THE WORK PLACE

Key Question : How are offices changing ?

The permanently imperfect reality of hybrid work

BBC By Alex Christian

11th December 2023

A key argument for hybrid working is that it provides in-person office days for teams to collaborate, while still offering employees the autonomy of working from home. 

But that flexibility isn't necessarily being split equally. Leesman's data shows that mandatory office attendance skews towards younger workers. "The younger the worker, and the shorter tenure, the more likely it is they'll have more office days than older, more experienced colleagues," says Tim Oldman, founder and CEO of Leesman, based in London. "There's an element of trust: the data suggests you seemingly have to 'earn the right' to work remotely more often.

There can be a natural tendency for more experienced workers to be afforded greater flexibility than junior employees. But this presents challenges to the success of hybrid working writ large, says Oldman. "A strong case for in-office days is that less experienced workers are able to learn more quickly. But if their likely mentors are working from home more often, that poses a problem. So, there's this tension between the accessibility of experienced colleagues, versus their expectation of greater flexibility."

There's an element of trust: the data suggests you seemingly have to 'earn the right' to work remotely more often – Tim Oldman

Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and general manager, security and collaboration, at digital communications technology firm Cisco, in California, says unless this issue with hybrid work is addressed, younger workers risk stunted career development. "It's really important they're mentored by seasoned employees who've been in the workforce for a while. But that needs to be balanced against the needs of, say, a single parent able to participate in the workforce, who would've previously been prohibited working in full-time office patterns." 

While this issue can perhaps be solved by fixing teams' in-person days, stricter protocols can lead to greater problems, says Patel. "When you begin mandating how people work, rather than what you're working on and outputs, you run the risk of getting into a dangerous spot of making employees feel you don't trust them."

Consequently, some leaders are choosing to encourage employees to come to the office without necessarily enforcing attendance. This isn't without its challenges either, says Patel. "Rather than mandating top-down, our model is that the team is given autonomy to decide how they want to work, so they create the norms themselves. Where it can be tricky is if not enough people go in to create a network effect. Otherwise, folks may not find value in going to work." But it's not just leaders encountering issues with hybrid on-the-fly – employees can be left feeling dissatisfied as well. 

According to Leesman's survey, around 40% of workers find it difficult to participate with others in hybrid meetings, whether they're an in-person participant or virtual. Oldman says it's a problem that may be here for the foreseeable future. "It's not just a software issue – most workplaces aren't yet equipped for hybrid meetings, and making people truly feel they're in the same meeting. The work we do has advanced so much in less than five years, but we're still operating in offices designed for the pre-pandemic era."

And while workers cherish flexibility, this too can sometimes come at a cost. Leesman’s data shows that workers with the fewest in-person days reported the greatest work-life balance; conversely, 42% said they feel sometimes or frequently socially disconnected from colleagues on their remote days. 

"It seems the office still provides the social fabric of the organisation," says Oldman. "It's an issue that employers and employees will need to navigate going forward."

A subsection of bosses remain fundamentally sceptical of hybrid working, says Johnny C Taylor Jr, the president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), based in Washington, DC. In some cases, they may prefer their employees revert to full-time office settings – suggesting they may be ready to ditch, rather than fix, hybrid.

"CEOs have told me they've generally accepted that hybrid is the new way of flexibility moving forward, but they're also frustrated by it," says Taylor. "Some have concerns over how it affects employee experience, engagement and culture."

Indeed, more companies, including Disney, and investment-management firm Blackrock, are implementing four days in-office. Nike has announced it will do the same in 2024. Some experts believe executives are slowly shifting back towards full-time office returns in all but name. CEOs have told me they've generally accepted that hybrid is the new way of flexibility moving forward, but they're also frustrated by it – Johnny C Taylor Jr

But despite some frustrations, hybrid working is set to remain in the vast number of cases, given it's now reached a critical mass, says Taylor. "The horse is out of the barn when it comes to flexibility. There is now enough of the workforce that expects hybrid arrangements, and if they're required to go back to the office full-time, they'll refuse – or quit."

Tanuj Kapilashrami, chief human resources officer at Standard Chartered Bank, in London, believes many of the challenges with hybrid work can be solved. In an industry notorious for in-person working, her company took a close look at how different teams functioned. It’s been able to implement flexible working for 65,000 employees across 47 markets by analysing which roles can be done remotely, having employees submit preferences, and then tasking managers to hold one on one conversations with their direct reports before setting individual guidelines.

Kapilashrami says this set-up has helped to soothe hybrid working's early problems. "Our approach doesn't mean an employee wakes up and decides where they'll be that day. Instead, through a structured framework, we can leverage data to help overcome common arguments against hybrid working – for example, we're able to see if certain working arrangements mean someone is more likely to be promoted. It takes the emotion out of the debate."

In total, of those able to work flexibly, 71% of Standard Chartered's global employees choose to work hybrid, with only 2% opting to be fully remote. Kapilashrami says the best way to tackle hybrid is by taking its challenges head on. "It goes beyond hybrid being how many days a week someone works from a certain location – it's fundamentally redesigning how people work. Flexibility is here to stay, so rather than worry about culture being eroded, it's finding ways to make hybrid work better." Regardless, re-configuring decades-long working practices will require time. Oldman says we're still in the early stages of a live global experiment: there are issues with hybrid working that will inevitably arise over time, and it's largely too early to say which ones are truly unsolvable.

"We're only a year into post-pandemic life in real terms, but hybrid working will have to be running decades before we're able to learn the real impact it has on organisational culture, learning and career development," he says. "The reality is that the work we do has advanced so much in less than five years – we're all still playing catch-up."

Work on Quizlet : https://quizlet.com/fr/275500039/unemployement-big-picture-flash-cards/?i=oxtpk&x=1jqt

 Work: Du travail

 A badly-paid job: Un travail mal payé

 A bank holiday: Un jour férié

 A blue-collar worker: Un ouvrier

 A bonus: Une prime

 A career: Une carrière

 A claim: Une revendication

 A company car: Une voiture de fonction

 A factory, a plant: Une usine

 A fixed-term contract: Un contrat à durée déterminée

 A golden parachute: Un parachute doré

 A hard worker, a workaholic: Un travailleur acharné

 A high-ranking civil servant: Un haut fonctionnaire

 A job: Un emploi, un travail

 A payrise: Une augmentation de salaire

 A pensioner: Un retraité

 A perk, a fringe benefit: Un avantage (en nature), avantage annexe

 A public-sector employee: Un salarié du secteur public

 A redundancy plan: Un plan social

 A redundancy: Un licenciement (économique)

 A shop steward: Un délégué syndical

 A state employee, a civil servant: Un fonctionnaire

 A striker: Un gréviste

 A sweatshop: Un atelier clandestin

 A trade union: Un syndicat

 A voluntary redundancy: Un départ volontaire

 A wage-earner: Un salarié

 A well-paid job: Un travail bien payé

 A white-collar worker: Un employé de bureau

 A work permit: Un permis de travail

 A workshop: Un atelier

 An industrial dispute: Un conflit social

 An occupation: Une profession

 An open-ended contract: Un contrat à durée indéterminée

 An unskilled worker: Un ouvrier spécialisé

 Fees: Des honoraires

 Job flexibility: La flexibilité de l'emploi

 Job insecurity: La précarité de l'emploi

 Job losses: Des pertes d'emploi

 Job market: Le marché du travail

 Job security: La sécurité de l'emploi

 Labour market: Le marché de l'emploi

 Long-term unemployement: Le chômage de longue durée

 Management and workers: La direction et les salariés

 Paid holiday: Les congés payés

 Pay: Paie

 Performance-related pay: Salaire au rendement

 Reduction of working hours: Réduction du temps de travail

 Redundancy payment, severance pay: Indemnité de licenciement, prime de départ

 Retirement age: L'âge de la retraite

 Retirement: La retraite

 Salary: Salaire

 The 35-hour working week: Les 35h

 The professions: Les professions libérales

 The self-employed: Les travailleur indépendants

 The unemployed: Les chômeurs

 The work from home: Travailler chez soi

 The working class: La classe ouvrière

 The working life: La vie active

 The working population: La population active

 The workplace: Le lieu de travail

 The world of work: Le monde travail

 To be at work: Être au travail

 To be hard-working: Être travailleur

 To be on a company's payroll: Etre employé par une entreprise

 To be on duty/ off duty: Etre/ ne pas être de service ou de garde 

 To be on holiday: Etre en vacances

 To be on sick leave: Etre en congé maladie

 To be on strike: Etre en grève

 To be on the dole, to be on welfare: Toucher le chômage

 To be self-employed: Être indépendant

 To be unemployed, jobless: Être au chômage

 To cut jobs: Supprimer des emplois

 To dismiss sb: Renvoyer,licencier qqu

 To downsize: Dégraisser ses effectifs

 To earn a living: Gagner sa vie

 To earn money: Gagner de l'argent

 To fire, to sack: Mettre à la porte, renvoyer, virer 

 To get the sack: Être renvoyé

 To go on strike: Se mettre en grève

 To lay off workers: Licencier des salariés

 To resign, to step down: Démissionner

 To resume work: Reprendre le travail

 To retire: Prendre sa retraite

 To slash, to axe jobs: Faire des coupes sombres, claire dans la main d'œuvre 

 To streamline: Rationaliser

 To take early retirement: Partir en pré-retraite

 To take two days off: Prendre deux jours de congé

 To work full time: Travailler à plein temps

 To work hard: Travailler beaucoup

 To work part time: Travailler à temps partiel

 Unemployement rate: Taux de chômage

 Unemployement, joblessness: Le chômage

 Unemployment benefit: Allocation chômage

 Vaction: Des vacances

 Wage claims, wage demands: Des revendications salariales 

 Wages: Salaire (d'ouvrier)

 What does he do for a living ?: Que fait-il dans la vie ?

 Work flexitime: Avoir des horaires flexibles

 Working conditions: Les conditions de travail

 Youth unemployment: Le chômage des jeunes

A casual worker: Un travailleur précaire

A colleague, a workmate: Un collègue, un camarade de travail

A curriculum vitae, a résumé: Un CV

A job interview: Un entretien d'embauche

A job offer, a job vacancy: Une offre d'emploi

A job-seeker: Un demandeur d'emploi

A jobcenter: Une agence pôle emploi

A menial job: Un emploi subalterne

A post, a position: Un poste

A responsible job: Un poste à responsabilités

A skilled/ low-skilled/ unskilled job: Un travail qualifié/ peu qualifié/ non qualifie

A summer job: Un boulot d'été

A temporary worker: Un intérimaire

A trial period: Une période d'essai

An applicant: Un candidat à un poste

An employee: Un employé

An employer: Un employeur

An intern, a trainee: Une stagiaire

An internship, a work placement: Un stage

An odd job: Un petit boulot

Child labour: Le travail des enfants

Female labour: La main d'œuvre féminine

Human resources: Les ressources humaines

Labour standards: Les normes en matière d'emploi

Labour: Travail ou main d'œuvre

Skills: Des compétences

Staff: Le personnel

To apply for a job: Être candidat à un emploi

To appoint sb to a post: Nommer qqu a un poste

To change jobs: Changer de travail

To employ: Employer

To hire, to take on a worker: Embaucher un travailleur

To temp, to work as a temp: Faire de l'intérim

To transfer sb: Muter qqu

Tu recruit: Recruter

Work experience: Expérience professionnelle

Workforce, manpower: La main d'œuvre