Chris Ellison of Minerals Resources. Photo / Trevor Collens, Getty Images
Chris Ellison of Minerals Resources. Photo / Trevor Collens, Getty Images
This article was one of the NZ Herald’s best-read stories of 2024.
In November it was announced Ellison would step down from his role due to ‘profoundly disappointing’ conduct, including allegations of tax evasion. He is continuing to serve as managing director until a successor is found.
AKiwi billionaire who has banned working from home now wants to stop staff from leaving the office to get coffee.
Kiwi-born Chris Ellison, chief executive of Australian mining giant Mineral Resources, said during a financial presentation he wanted to change the narrative of flexible working and stop staff from “leaving the building”.
“I want to hold them captive all day long. I don’t want them leaving the building.
”I don’t want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee. We kind of figured out a few years ago how much that costs, wandering out around lunchtime.”
Instead, he plans to invest in making his Perth headquarters as appealing as possible, with as many amenities on hand as needed so staff don’t need to leave.
He revealed his headquarters have a gym, restaurant, on-site nurses and doctors, nine psychologists on the payroll to tackle any mental health issues as well as “other facilities that keep them glued in there”.
A Kiwi CEO wants to ban employees from leaving the office to grab a coffee.
Ellison’s company has also opened a creche, which costs employees $20 a day, beating higher costs many parents would be forced to pay elsewhere.
“Drop the little tykes off next door,” Ellison said. “We’re going to feed them, but Mum and Dad will be working in our office.”
Mineral Resources’ headquarters has a special air filtration system that minimises germs, and water that meets organic and pesticide-free thresholds.
It also boasts an art gallery and a chef.
Ellison has previously criticised businesses that continued to allow staff to work from home after the pandemic. He banned the policy in 2023, a move that goes against the current global business trend.
“I have a no-work-from-home policy.
“I wish everyone else would get on board with that – the sooner the better. The industry can’t afford it.”
He hinted lenient work hours cost businesses money and less work was being done for the time employees were paid, compared to when they were office-bound.
“We’ve now got the industry all heading out there going ‘Why don’t we do a four-day week, we got used to it over Covid’. We can’t have people working three days, and picking up five days a week pay, or [even] four days.”
Ellison, 67, co-founded Mineral Resources as part of a mining merger with three major companies in Australia.
He grew up on a farm outside Dunedin and attended Otago Boys’ High School. He left school at the age of 15 to work as a crane driver.
In 1978, he moved to Western Australia, where he established a rigging firm before winning a contract to work on the North West Shelf Venture.
Ellison was appointed New Zealand’s honorary consul in Western Australia in 2013. He was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours, for “services to New Zealand–Australia relations”.
He became a notional billionaire in 2020 when shares in Mineral Resources hit a then-record high, and is worth $1.2 billion according to Forbes.
