Why coronavirus could change the way we work forever – as businesses see the benefits of having desk-bound staff outside the office
- Coronavirus could see white collar professionals work from home permanently
- Telstra staff apart from call centre workers, technicians are now home based
- University of Sydney’s Rae Cooper said staff worked at home more efficiently
- Aussie Home Loans executive chairman John Symond also endorsed this view
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
The coronavirus pandemic could see white collar professionals permanently work from home.
From today, all Telstra staff apart from call centre workers and telecommunication technicians will be working from home, making the company Australia’s biggest employer to do this.
The Australian Securities Exchange has also instructed almost all of its employees to turn their living room into an office, after someone on staff tested positive to coronavirus.
While working from home can create social isolation for some, it also spares staff the dread of commuting on a crowded train, which in itself is a potential incubator of flu-like illnesses such as the COVID-19.
The coronavirus pandemic could see white collar professionals permanently work from home. From today, Telstra staff apart from call centre workers and telecommunication technicians will be working from home, making Australia’s biggest employers to do this
John Symond, the founder and executive chairman of Aussie Home Loans, said coronavirus was likely to force more employers to issue staff with laptop computers so they could work from home.
‘It will ensure that organisations have the tools to make sure that their people can operate from home efficiently,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
The multi-millionaire businessman also endorsed the idea of more Australians working from home after coronavirus ceased to be a health hazard.
‘Certainly, those doing work from a desk, they can be quite efficient working from home,’ he said. ‘It’s becoming more and more popular.’
Adrian Pisarski, the executive officer of housing affordability group National Shelter, said working from home would enable young people to live in a regional area by the beach instead of paying off an expensive mortgage in Sydney or Melbourne.
‘There could be some new ways of working which have positive, unintended consequences,’ he said.
‘There could be potential benefits that emerge out of this that we haven’t yet thought about.’
John Symond (left), the founder and executive chairman of Aussie Home Loans, said coronavirus was likely to force more employers to issue staff with laptop computers so they could work from home.
Max Moore-Wilton, a former Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet boss, said working from home also eliminated the need for unproductive travel time.
‘A lot of people, particularly with modern technology, are very productive working from home and they don’t spend a lot of time travelling which is unproductive time,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Personally, I think there’s a lot of businesses that will not feel adverse effects if their employees are working from home.’
University of Sydney professor of gender, work and employment relations Rae Cooper said staff were in fact often more productive when they worked from home.
Max Moore-Wilton, a former Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet boss, said working from home also eliminated the need for unproductive travel time. Pictured is North Sydney station at peak hour
‘The feedback I get from employers is actually, believe it or not, quite the opposite to the narrative ‘all the people are slacking off who are working at home’,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘They’re actually delivering more when they’re working at home because there’s not all that contemporaneous distraction in the workplace and all of the noise.
‘A lot of people who do this on a regular basis thought they same thing: they are either more productive or when they’ve got a particular task that they’ve really got to focus, they get more done.’
Telstra is advising its staff, working from home, to improve their WiFi connection, drink plenty of water and get lots of exercise.