They won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1983, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1994, and they have sold over 30 million albums worldwide.

The name Men At Work was thrown into the hat by Colin Hay, and was seconded by Ron Strykert, when a name was required to put on the blackboard outside The Cricketer's Arms Hotel, Richmond.

[7] In 1980, the group issued their debut single, "Keypunch Operator" backed by "Down Under", with both tracks co-written by Hay and Strykert.

[8][12] Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt the A-side was "a fast-paced country-styled rocker with a clean sound and quirky rhythm".

1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart, spending a total of nine weeks at the top spot.

[13] The Canberra Times' Garry Raffaele opined that it "generally stays at a high level, tight and jerky ...

[7] Despite its strong Australian and New Zealand showing, and having an American producer (McIan), Business as Usual was twice rejected by Columbia's US parent company.

[16] In August the group toured Canada and the United States to promote the album and related singles, supporting Fleetwood Mac.

[18] By January 1983 Men at Work had the top album and single in both the US and the UK – never previously achieved by an Australian act.

[15] It had been finished in mid-1982 with McIan producing again, but was held back due to the success of their debut album[7][8][12] on the international market, where Business as Usual was still riding high.

[7][8] Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required",[8] as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985).

"[19] Speiser opined, "Russell was good for hustling gigs in Melbourne and Sydney but once the band became international and multi-million, the sheep farmer from Warrnambool had no idea.

[13][18] The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors.

[7][12] Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa).

[7][12] Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renée Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists.

On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)—"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night".

[7][8][12] The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham.

At that time, Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.

[12] The tour culminated in a performance in São Paulo, which was recorded for the Brazilian release of a live album, Brazil '96, in 1997, which was co-produced by Hay and Ham for Sony Music.

[7][8][12] In 1997 drummer Tony Floyd replaced Watson but by 1998 the lineup was Hay, Ham, James Ryan (guitar, backing vocals), Rick Grossman (of the Hoodoo Gurus) on bass [12] and Peter Maslen (ex-Boom Crash Opera) on drums.

[7][8] Men at Work performed "Down Under" at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney,[8] alongside Paul Hogan of "Crocodile" Dundee (1986).

[22] One of their European tours for mid-2000 was cancelled and the group had disbanded once again by 2002, although Hay and Ham periodically reunited Men at Work with guest musicians (including an appearance in February 2009, when they performed "Down Under" as a duo at the Australia Unites Victorian Bushfire Appeal Telethon).

[24] In early 2009 the Australian music-themed TV quiz, Spicks and Specks, had posed a question which suggested that "Down Under" contained elements of "Kookaburra".

[citation needed] Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else's music,[28] resulting in depression and anxiety.

[29] Ham's body was found in his Carlton North home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 58.

[30] In 2021 Australian producer Christian 'Luude' Benson (from the Tasmanian tech house dance duo Choomba)[31][32][33] remixed "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, which became popular online.

Hay re-recorded the vocal for the track's official release,[34] now credited to Luude featuring Colin Hay, with the record charting at number 32 on the UK Singles chart on 7 January 2022[35] and at number 48 in Australia (on the ARIA Top 50 Singles for the week of 10 January 2022).

Strykert relocated to Hobart in 2009 from Los Angeles, and continued to play music and released his first solo album, Paradise, in September that year.

Ham remained musically active and played sax with the Melbourne-based group The Nudist Funk Orchestra until his death.

Rees was a music teacher in Melbourne and also played the violin and bass guitar for the band Beggs 2 Differ.