Opinion | Hybrid working: the pandemic trend of 2021 is here to stay

As Covid-19 has pushed employees to work from home, many have benefited from more flexible hours and an end to long commutes

However, the merging of work and home life, as well as the inability to take a holiday, has led to increased burnout and isolation

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Visitors live-stream while attending Art Basel Hong Kong 2021 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai on May 19. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 6:45am, 31 Dec 2021

As this challenging year draws to a close, I would like to reflect on what characterised 2021. One word that stands out is “hybrid”.

Before the pandemic, the word “hybrid”, defined as a mixture of two different things, was most commonly associated with hybrid cars that combine an electric motor with a petrol or diesel engine. Since the global spread of Covid-19, though, this term has come to mean so much more.

We now have hybrid workforces in a large number of firms, with some employees working at a physical company office while others work remotely.

Some individual employees have a hybrid work arrangement, working remotely some of the time and in the office the rest of the time.

The coronavirus pandemic has driven a mass social experiment in working from home (WFH). According to a joint study by the data firms Owl Labs and Global Workplace Analytics, 16 per cent of companies worldwide are now 100 per cent remote.

The study, which primarily focuses on the state of remote work in the US and comprises responses from 2,025 full-time workers in 2020, also reports that 62 per cent of employees aged 22 to 65 say they work remotely at least occasionally. Almost half of those would quit their job if they could no longer work remotely after the pandemic.

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