Thanks to the vagaries of the post-pandemic reopening--uneven vaccination rates, differing local guidelines, and simple changes in preference now that people have experienced life without daycare pickups, missed package deliveries, or missing your dog at work our collective return to the office has been gradual.

Companies both big and small have been looking to “hybrid” working part from home, part on-site to build a bridge toward business as usual while remaining open to the advances of the WFH revolution. But with restrictions set to ease in the first half of the summer in major cities like New York and London, some experts wonder: is it really worth the effort?

The transition to hybrid work is likely to be chaotic. Organizations will have to determine who needs to be scheduled when, what needs to be scheduled for whom, and how to make sure crucial information gets to people who, inevitably, miss the one meeting where it’s being presented. 

Hybrid working also restricts recruitment to a single geographic territory, which is rapidly starting to look outdated as home working becomes the norm for techies in America and recruiters spread their nets nationwide and beyond.

While studies show that at-home workers are more productive by many important metrics, it remains to be seen whether companies can really get the best of both worlds.

Those who like remote working—which includes many Scala developers--often say the benefit to them is the flexibility. But it’s not the only, or even necessarily the most effective, way to make work more flexible. 

Especially among working parents and those who care for elderly relatives at home--a demographic that remains skewed towards women--flexible time arrangements like job shares are a growing trend. According to one survey, 9.3% of workers would take a lower-paying job if it meant working fewer hours per day. Despite this unmet demand for scheduling flexibility, far more companies are planning to implement hybrid office plans than to introduce greater time flexibility. 

Business and productivity experts worry that many companies are simply unwilling to embrace how much the workday landscape has changed. Some pioneers of hybrid work setups are marketing themselves to potential employees as offering more freedom of choice, but true freedom of choice depends on more than just location. Tighter expectations around interruptions while working at home as things “return to normal”, for example, reintroduces the stress of finding childcare during the workweek for many.

In the end, there is no one-size-fits-all policy that ensures delivered business goals, satisfied employees, and smooth execution. But the companies likely to come out on top will be those that are mindful of the human concerns driving the desire for workplace flexibility. In the wake of a global tragedy that shook up our routines and threw the future into an uncertain light, people are questioning whether it’s healthy for their career to dictate decisions that affect their health, relationships, and home lives. The long-term solution may look less like meeting in the middle between working from home and working in the office, and more like meeting in the middle between the needs of institutions and individuals.