05 Jul Turning on hybrid
Image by Ronald Carreño from Pixabay
Hmm. It’s almost like someone should have warned you a long time ago that hybrid was a stepping stone to full RTO. Oh wait! I did!
➡️ The article itself says people who want to RTO hit an all-time low last month, then turns around and claims that hybrid work is best. Sorry, I don’t buy that. This is the same work style being dubbed a “hell of half measures.” I have predicted this before and will do so again: I think for offices not wanting to be as mercenary as Lord Elon, we will see a push towards hybrid work. Then when most people aren’t happy with it and it feels disjointed, those offices will say, “OK, fine. No more remote work. You are to be here, butt-in-seat, Monday through Friday or there’s the door.”
Here’s what I see playing out. I think a lot of these companies- some of them will just say, “Look: RTO or it’s your job.” They’re gonna go the Elon Musk route and just say, “Look, you either come back full time, eight to five, Monday through Friday, butt in seat in the cube farm, or there’s the door. Oh, and by the way, we’re in a recession. So choose wisely.” They’re either going to do that, or they’re going to do this hell of half measures hybrid bullcrap of, “Well, OK, come on back two or three days a week, we’ll give you some flexibility. We’ll let you choose some of those days or all of those days, but you know, we’re going to be butt-in-seat two or three times out of the week.” When everybody starts to complain about how that’s not working – it’s too chaotic, it’s too weird – sometimes Sally’s here. Sometimes she’s not. Sometimes I see Billy on Tuesdays. Sometimes I see him on Fridays. Things are just chaotic. They’ll say, “OK, great. Come on back permanently. There’s no more work from home. There’s no more remote.”
–https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/11144066 published August 20, 2022Hybrid work, IMO, will likely be used as a stepping stone to full-on RTO. Wait and see.
–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2022/08/23/i-told-you-so-%f0%9f%8e%b6/ published on August 23, 2022.
Told ya! 🤷🏻♀️
–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/04/30/i-warned-you-about-hybrid-%e2%9e%a1%ef%b8%8f-rto/ published on April 30, 2023.
On July 3rd, LinkedIn asked, “Is hybrid work truly flexible?”
Companies are grappling with post-pandemic return-to-work mandates and worker preferences for remote work. Enter hybrid work as an attempt to satisfy everyone. But the BBC reports working part-time in the office and part-time at home may be more problematic than it appears. “It’s shoehorning them into fixed patterns that may not best support their work,” a CEO told the BBC. Flexibility is also lost. Though time varies between locations, it remains a fixed schedule, whether that applies to shift times or mandated days to appear in an office.
–https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/is-hybrid-work-truly-flexible-5681108/
Ruh roh. Is there trouble in hybrid work paradise? Imagine that. 😒
*slips on tinfoil hat*
Now that mainstream sources are acknowledging that, ya know what, perhaps hybrid ain’t exactly the best of both worlds after all, where do you imagine this is leading? Do you think Corpo America will close its offices and send everyone back home full-time? Or do you think – as I’ve predicted more than once – that hybrid will be a stepping stone to full RTO?
“Hybrid working policies mean interns turn up to empty offices and feel more isolated.
More experienced employees are choosing to work from home because it’s convenient and easy.
However, young professionals often want to be in the office to advance their careers and socialize.”
–https://www.businessinsider.com/interns-lonelier-in-office-hybrid-working-policies-2023-7
“They say that all good things must come to an end. Does that include hybrid working? It certainly feels like it’s on its way out. More and more companies, from Blackrock to AT&T, are asking staff to increase their in-office days, much to employees’ chagrin. . . . Friday afternoons are employers’ biggest bugbear. Office occupancy is at its lowest, and the WFH rate is at its highest, but how many people are doing any work? In Switzerland, some firms are so convinced that efficiency is lower on a Friday (and Monday) due to weekend overspill that they’ve banned or restricted remote working on those days.
‘Quiet weekends’ have also become a thing. This is when people frontload their work to make way for a quieter end of the week, which some suggest could be an under-the-radar way to work a four-day week. That’s not what employers want to hear! It’s one thing for people to work harder during the week to allow themselves a more manageable Friday, but quite another if they’re simply working less.” –https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidmorel/2023/06/08/is-it-the-end-of-hybrid-working-as-we-know-it/?sh=493c693b6131
Judge for yourself. IMO, Corpo America will use any and every “justification” it can conjure to get the peons back in the cube farm five days a week.
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