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Like any addiction, hybrid working is hard to give up. Who doesn’t like the opportunity to put a wash on, open the door to an Amazon delivery and patch into a Teams call? It was always going to happen; the tech was there long before our bodies and minds were and the one thing that we may have to thank Covid for is the advent of remote working that has since morphed rather seamlessly into hybrid patterns. Those that can, simply do.
Yet, return to the office (RTOs) mandates are afoot with many making a total or partial shift back to the office including Barclays Bank, Boots, JD Sports and Dell Technologies to name but a few. The list is growing. Businesses on the fence seem to be creeping back mid-week too but there is a sense that many of these are doing so for uncertain reasons or just from a sense of feeling that they ‘should’ without validating the reasons why.
Re-establishing working patterns and practices that are now viable and sustainable for the long time is a different equation, and what many companies were happy to adopt whilst in crisis mode seems less palatable in the relative peacetime of our post-covid world
Even back in 2022, when we were still grappling with a new way of working, the notion of hybrid working was popular and a pleasure hard to shake. The survey by ADP Research Institute of 32,000 workers reported back then that 64% of workers would consider quitting if asked to return to the office full time. Jump to 2024 and a survey conducted by Zoom in collaboration with Reworked INSIGHTS shows similar sentiments, that hybrid work has become the preferred working model worldwide, with a significant impact on productivity, employee satisfaction, and workplace connectivity.
