Pandemic phenomena profoundly impacted our lives, changing who we are, and our relationship with work. Millions of people worldwide started working remotely from one day to the next. In some cases, people have been doing so previously, but for many others, it was a completely new experience.
Now, we are going out of the period where doing so was mandatory and companies are facing the challenge of defining the new normal way of working. Many people got into the habit of working from home and having to return to the office feels like a loss of flexibility and well-being.
Different companies are experimenting with different approaches to find the new normality. Some decide to stay working completely remotely, some are trying to force all employees to come back to the office, while others are experimenting with a hybrid approach.
There is a lot of research going on with this new paradigm and many publications on the subject. This one, from HBR, is particularly interesting. It shows how hierarchical and non-hierarchical employees disagree in their views about coming back to the office. It can be read here.