We need to be more precise when using the terms hybrid, remote, and return to office. These terms are holding back the conversations we are trying to have across corporate real estate by greying out the middle ground strategy options.
Hybrid – It’s a word we all landed on during the pandemic to describe something in between remote working and in-office working. The problem is that it means something dramatically different to different people. Some think of it as a three-day-a-week mandate. Others equate it to flexible, choose your days to be in the office. Then there are lots of definitions in between. It is too broad to have real meaning, and too many equate it to mandates.
Remote – It’s a loaded word now, where people think of it as the equivalent to full-time work-from-home. So many see an argument for remote working as an argument for never coming back into the office. Few mean it that way, but too many interpret it that way. It doesn’t help that too many non-real estate journalists who talk about remote use it as shorthand for full-time work-from-home.
Return to office – We’ve returned. If you haven’t returned yet, something else is going on that is different than this. The problem is that the new mandates are being framed as a return to office (RTO). This camouflages what is really going on, where most companies are simply making business decisions to force people back in for any number of reasons, but making it seem like a real estate thing. It’s not a real estate thing. It’s a business strategy at this point.
Here’s the thing. Changing terminology used across an entire industry, particularly when these phrases have made it out into the general public, is hard. When someone talks about their “hybrid real estate strategy,” we all instinctively can get close to what they probably mean with just a little additional context. When we see RTO in a headline, we all instinctively know that it’s a mandate.
I don’t have great answers on new words, unfortunately. But I do have a couple of recommendations that I will be trying to incorporate into my own conversations.
Mandate – No one wants to call a mandate a mandate. I get it. It’s a loaded term these days. But I see to many companies disingenuously calling their three-day-a-week in-office requirement hybrid or flexible. A required three day minimum is neither hybrid nor flexible. It is an in-office mandate. We should be more honest about it.
X% In-office– Very few people are never in an office. The best remote situations are where you can still make it into an office once a month, once a quarter, or something along those lines. After weekends, holidays, PTO, and sick time, there are about 225 to 245 working days in a year for a typical employee. If you come into the office once a quarter, you are 1% In-office. If you come in once a month, you are 5% In-office. I know a lot of people who like to be around the 2 or 3 days a month mark which would be 15% in-office. It moves the thinking away from remote and towards the fact that remote employees still have in-office time.
Flexible (referring to employee working)– Should mean that the employee has a true degree of choice on when to be in office. It is the opposite of a mandate.
Flexible (referring to the type of space)– Should mean a lease term under 2 years and typically with a flex or coworking company.
Hybrid– It really just shouldn’t be used any more other than to describe this era of real estate and work styles (e.g., the Hybrid era, the Open Office era, the Coworking era). Everyone has incorporated some hybrid principles by this point, it’s just a matter of degrees.
Unless you are intentionally trying to be vague (e.g., for sales, you are allowing AI to write everything for you, etc.), you should be particular about your words. They should have clear meaning to your audience, not just meaning.