Hybrid Work: What Have I Learned?

It used to be that full decades could go by before something we predicted started to materialize and go mainstream. Thanks to the age of infinite—with its infinite change — words that felt prophetic a couple of years ago now sound like stating the obvious.??

Take, for example, the predictions I made during that first year of the pandemic about the future of work. “This is a shift that I believe will happen: We are moving from centralized to distributed models across society,” I said, about hybrid work—not exclusively remote, not strictly in person, but “hybrid.” A radical statement at the time, but pretty obvious now.?

You can re-read that article here: Forbes’ Technology Council.

You can’t argue with how right I was. First there was an overnight shift to remote work, albeit driven by necessity. Now there is a reflexive move by some to return to office—trends and counter trends! While no one knows where the pendulum will settle between these two extremes, I continue to be convinced that the future of work is forever hybrid.?

Back then, I offered three tips for managing a hybrid workforce—embrace individualism and accept that people will want to work differently; be deliberate, be inclusive; and have no line between digital and personal connection. These techniques continue to be utilized, and are credited to the success of many companies and teams, Including my teams of thousands spread across the globe.

Two years into this journey, and with the added advantage of hindsight, let’s take another look at the current state of work, inclusive of its variations. This is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis but an effort to get a sense of benefits and challenges from the distinct perspectives of the individual, the team, and the company:

For Individuals?

“Radical flexibility,” as I called this embrace of individualism, has been a gift for some. The time we’ve gained from eliminating commutes, and unnecessary work travel, has been given back to us in the form of hours we can spend on our personal lives—entertaining hobbies, working out, spending more time with family, etc.. But not everyone has thrived in a flexible environment, some have struggled with work life balance ever since the traditional separations between personal and professional lives came crashing down. During the pandemic, the increased demands at home clashed with the “always on” expectations of remote work and this dynamic continues to play out. We will be measuring this impact for decades to come.?

The stress of the pandemic encouraged us to put a greater emphasis on individuals’ mental health, and I don’t see that going away anytime soon, and I hope it doesn’t! Many companies have continued to standardize mental health or “recharge” days. Time away from work campuses has brought? individuals' well-being into sharp focus. Concurrently, away from offices,? it’s been incredibly hard for new employees to engage meaningfully with their colleagues when the norm is Slack and Zoom and not inter-office chat and after-work happy hours.?

We all know that who we work with has always mattered as much as, and perhaps more than, the work we do everyday, and research suggests that somewhere between one half and two-thirds of remote workers have colleagues they’ve never met face-to-face. The major disadvantage in working remotely, and particularly in starting new jobs that are remote-first, is that people don’t bond with their coworkers in the same way, resulting in more shallow relationships among team members and less loyalty felt toward your colleagues and the company. As this NY Times article pointed out, you’re more likely to leave a company in which you don’t feel that key sense of belonging.??

For Teams?

In the Before Times, companies were restricted to looking for talent within a certain geographic radius of their office(s); now, our infinite interconnectivity has enabled us to work with employees around the globe. The impact of that cannot be minimized. Diversity—in language, location, age, cultural background, etc.—is not only an incomparable benefit to a team’s overall composition, but an integral part of our progress as a society. This cognitive diversity in individuals creates a diversity of ideas that directly impacts a team’s performance for the better.

But there is an asterisk to the above advantage of hiring massively distributed teams. It can be challenging to communicate and coalesce ideas across time zones and geographies while navigating cultural differences in the workplace. “Forming, storming, and norming” phases are? challenging in a distributed and remote team—what used to take two hours in a conference room can sometimes take two months of back-and-forth Zoom meetings, and what took months before, can be stalled indefinitely.?

For companies?

The obvious advantage to remote working from a company standpoint is the cost savings—Fortune magazine reported last year that employers can save more than $10,000 per person per year by having a remote-first business, thanks to savings on real estate, utilities, and all the expected amenities (those snacks aren’t free!).?

But aside from the financial gain, companies benefit hugely from being able to hire globally, not only for diversity but for access to the best talent for the job, anywhere. This is an individual advantage as well—you needn’t be in a major business hub to be considered at the top of your field.?

But massively distributed, remote and diverse teams come with a bit of an identity crisis for most companies. It’s harder to maintain a company culture—or create one in the first place—if you don’t have a shared physical environment, or a shared feel of community. Onboarding new people in remote spaces, or at their homes, and making them feel like they’re a part of something bigger, is a critical challenge and solutions can feel elusive and expensive—wiping away the cost savings discussed earlier.?

So what then??

New advantages and new challenges abound! How do we amplify the advantages and build on the gains, while managing and mitigating the challenges? While some are determined to march forward with an exclusively remote world no matter the cost, some others want to return to the security of the pre-pandemic work culture—trends and countertrends!?

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably seen a pattern emerge—the challenges on an individual, team, and company level all have to do with reimagining work—from an office environment to established norms of collaboration. And the opportunities require redefining the contours of company culture—from an individual's sense of belonging to the company’s identity.?

I continue to believe that the future of work is hybrid and flexible, and that we need to look past the current struggle between “remote” and “back to office.” Next time, I’ll share some of the suggestions that have come out of professionally navigating this over the last two years, but a little warning: with infinite change comes the need for infinite candor!?