UK 
United States
It’s hard to escape all the return to office mandates that are happening, it’s been a game of dominoes since the first big corporate swung their bat on our Covid working, pyjama-clad culture. Yet for many, flexible working remains a key priority and has slipped into the mainstream, an expected perk-less part and parcel of working life, as expected as being handed a lanyard and a job title.
Flexible working is predominantly industry dictated – medical practitioners, vets, teachers, all fall under the umbrella of not having much choice about how and when they work – but for the majority of professionals there is some slack when it comes to the nine to five routines. Potentially, it’s a ten to six or an eight to four – whatever floats your boat – some days at home, stuffing the washing machine full of laundry and opening the door to the Amazon delivery driver and other days in the office, at a time of your choosing, after the expensive early commute tickets have timed-out. There are a myriad of working patterns and for most the shots are being called by the professionals themselves. Like a circus act we have become the tightrope walker that calls when and how far we wobble across the line. It’s a nice position for many – it’s the ‘hybrid death ‘till we part’.
The standard offering
Culture is the ‘stuff’ of the passage of time – while you blink, life has morphed into a new set of rules, and no-one questions it any longer. Hark back to when I cut my journalist teeth in the late 90s and working from home was not the done thing. ‘Flexible working’ wasn’t much of a bandied about term either, we were still grappling with the use of a ‘Blackberry’ – remember those? While thinking that PowerPoint was the height of professional sophistication. Similarly, today, flexible working is the ‘expected’. A recent study by E.ON energy has found that just over half (52%) of Brits say they would only consider working for a company that offered flexible working as standard.
