Hybrid Working: The Neverending Story

Commuting to the workplace to maximise in-person experiences. Finding your why in the office. Watercooler chats. A successful split between work and home. No one is hitting mute on the conversation about hybrid working, as if going to the office before Covid was the unprecedented event rather than the pandemic.

The return to the workplace was not a return to work as people never stopped working. The wonder of technology and a laptop-based job enabled you to login and get busy with video calls and clearing your inbox from the comfort of your home. Once blur and visual backdrops stopped the eulogising about seeing into your homes and lives, only your WiFi connection and colleagues knew where you were.

The money you saved from commuting was spent on farewell shopping vouchers for departing colleagues who wished they could repay the generosity by sending you all a cookie or depositing 20p in your bank accounts. Cakes were disappearing from the office as people started to come back.

You proved you could work from home but it was never a permanent arrangement. After Covid restrictions and safe working practices were lifted, there was nothing to stop people coming together to rebuild the psychological contract with the buildings they work in to serve the organisations they work for.

The new, new normal

The staggered return gradually became the even newer normal as people redesigned their lives to make space for the workplace. Going to the office was no longer rare, it was the expectation and contractual obligation. The idea of touch down desks, conversational hubs and recharging the human battery through work-shaped fun soon lost out to the tradition of booking a desk for the day and doing your job.

Hybrid working is here to stay unless your job makes working from home impossible. The digital feats achieved during the pandemic and the arrival of white boards consigned flip charts, felt tip pens and sticky notes to the dustbin, unless you have a colleague who still believes anything good has ever come from something scribbled on A3 paper. “I’m a hybrid worker, get me out of here!” might be an exception.

The Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday acronym had us in stitches while those who moved miles away from the office wondered if working on the train to and from home would count towards workplace attendance.

Line managers developing their interpersonal skills as they balanced business and employee needs in handling workplace attendance and homeworking requests to create inclusive organisations.

Some people kept on their masks, while almost everyone struggled to adjust to being social after everything they lived through, remembering those who did not make it.

Why be in the office?

Hybrid working never disappears from the leadership or news agenda. Another week, another well-known company is making headlines with mandated returns to the workplace, linking it to performance bonuses and career development. A LinkedIn influencer chaining themselves to their study table as they live stream how much more productive they are at home. Universities, think-tanks and marketing companies producing reports and talking heads on the topic as journalists chase data to show which companies are leading the way.

For now, until another pandemic strikes, three days in the office and two days from home suits me. I will be attending the office in honour of my late mum and dad who would go to the office five days a week. My older brother and sister continued to instil that discipline in me. I go to the office to remember the victims of 7/7 who died on their way to work.

Whether I am at home or in the office, my personality, job satisfaction and organisational culture determine how much work I do. Accepting office attendance rather than resisting it can turn the page on this news story to focus on the real reason a bunch of strangers come together: to get paid, build a career, enjoy our jobs and switch off at the end of the day to live our lives.

Not everyone can work from home and the world could not function if they did. Working from home was liberating and I have worked in a variety of working environments over the past 25 years. Some were unfriendly and judgmental while others were professional but made me feel glued to my seat until it was dark.

While the décor of some offices was not great and the toilets even worse, the more my confidence grew and I found jobs that suited me, the more I enjoyed going to work. It’s the people and the work I do that make the commute and being in the office worthwhile.

Setting an example

Let’s never forget some people have disabilities, long-term health conditions or personal circumstances which make it difficult or impossible to work from the office. This does not mean that everyone with a disability, anxiety and neurodivergency should work from home as offices cannot be inclusive without people from all walks of life.

Yes, commuting to and from the office means I do not go the gym and swimming pool as much as I want. However, if I did not go to the office, I would have a goldfish bowl existence. I would not have been laughing my head off trying to catch oranges in Sainsbury’s with the manager as I tried to pour myself an orange juice. A school boy would not have helped us pick up the oranges. I would not have heard two other school boys say goodbye to the shop security guard.

Let’s show the youth of today why you have to get dressed and go to work some days. But going to the office should help you live your life, not make it more difficult. We are all responsible for finding that balance.