#hybrid-work

#hybrid-work

The most significant finding from the study is the powerful positive effect a hybrid work model has on women's mental health. The sweet spot appears to be working mainly from home while spending one to two days per week in the office. For women who were already experiencing poor mental health, this arrangement provided a mental health boost comparable to a 15% increase in household income. This suggests the benefits go far beyond simply cutting down on commute time. The flexibility to better manage work and family responsibilities and experience less work-related stress are likely major contributing factors.

It turns out the return-to-office movement isn't just about productivity, collaboration or company culture. For a significant number of companies, it is about leases - those binding, long-term commitments to office spaces that are now sitting underused while hybrid work proves its staying power. A recent Resume.org survey of 900 business leaders peels back the polished justifications for workplace mandates and reveals the financial tether that's quietly shaping policy: the office lease.

"We're no longer just designing workplaces, we're actually designing experiences," said Yuen, at the Fortune Brainstorm Design forum in Macau on Dec. 2. "You've really got to make the campus or the workplace more than work, and that's the fun part of it."

The report also notes that while the "volume of traffic has returned," since pandemic lows, "travel patterns have shifted." In fact traffic congestion delays are "no longer confined to the traditional weekday rush hours; instead, they're spreading to midday, midweek and even weekends." This is driven by the rise of hybrid working schedules, which allow flexibility in the traditional 9-to-5 workday.

It was a phenomenon that Nilles, a U.S. Air Force veteran turned NASA consultant, dubbed the "telecommunications-transportation tradeoff." Viewing remote work as a potential substitute for commuting, Nilles sought to gauge telework's effectiveness by partnering with a major national insurance company (whose name he still can't divulge for legal reasons). A group of employees worked from local centers equipped with "minicomputers" that transferred data to the company's mainframe. In the 1974 pilot study, Nilles concluded that this approach resulted in higher productivity and reduced turnover.

As Joburg shifts towards hybrid work and suburban hubs start buzzing like mini city centres, we might finally be heading towards something better: the rise of the 15-minute city. The idea, popularised by French urbanist Carlos Moreno, is simple: everything you need (work, food, fitness, childcare, errands, downtime) should be within a 15-minute walk of home. Paris made it famous. But Joburg, with its scattered nodes and endless commute culture, might be the city that needs it most.

Glassdoor's latest numbers show something many leaders might not expect: Confidence is rising among those at the beginning and middle of their careers. Entry-level confidence ticked up 1.9 points and mid-level roles rose 2.3. After several years defined by layoffs, volatility, and reorganization, you'd think this group would be the most anxious. But instead, they're slowly stabilizing-and in many cases, feeling more empowered.

In a series of articles, we'll explore how these methods have evolved beyond novelty and are now shaping the way people actually learn on the job. From microlearning in hybrid work, to gamification that drives application, to embedding learning into the flow of work, and finally balancing campaigns with journeys for lasting impact, we'll look at how L&D teams can design learning that fits seamlessly into daily routines and business priorities.

Have you ever turned up to the work and thought...where is everyone?! Empty offices and flexible work is part of the reason why so many people are experiencing work loneliness, but it's not the whole picture.

Gen Z is quietly rewriting the rules at work by letting AI take their meetings. An October study from Software Finder, a software discovery platform and database, found that three in ten survey respondents admitted to skipping a meeting, banking on AI to "have their back" by taking notes. The survey also found that 19% of full-time worker respondents use AI tools to automatically generate meeting notes. The strategy is paying off for some: According to the research, employees that use AI regularly to take meeting notes were 28% more likely to be promoted, compared to 15% otherwise, and earned nearly $20,000 more annually.

More than five years into the homeworking revolution, a narrative seems to have emerged - of employees being hauled back to the office against their will. This contrasts with what COVID taught us: that people can work flexibly, benefit from not commuting, and even work for employers based far from their home - expanding the labour pool for employers. In fact, both of these arguments are oversimplifications.

When videoconferencing company Owl Labs surveyed 2,000 U.S. workers for its 2025 State of Hybrid Work report, almost half reported they did not have enough flexibility in regard to when they worked. What kind of flexibility were they hoping to get? Something that Owl Labs calls "microshifting." You may know it simply as breaking up your day as you see fit, taking an hour or so to run an errand or recharge when you need and returning to your work whenever suits you best.

The browser has quietly become the nerve centre of modern business. It's where we access our CRM, collaborate on documents, check financial dashboards, and run customer calls. Yet while companies spend millions securing networks and devices, the browser, the window through which almost every work app is opened, is often left unguarded. That oversight is proving costly. The more we rely on cloud software, the greater the risk of session hijacks, data leaks, and compromised credentials.

The traditional five-day commute into a central office hub is no longer the default for millions of UK workers. That change gives people more freedom. But it also creates a deep problem for commercial property owners and the city itself. Empty floors, shrinking tenancies and new demands for flexibility force companies to rethink their physical space. This piece explains how a lasting shift to hybrid schedules is remaking London's business map, pushing office conversions, and building a new market around short-term and on-demand services.

I sought outside counsel from recruiters or others in managerial positions. I also tried out three résumé-writing services, spending hundreds of dollars on them with no results. I also used ChatGPT, but I really didn't like what I read from it. My résumé got to the point where it just sort of felt like some random keywords that were hopefully going to be caught by the ATS system.

In 2022, Zillow found listings that mentioned a home office or "Zoom room" sold for 1.6% above asking price and six days faster than those without.

Whether you log 1 WFA day or 5 WFA days in a given standard work week, 1 WFA week will be deducted from your WFA weekly balance,