Are lunch breaks, colleagues, and water cooler chit chat a thing of the past? Are we ever going to get back to our normal work schedules? Well, yes and no. Most businesses are leaning towards a mixed model, with employees working from the office a few days a week but being able to work remotely the rest of the time. Contrary to conventional wisdom, working from home can make people more, not less productive (provided there isn’t the looming anxiety of an ongoing pandemic in the background). Here’s a few things we can expect going forward:

More remote working and nonstandard work models: A poll by research consultancy Gartner showed that 48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time. The research consultancy also found that 32% of businesses were replacing full time employees with contingent workers, which may be a good thing for flexible working schedules but could spell out disaster for workplace benefits. That having been said, the pandemic has tasked employers with caring for their employees mental and physical health and wellbeing like never before, a trend that could hopefully be extended to contractors and part-time workers.

Being a better employee: Digital & technology skills have moved even more into the spotlight as life moved online and businesses from all sectors scrambled to catch up, according to The Mandarin. That also means that skills in IT and security have become coveted by employers who want to be able to amend their digital infrastructure quickly and effectively. However, personality skills have also become an asset to any company, with employees that show skills in problem-solving, agility, resilience, critical thinking, and communication helping boost a workplace’s efficiency, innovation, and morale, says Silicon Republic.

Throwing the open office plan out the window: The ubiquitous model for collaborative working is a disaster for the spread of infectious diseases, and with more variants of covid-19 likely to develop in the future, the open plan office is a no no. Some employers have said they will stick to a rotational schedule, having no more than 60% of employees in at any one time, while others will set up “sneeze guards” in the form of plexiglass panes between cubicles and will work on improving air circulation. Team-wide meetings and office lunch buffets may be a thing of the past we’re afraid.

Expanded data collection for employee monitoring: The Gartner poll showed that 16% of businesses are already using tech to monitor their employees, asking them to clock in and out digitally or tracking computer usage and engagement. And while this all may seem a bit 1984, it’s a trend that’s likely to continue and amplify as remote working becomes the norm. Employee surveillance software shot up by more than 50% in the first few months of the pandemic, though 66% of workers said they would be uncomfortable with keyboard monitoring, 80% uncomfortable with camera monitoring, and 76% unhappy with electronic tracking in a survey conducted by a UK-based trade union.

Then again, do we actually want to go back to the office? From more time spent with family, to scrapping the morning commute, to greater flexibility and more time spent outdoors, there are more than a few benefits to remote working. A recent survey of more than 1.1k remote workers by The New York Times and Morning Consult found that 86% of those surveyed were happy working from home. Ultimately, the pandemic has imposed a rethinking of work-life balance that was long overdue, and maybe we won’t ever end up going into the office the way we used to. We’re certainly not complaining.