'Shh! I'm working from home': The rise of 'hush hybrid' Work/Life/ Office
“S ay, anyone seen Zack at his desk recently?” If questions like this are being heard regularly around the office water cooler, it could be a case of “hush hybrid”—a rising workplace phenomenon which finds certain employees slowly crafting a work-from- home schedule despite a company’s return-to-office policies. With the pandemic fading in the rearview and many companies mandating formerly remote workers return onsite, many staffers grown accustomed to answering emails from their living room couch in little more than their jammies and pair of Uggs are having a hard time adjusting. In a survey by Owl Labs, a UK marketing company, about 70% of managers said they’d allowed team members to work remotely in violation of company policy. Other forms of “hush hybrid” practices include employees slowly increasing the frequency of their occasional requests to work from home, and others carving out individual secret agreements with managers for flex scheduling. While the Owl Labs survey found 87% of employees agree an “unofficial” flex policy can boost morale, HR officials say secret hybrid arrangements can create a toxic sense of favoritism at a workplace. Luck Dookchitra, vice president of people at Leapsome, told Forbe s the trend stems from companies falling back on the mistaken assumption that presence equals performance. She said managers are skirting the no-exceptions return-to-office policies as a way to maintain morale and retain staff. On the downside, employee relations expert Jim Moore cautions that hush hybrid breaks a “cardinal rule” of HR—to treat everyone fairly. Staff members will “invariably talk among themselves, and it won’t be long before any arrangements become common knowledge,” instilling By Jason Walsh
a sense of resentment from those who follow company policy, Moore told People Management magazine. Or, as Molly Johnson-Jones, co-founder and CEO of job-search company Flexa, puts
it: “Company policies exist for a reason. They help ensure that all staff are treated equally and have access to the same benefits.”
Dodging the Office: A Glossary of Terms The new Hush Hybrid phenomenon is only the latest in a post-pandemic series of trends aimed at holding onto a work-from-home flex schedule at all costs. Here are a few others: Hushed Holidays: The Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s weeks when employees sneak additional time off at companies expecting them to “stay on” during the holidays. Quiet Vacations: Remote workers horde their vacation time by taking secret trips— under the pretense of working from home—in order to avoid using up scarce PTO. Coffee Badging: When return-to-office mandates first started, employees would arrive at the office, swipe their badges as proof of being on site, pour a cup of coffee to be seen by others, and then sneak out and work from home.— Jason Walsh
16 NorthBaybiz
February 2025
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