Up for debate: Why 20% of women adopt hybrid work, yet fewer men do

Heidi Zak really likes hybrid work arrangements. She’s the chief executive of California-based lingerie company ThirdLove , and in a recent Inc. article , she listed a slew of reasons why both bosses and employees can thrive with a well designed mix between onsite and at-home/remote work.

But that’s not how Mike Elgan sees things. He’s a columnist for Computerworld, and earlier this year, he sketched out a variety of problems that could arise if employees are given either too much — or too little — choice about where they work. His opinion: “Hybrid work can be a minefield of unfairness.”??

Week by week, we’re updating our perspectives about onsite, remote and hybrid work — as U.S. employers and workers keep adjusting the dials. By now, two and a half years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear that all three arrangements are here to stay. But the balance keeps evolving.?

Since September 2020, LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index has conducted surveys every two weeks, identifying how and where everyone’s working. All told, more than 250,000 LinkedIn members have been surveyed.?

What’s changed during that period? Everything. These days, only 29% of people still work remotely, as the chart above shows. That’s down from a high of 46% in October 2020. Meanwhile, the percentage of people working full-time in offices or other onsite locations has risen to 52%, versus as little as 39% nearly two years ago.?

If you're wondering about definitions, remote means working remote full-time (5+ days per week) or in role designated as full-time remote (i.e. regardless of COVID-19)." Mostly onsite means "working at a physical workplace full-time OR occasionally working remotely (e.g. 1-3 days per month). And hybrid means frequently working remotely (e.g. 1 to 4 days per week)

Those new version of normal reflect a willingness in much of the country to shrug off whatever COVID risks remain — and to return to “normal” life. Vaccinations and booster shots have made a big difference, so too have the end of mask mandates and dwindling interest in social distancing.?

The latest realignments put hybrid work in the spotlight as never before. Gradually but relentlessly, the concept of splitting work between onsite and remote is becoming more common, Workforce Confidence surveys are finding. That’s especially true for women.

In the most recent survey period, from August 13 through August 26, 17% of respondents said they’ve opted for hybrid work. That’s up from just 11% when the survey started in September 2020.

Among women, the August 2022 rate of hybrid work arrangements is even higher, at 20%. By contrast, men are at just 14%. And just about everyone has an opinion about whether this disparity is in womens’ best interests or not.

For working parents of toddlers or school-age children, the opportunity to work at home some days can make it easier to fit both work and life obligations into a manageable day. In some families, that’s equally true for working mothers and fathers, but that’s not always the case.

Women also may be more likely to work in industries or roles where hybrid work is easier to arrange. Notable examples include areas such as human resources, bookkeeping and office administration. In those fields, federal data shows that women represent 70% or more of the workforce.?

By contrast, women’s job share is less than 10% in fields such as fire fighting, pest control and carpentry, where the work needs to be done onsite.

Another difference of note: men started systematically returning to onsite work in January 2021, according to Workforce Confidence surveys. It wasn’t until July 2021— six months later — that women made a parallel return to full-time work in offices or other central workplace settings.??

Starting in 2021, commentators have been voicing concern that people who didn’t come back full time — particularly women — could be at a disadvantage in getting the “face time” with key colleagues that can be crucial to winning promotions.

That concern hasn’t gone away. When consulting firm Deloitte last May released a global survey of 5,000 women, it found that half or more of them feared hybrid work had left them excluded from important meetings or had shrunk their contact with senior leaders.

Can poorly executed or clueless versions of hybrid work be revamped into something better? Leadership coach Valerie Martinelli recently made the case that if managers think harder about the best way to achieve role-specific fits, then there’s no reason hybrid work can’t create enough career-nourishing moments to help talented people rise.

Amanda Young Hickman , a strategic-change consultant, recently identified specific ways that leaders can spark career-supporting moments with team members who aren’t always in the office. Among these: expanding virtual office hours and trying some no-agenda check-ins.

She also likes using the final five minutes of virtual meetings to invite candid reflections on whatever topic is on people’s minds. For onsite workers, such “Oh, by the way …” moments happen easily in office hallways or elevators. Hickman’s goal is to create online forums that reliably achieve something similar.??

Also worth watching: the degree to which corporate leaders have stopped pounding the table about getting everyone back in the office. A new, more accommodating tone could be changing the playing field for everyone.

As the C-suite’s attitude toward hybrid work moves from unease to tolerance — and perhaps even appreciation — companies may look harder for ways to make these new arrangements work well for everyone.

Methodology

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 5,000 U.S.-based members respond to each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners and retirees are excluded from analysis so we can get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy. Data is weighted by engagement level to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership and the overall market population are not accounted for.?

Allison Lewis from LinkedIn Market Research contributed to this article