While it is true that public sector employment is not as vulnerable to economic downturn, this particular economic downturn has resulted in extraordinary government spending and unprecedented demand on certain agencies.

As a result, it is likely that the Commonwealth will be unwilling to invest in projects that are not pressing in the near future. Should you find yourself on one of these low-priority projects, and for whatever reason you are unable to be redeployed, you may find yourself made redundant.

While I do not think that there is any appetite for the Commonwealth to add to the growing unemployment rate, there will equally be a low appetite for unnecessary spending.

I have already seen a number of public sector clients in the past two months who have been made redundant (including SES employees - who notably are receiving incentives to retire that I consider commensurate with pre-COVID-19 incentives) since the beginning of March this year.

Of course, that is only anecdotal evidence. It is possible that these redundancies had been in the pipeline for a long time before the current emergency. It is also possible that SES incentives to retire may become less enticing in the future.

If your role is made redundant, and the redundancy is "genuine" (by that I mean that the role is genuinely no longer required by your agency) then you have very few avenues to dispute the termination of your employment.

One exception to this is if you were chosen to be made redundant over other colleagues because you have made any complaints or inquiries about your workplace or because you have a protected attribute (for example, disability, gender, race etc).

If you suspect that your position has been made redundant for a nefarious reason, then you may wish to seek legal counsel.

A large number of public sector employees are now working from home. As I wrote about last month, this has been a difficult but necessary transition.

While some agencies may not have had the technological bandwidth to support their entire workforce working from home pre-COVID-19, most now do.

This is good news - we are prepared to face similar emergencies in the future as well as now being able to facilitate flexible working from home arrangements for employees who previously were unable to do so.

Working from home is a double-edged sword. I would hazard a guess that pre-crisis, most of us would have welcomed the ability to work from home on occasion, however, it is certainly not the case that everyone wants to work from home the majority of the time.

Working from home can isolate employees, which can be detrimental for mental health and job satisfaction. Despite the promise of restrictions lifting, it is likely that lots of employees will continue to work from home for the near future.

There are reports that social distancing may be in place for months if not years - in which case, employers may not be able to have their entire workforce cram back into their usual office.

Additionally, in the long term, overhead costs of running offices can be reduced if fewer people work there.

With a large population of workers who are unwillingly working from home, we may soon see medical certificates certifying that an employee is only fit to work if they can return to the office (citing, for example, increased anxiety and depression caused from working from home).

The choice of who is allowed to return to work and who is not may also prove to be difficult. Employees who are left at home may feel ostracised and bullied.

This will be a difficult balance for employers in the coming months and years.

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For as long as social distancing lasts, we can expect hot-desking to be less popular (with studies suggesting that COVID-19 may last on surfaces for up to several days).

Additionally, we can probably (air) kiss goodbye any team building outings or 2020 Christmas parties.

While some of the above may paint a bleak picture of our immediate future, there is of course hope that this period of time at home will decrease any stigmas against working from home and allow for a more flexible and happy workplace in the future - with those who want to working from home, and those who don't being allowed to carefully re-enter offices with hand sanitiser in their holsters.