.

Read the thread →

THE BRAINS TRUST

Australian consumer sentiment is now in the bottom 10% of readings from the past 50 years. Australians haven't felt this pessimistic in decades. People are also becoming less confident that house prices will rise, and many are still holding back on spending. UBS now expects home prices to fall around 5%, despite a small July bounce in sentiment.

Despite weakening confidence, economists still expect the RBA to lift interest rates by another 0.25% in August, potentially pushing the cash rate to 4.60%. All the while, wages jumped 8% in the year to June - driven by the annual award wage decision. Strong wage growth just gives the RBA another reason to keep raising interest rates.

Households aren't just spending less, many are under real financial pressure. Nearly 6% of Australian households have fallen behind on their electricity bills, setting a new record. The average debt now stands at $1,465 per household. Electricity disconnections jumped 44% quarter-on-quarter. Mortgage demand is down 20-30% year-on-year, with investor applications down as much as 50%. Capital city prices are falling at a 5% annualised rate, with Sydney down 3.7% from its January 2026 peak and Melbourne down 4.0% from its March 2022 peak.

OFF THE CLOCK

WATCHING
Nolan's Odyssey is already causing arguments

Christopher Nolan's take on The Odyssey is visually extraordinary and apparently full of modern American dialogue. LINK

EATING
Mark Best is taking over Sydney Tower's revolving restaurant

Mark Best bringing serious culinary credentials to a revolving restaurant above Sydney is the kind of booking that will be discussed at every dinner table except the one you're actually sitting at. LINK

READING
Are you friends with your AI or just lonely

A philosopher sits with the uncomfortable question of whether chatbot relationships constitute genuine friendship, and the answer is probably more complicated than you'd like it to be. LINK

WEARING
The Aussie labels worth actually buying

Broadsheet's editors have done the work of narrowing down which Australian clothing labels are worth your money, which is useful if your wardrobe has been coasting on the same rotation since 2022. LINK

GOING
Your winter events guide

The Harry Seidler retrospective has arrived in Sydney after its Venice debut, and if you have any interest in how this city came to look the way it does, it is worth making time for. LINK

AUSCORP EVENTS

• AusCorp Runs | Sydney | Coming Soon 👀 

• AusCorp Pilates | Sydney | Coming Soon 👀 

• AusCorp Singles Event | Sydney | Coming Soon 👀 

ODD PICKS FROM LAST WEEK

• 10,000 steps to 8 glasses of water: The truth behind these popular health ‘rules’. LINK

• What happened to Australia's snow season? A climate expert explains. LINK

• 1 in 4 adults has metabolic syndrome and it may be ageing their brains. LINK

• Google Images is taking on Pinterest with its latest redesign that turns the site into a browsable, dynamic gallery of images from across the web. LINK

• The founder of Hinge has raised $18 million for a new AI dating service called Overtone, funded in part by Match Group, which owns Hinge, Tinder and OkCupid. LINK

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