Her academic research and writing has been in the areas of employment policy, gender equity, and work and welfare reform, including households and the domestic division of labour.
From 1993 to 2004 she was employed at RMIT University, Melbourne as Professor and Head of the Department of Social Science (1993–1996),[6] as well as Executive Editor of the journal Labour and Industry.
[10] She began her task of guiding the Faculty through a difficult and controversial restructure of the university to a two-tier US-style teaching model that involved significant cuts (including shedding the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies) and strident staff reaction.
[6] She resigned after only sixteen months, citing personal reasons: she wanted time to care for her elderly mother in France and to be with her daughter in London.
[13] Probert was a director of the Methodist Ladies College, Melbourne (2010–2013) during which time the board controversially dismissed the principal for having received significant overpayments.