# Hybrid Work is not the Answer By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-04-03 What is the worst possible office working condition that isn't outright violent, abusive, dangerous, and against the law? I suspect a top candidate is a hybrid model, where one must work a few days at home and in the office. This fence-sitting policy mainly emerged after the COVID lockdowns as a compromise between those with remote and in-office work preferences. I suspect many thought this was reasonable at the time, but it isn't. These two work modes are significantly different from a social and process perspective. By mixing them, one does not get a better result. The same is true for many things, such as ketchup and bananas. Ketchup and bananas are good and mix well with other things but are incompatible. If one decides that in-office work is the paradigm, one can recruit people who want to work in an office together and develop processes that optimize how work is performed in person. If one decides that remote work is the paradigm, one can optimize for remote work processes and personnel. If one picks both, one creates an organizational war and becomes inefficient in every way possible. People who want to be with others in person schedule endless meetings on the in-office days or spend the entire day chatting with people around the water cooler. People who want to work remotely send emails and post content to message boards that in-person people never read. Those who prefer not to meet in person tend to delay conversations and meetings that would quickly resolve a complex or misunderstood issue. Those who prefer to meet and talk things out tend to spend little time thinking and a lot of time being unproductive. At this point, one can see why it is tempting to create a hybrid scenario, as the best of both worlds seems like the answer. However, one switches between work styles daily and does not develop systems to mitigate systemic tendencies. It's like saying on the odd days, the introverts win, but on even days, the extroverts win. This is no way to run an organization; the switching cost is enormous. One will certainly hire introverts and extroverts, but one can leverage each's strength to maximize the results with a stable process. So, executives and managers need to make a decision and stop sitting on the fence. Do your job as you proclaim everyone else should do theirs. #### Related Items [[Work]] [[Organization]] [[Management]] [[Politics]] [[Management]] [[Executives]] [[Paradigms]] [[Thinking]]