Hybrid Working Discredits Remote Team Members

One of the most common misconceptions of remote working is that it is a productivity killer. However, as millions of companies around the world experiment with work from home arrangements for the first time, many know this is not necessarily true. In fact in several cases, productivity actually increased.

Despite the numerous benefits of remote working, companies are grappling with the idea of adopting hybrid working moving forward, which allows employees to work both from home and in the office for part of the week. 

Adopting a hybrid arrangement makes sense in theory: it allows companies to reap the benefits of both styles of working without the disadvantages. For instance, in-person work can help combat isolation and the mental health issues that can derive from loneliness.

However, if the office is the glue that holds a company’s culture together, they need to work even harder to ensure that their remote workers feel included and supported.

To ensure everyone stays on the same level, businesses need to have a leader that ideally does not work in the office to send the message that remote working isn’t just allowed, it is preferred and does not poorly reflect on those who decide to work from home.

“While leading an all-remote company will require many managers to rethink and rework how they run their businesses, all-remote is possible and will lead to greater resilience to crises, increased efficiency, and access to talent that was previously out of reach,” wrote Sid Sijbrandij, cofounder and CEO of dev-ops platform GitLab, which operates with a fully remote team.