It also discovered on average, everyone benefited from working at home, especially people with disabilities and those with caring responsibilities.

The self-reporting survey by University of NSW Canberra's Public Service Research Group and CQUniversity, with support from the Community and Public Sector Union, was conducted during the height of pandemic measures in mid-2020. Of the surveyed 5938 total responses, 33.7 per cent were male, 65.3 per cent were female, while 1 per cent identified as other. In total 5359 responses were completed.

UNSW Canberra's lead researcher Associate Professor Sue Williamson told The Canberra Times men, in particular, lost out by being less able than women to collaborate when working from home.

Overall, she said public servants were better able to get work done at home as they were more likely to be distracted in the current work environment.

"People are really productive and they do focus more intensely when they're working from home," Dr Williamson said.

"We're conducting research at the moment on how people are working hybridly and in hybrid teams. Over and over again people are telling us that open plan offices are just too noisy and they don't want to go into open plan offices.

"And we know that there are lots of distractions. There's lots of chats. There's all the good social things in workplaces - morning teas, coffee, chats - all those sorts of things. But by the same token, it's very distracting for our employees."

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It comes as the public sector bargaining over pay and conditions is under way, with the main public sector union seeking access to flexible working conditions, including working from home and hybrid work, "without undue restrictions". Guidelines released by the Secretaries Board last week advised agencies all employees can request a flexible working arrangement, including options to vary when and where they work.

The results from such a wide pool of APS employees confirms, for Dr Williamson, previous research where people - both men and women - reported they were more productive working from home.

It was found women were working longer hours at home than men, which she said "isn't a great thing" and agencies need to work on curbing excessive hours.

People with disabilities gained the most. "They really value working from home and they are more productive across the board," she said.

"Lots of our text responses from employees who have disabilities also said it made them better able to manage their health conditions. All types of families gained from working from home. They are better able to combine work and caring responsibilities."

Dr Williamson said, however, male employees needed more help around collaboration when working from home, and agencies would need to address their needs covering team support, communication and starting collaborative projects.

"We think this is probably because, traditionally, women have done the emotional labour in office places, in workplaces," she said.

"They'll organise the morning teas, the lunches, the going-aways, all those sorts of things.

"And so when the pandemic hit women already had those networks and those skills in place."

While the study, Working During the pandemic: From resistance to revolution, covered more than 5000 public servants, she said it could easily cover all "customer-facing, knowledge-based" jobs.

As for addressing the future of noisy, distracting office cubes, Dr Williamson said it was already under way.

"We also know that with APS agencies, and as a broader workplace trend, that organisations are rethinking what offices will look like," she said.

"[They are] thinking, 'Do they need all those little cubicles'? Or, 'should offices become places that are more purposeful and it's where people go to collaborate, to socialise, rather than just sitting in their cubicles and working that way'?"