Hybrid work: Challenges in a flexible community

Abstract

In a qualitative and exploratory study of 52 employees and managers in a large Danish organization, I demonstrate how the lockdowns have legitimized working from home. Secondly, I identify four individual needs and expectations for autonomy and flexibility. These individual preferences for hybrid work are a consequence of the individual’s private life, understood as, for example, being a family with small children, or not having children living at home, the typical commute time to and from the workplace, and whether the individual wants to be able to – away from the noisy open space office – focus on performing the work tasks. Thirdly, I demonstrate how different needs for hybrid work create tensions in the workplace. Thus, individual flexibility challenges what I call the flexible community. Specifically, I identify three tensions that arise between individual preferences for hybrid work and the well-functioning workplace: significant groupings, depopulation of workspaces, and a lack of mutual update and knowledge sharing. The article thus emphasizes the paradox of hybrid work: flexibility can now be exploited as it has become legitimate, which at the same time risks creating tensions, as individuals’ needs for autonomy and flexibility are different.