The ‘Hybrid Working’ Headache

A part-remote, part-office work-life has been referred to as providing employees and their employers with the best of both worlds, but is this the case?

Since the pandemic, many employers and employees across the globe have had to adapt to a seemingly ever-changing work environment. A lot of workplaces took up the ‘Hybrid Working’, a flexible working approach where employees work partly in the office, and partly from home.

Working from home
Photo by Alex Green from Pexels

The idea was that employer’s/managers would still have control and oversight of projects/workloads intermittently throughout the week, and employees would enjoy the feeling of a different environment, not having to commute as much, feeling more trusted…

So, what were the effects of implementing ‘Hybrid Working’ reported in 2021-22? Research shows that:

  • Majority of employees reported to their managers that it was emotionally exhausting
  • Work materials and laptops were forgotten at each workplace
  • Confusion about where employees were working each day or mistakes in working rosters
  • Double the figures of reported exhaustion/burnout were reported compared to full-time office or full-time remote reports
  • Employees WFH reported struggling between separating their work-life and home-life
WFH Stress
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

In a nutshell – the success of implementing a ‘Hybrid Workplace’ depended largely on the individuals. Some employees find the office to be motivating whereas others may not perform as well.

So now what? Where do we head to when looking at post-pandemic arrangements into the future?

Employers need to remove the ‘one size fits all’ approach and break down working arrangements to the individual level. The best practice would be to have an initial and then regular consultations checking in on what is and is not working for the pair.

It may take some trial and error but getting the arrangement right can see a multitude of benefits for both parties and continued working success growing exponentially.

If you want more advice on these areas, reach out to the team at wattsnext.

Credit: https://bit.ly/3MrZeIj

    About the author

    Sam is an Industrial Relations (IR) and Employment Relations (ER) expert with more than 3.5 years of experience in this space in consultancy-based work. Sam brings a diversity of knowledge from this background on IR/ER matters across an extensive range of industries and is able to use this to develop straight-forward solutions, guidance, and direction for our clients.

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