Hybrid work is here to stay. We all know that. There’s been a revolution and there’s no putting this genie back in the bottle.
Or is there?
Hybrid work in the US has emerged as trends out of an unprecedented combination of 1. a worldwide pandemic, 2. a tight labor market, and 3. digital transformation. Hybrid is safe and sound if you remove only one of those. The pandemic becomes an endemic. But remove two of them – the labor market softens – and you’ve got trouble.
Hybrid work is an employee value prop. It’s a benefit. It might be a nearly universal benefit for knowledge workers today, but it is still a benefit. And just like other benefits hybrid work can become more restrictive as the power moves from the employee to the employer. If you are entering the workforce or if your skill set is more common then you will likely get asked / told to return to the office more often in the future.
Also, the office has kind of become the hero of the story recently. One example from my Linkedin feed.
I personally love working remotely and would resist returning to an office. Well, I’d resist the commute which is required to get to the office. Remember that the shift to hybrid is not universally loved by organizational leaders. Expect to see hybrid come under attack as the labor market softens in the next year.
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