Is hybrid/remote work dying?

[Finallybreathe]

Posting for traffic.

I was looking for a new job and I didn’t want to work in an office full time nor did I want to work from home full time… I was surprised to see how many jobs are no longer remote/hybrid but full time in an office. Thankfully my new job is 3 days at home and 2 days in the office. What’s happened?

What’s the working dynamic like where you are? Are you back in the office full time?

Who's stereotyping? It isn't stereotyping to point out that there are people who are eg disabled who aren't able to work in person because of that. It would be a stereotype to say that was all disabled people.

I'm not sure where the begrudging comes in either, nobody thinks all jobs should be done remotely. That's impossible! But the unspoken assumption from so many posters that all young people are like they were at that age needs to be challenged. My ND child is going to have greatly widened opportunities because of the increase in remote working.

Hybrid working alive and well where I work. Will never go back to mandatory 5 days a week in the office I think - and rightly so.

In my job we work with clients from companies across all different sectors and industries including financial services, charities, massive corporations like Google and Amazon, multiple government departments... I don't think a single one of them is back in the office full time. We also work with people across Europe and the US and it's the same story there. We're completely hybrid and can choose when and if to go in, I go in about once a month probably. My husband is a consultant and they no longer even have an office.

This is nuanced

For men and white women being the office definitely helps them to build relationships beneficial for promotion.

For women of colour (especially black women) and disabled people it helps them to be promoted / helps them to build relationships with management (who ate mostly white) if they work mostly from home.

There are a lot of reasons for this. From racism to indirect discrimination (eg I’ve seen Indian and black women get pulled up for having natural hair / no make up when their female white colleague is au naturale right next to them yet billed as ‘gorgeous’ and when you ask why you get ‘but it’s different for blondes / brunettes / ‘white girl looks more professional’ etc).

For people like me, women of colour, remote working is a boom. I was promoted 5 times since being made redundant during the first Lockdown. I doubled my salary and found building relationships when I’m mostly virtual so, so much easier.

I have been to my office 3 times since the first lockdown (and two of those were IT issues and the last was when they asked me to clear my office cupboards of my 14 pairs of shoes so they could give it to someone else to use). No intention of their part for me to return. Am glad - don't miss the travelling which was 100 mile round trip.

Vast majority of banking jobs too, including in investment banking. People don’t seem to realise that experienced London / Birmingham / Manchester jobs at large organisations were almost always hybrid (even in the NHS) before 2020 as there wasn’t enough office space. All that’s changed is that this has now opened up to more people in more locations and more types of companies.

Remote working is most benefits small businesses but the problem is they were never very productive in this country before 2020 and most businesses don’t have the skills and capabilities to manage a remote workforce (or the budget). There are genuinely thickos out there who thinking paying £20k a year on an office rent in town is ‘cheaper’ than investing a one off £50k (and an ongoing £5k a year) to go totally virtual.

I'm hybrid. It's at least once a week in the office (a team day, where we're all in together), and then other days as needed. My particular role works across my organisation, so can be at any of the sites we have. This week I'm at home all week, because our regular office base is undergoing some building work.

1 day a week in the office. Love it!

I wfh full-time from March 2020 to October 2022, when I started a new job where the policy is three days in the office, two days at home (no set days, which is a bonus). I had been insisting that I wanted to work remotely for the rest of my life but it turns out, I actually like my on-site days! Probably because I have my own office for the first time ever, so I get all the peace and quiet I need 😂

Most people do their 3+2 but will be flexible when workload dictates, so I have been in the office for the full week when required and I have also wfh for a whole week (I was unwell - well enough to work but contagious enough that nobody would want me there!). They won't force us back in full-time as there is no justification for it; my manager is very happy with the team's work and he doesn't care where/when we work.

Very flexible in my sector (charity)

There is an office you can go to if you want, but you don’t have to go, unless there’s a face to face meeting you have to attend. That happens about four times a year.

I go in 3 or 4 days a month because I don’t want to use my own printer, and need to pick up resources stored in the office. It’s only 8 miles away so no big deal. Some people never come in. I don’t know anyone who comes in every day.

If they told us all we had to work in an office every day, people would just leave.

Office based, WFH is rare and there needs to be a reason for it. Newer contracts seem to have the option of hybrid, presumably to attract people, I'm on an older one so expected to be in the office

I love WFH and get so much more done, the social aspect of the office is nice, my ideal would probably be 3 days at home and 2 in the office. I keep mulling over a Flexible working request but don't want to burn bridges if it was declined - I also wouldn't know where to start with writing one I don't think "it's good for my mental health and I'm more productive at home" would cut it!

It absolutely should cut it @MadCatLady27!

3 days home 2 days office for me .

Council too. Our manager refuses to commit so we have no set office time. I really hate wfh full time. It’s a new job for me and have just discovered an agile working space and will start going there just to be around people even though I don’t know who they are.

We’re hybrid - 2 days office, 3 at home. Seems to suit everyone!

recently our managers want us (the whole company) to go in the office 2 days/ week , 3 days wfh (from a very flexible 1 day a week office), with the comment that it may be more days in the office in the future (I think they are pushing for 3 days office).
My limit of going to the office is probably 2 days a week in London, or 3 days office with a local company (way less time spend on commuting and travel costs for me).
Wondering how many days everyone going to the office at the moment? what is the norm? Is it part of your contract regarding the wfh arrangement? Should I look into fixing the contract to 3 days wfh? or else I will look elsewhere.

Fully remote. I’ve been approached by 8 different recruiters over 2 months for a similar role on a salary almost double the market rate but based full time in the office.

Every time I refuse to go for it based on being office based they say they’re really struggling to recruit for that reason. So I don’t think fully office based is the norm yet by any means.

(I also think the issue is they want someone experienced and senior who are more likely to have family by this point in their lives and value remote working).

i notice the same. Any jobs with fully on site requirements have significant higher pay and a lot less candidates. I don’t think our company will ever go for fully onsite just for that reason. Personally even with double pay I won’t be able to commit to anything 💯 on-site either, for my mental health and well-being. I value 1 extra day long commute (2-3hrs a day) = at least 10% pay for me.
Question is 2 days office is the norm or 3 days office are more popular? I don’t want to sound unreasonable with my request or limit myself in the job market either.

@wenfy that's depressing but very interesting.

Ours is 2 days office, 3 at home and I find that very flexible. I think our work place is moving towards more 60% to be honest, but staff don’t know it yet. Might not happen. Suits me to go in, but I have a lot of meetings and can’t have them all on the office floor, so some days I have to stay home as I’ve no choice

Our place downsized from its own office building to a couple of floors in a larger building, which meant that the maximum number of people who can go into the office is about a third of the total workforce. Notwithstanding this, management has just increased the number of mandatory office days. Not sure how that will work. Presumably we will be sitting on each other's laps.

We are in full time, wfh not allowed at all and that’s standard in my industry even though it’s office based

Curious, what happened in covid? Were
you at home and then suddenly they said everyone back in?

We have no office, gave up the lease in 2021. The boss has talked about getting somewhere else as he struggles to concentrate at home with 2 young kids. The rest of us don't have those distractions though so he has set up a hot desk workspace elsewhere for himself and has offered for us to do the same if we want but we don't need to.

I am public sector, people don’t apply for vacancies unless hybrid is offered. Thankfully this has all been rubbed stamped by the unions