Coronavirus could change the way Australians work forever, with experts saying many businesses will rethink conventional practices once the shutdown is lifted.
For many businesses, the COVID-19 lockdown was the first time employees worked remotely at such a large scale.
Joanne Orlando, a researcher at Western Sydney University (WSU) specialising in online learning and digital distractions, said we have "reached a fork in the road".
She said the viability of having a remote workforce — which was still happy and productive — would become more obvious to businesses after the lockdown.
For employers trying to recoup their losses, real estate would be an excellent opportunity for cost-saving measures.
"I think businesses will be able to see there's quite a bit of money to be saved by not having to pay for office space," Professor Orlando said.
"This shove into working from home, I think it might actually allow more flexible working arrangements."
However, this wasn't a viable option for every company, according to the University of Sydney Business School's Stefan Volk.
"There's a negative side, obviously," Dr Volk said.
"Being in the office allows for relationship building, coordination and bouncing ideas."
He said major technology companies such as Google and Yahoo ditched the work-from-home model because "people don't really connect, they don't really know each other".
He said that flexibility should be an option and the coronavirus lockdown meant companies were accelerating remote working technology and practices.
Being forced into self-isolation also meant some workers, particularly older and less technology literate, would eventually benefit from a "deep-learning curve".
People would also realise after some semblance of normality returned, whether they were a work-from-home person.
"We always force people into a certain kind of work regime," Dr Volk said.
Different people had natural biological rhythms, where they were more productive at different hours of the day.
"Everybody has to essentially show up at the same time, even though being relatively early is not very beneficial," he said.
Professor Orlando said not every industry could easily transition into remote work, particularly retail which she said would always require a store front to operate.
She said "office space industries" such as finance were primed to make the transition.
"Anything where normally people come to work and they work on their computers and then they go home, there's not a lot of direct contact with clients," she said.
She did fear, however, that having your office and home life so close could drastically upset a person's work-life balance.
"Our whole life will become our office, in the worst-case scenario," Professor Orlando said.
"Your employer [might] expect you to work much longer hours and think you're always valuable because you're working from home."
