Over the first half of 2024, a funny thing started happening with strict return-to-office policies: a lot of them quietly softened. The surveys and reports rolling in showed what many employees already knew – mandates might get people into offices, but they don’t automatically improve performance, morale, or retention.
What’s emerging instead is a kind of negotiated truce. Leaders still want in-person time; employees still want flexibility. The companies that are doing this well aren’t issuing grand declarations – they’re listening, experimenting, and adjusting based on the actual work being done rather than how full the parking lot looks.
It turns out that trust scales better than mandates. When people feel like they’re being treated as adults, they act like it. When they feel like they’re being monitored, they act like they’re being monitored.
If flexibility is the new baseline, what does a “high-performing” hybrid culture actually look like? And how many organizations will realize too late that talent quietly chose the companies willing to figure it out?
Related article: Bloomberg
