Workplace flexibility ranks as the most important element to workers today, second to salary, according to global nonprofit The Conference Board. Hybrid work schedules, where individuals split time working from home and from the office, help put work in its rightful place. Such flexible working schedules allow people to prioritize personal goals like physical activity and spend more time with their family. This is significant given that Pew Research Center finds 73% of U.S. adults say family time is one of the most important things in their life. Beyond the personal benefits, workplace flexibility is also good for workplace diversity. Women and younger generations are more likely to seek flexible work, making it an attractive offering for employers seeking to recruit a diverse workforce and improve workplace equity and well-being. Yet, amidst the uptick in return-to-office mandates, hybrid work schedules can be an emotional and complex topic. According to Stanford research, hybrid working does not typically affect worker productivity but some managers simply don’t feel their employees are as productive when working from home. These types of concerns, and not knowing their employer’s stance on hybrid work, can make it awkward for employees to broach the topic of pivoting to a flexible work schedule. Consider the following scenario: Allison, a valued part of the leadership team at a large financial organization, recently hit her 3-year tenure. She recognized the company’s broader commitment to well-being but felt like she had previously hit roadblocks when speaking up about efficiency and productivity. Allison wanted to shift to a hybrid schedule but her day-to-day work and life responsibilities left her with little time and space to prepare her best case for a more flexible work schedule. Then, one day, in a one-on-one meeting, her manager told her that she’d love to see her practice diverse thinking, using logic and evidence to challenge thought processes creatively. This got Allison thinking… Allison’s scenario is a real one, not hypothetical — we worked together. In our coaching, we discussed how her manager’s comment could be used as a springboard for her flexible working request. This article outlines five strategies that Allison used — and that you can use, too — to confidently and respectfully negotiate a hybrid work schedule. 1. Understand your employer’s side Research finds hybrid work is trending up, from 35% in January 2022 to 41% in March 2023. Yet, remote work is still a young concept. And young concepts carry both excitement and uncertainty. Approximately two-thirds of business leaders surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in August 2023 say remote work negatively impacted four areas: workplace culture, cohesiveness and team environment, communication among employees, and training and mentorship. On the flip side, the same survey found that more than half of respondents believe work-from-home policies make it easier to recruit staff, and more than two-thirds of respondents said such policies help to retain staff. Appreciate that your company may be riding a similar wave of excitement and uncertainty. Here are some tips to better understand your employer’s perspective around remote work, and to help you prepare for and conduct a productive and empathetic discussion: Speak with key people like your manager (and, if you have one, your skip manager), clients and customers, and your colleagues in Human Resources to learn their perspectives on the upsides and downsides of hybrid schedules. Gathering insights from the research and data that your company may be using to influence work-from-home policies will also help you build your business case for a shift to hybrid work. Be sure to understand the CEO’s stance and plans around in-person, remote, and hybrid work. Being mindful of various perspectives and insights signals you’re operating as an inclusive team player who’s committed to the company’s success and growth. Take care when crafting your questions. Psychologists sometimes refer to “why” questions as philosophical and theoretical — an avenue to discourage learning and keep us in the past. An alternative question like “how come” may invite a less threatening, more solution-focused dialogue. Try to use words that prompt an emotional response, like “feel” or “thoughts.” You could ask, “How do you feel about my productivity when working remotely?” If your manager voices a concern, you can ask, “What are your thoughts on how I might address this?” Or, better yet, proactively suggest a solution. Finally, rewire yourself to listen and repeat. Your thoughts about your manager or coworkers may be clouded, especially if there’s tension or if you’ve worked with them for a long time. If that’s the case, you’ll need to be intentional about not letting your biases distort your understanding of a situation. Summarize what you’re hearing from others with phrasing like, “So what I’m understanding is…” or “What I hear you saying is…” By listening closely and repeating what you hear, you’ll increase the likelihood of being on the same page, be better prepared to empathize, and be able to go into future conversations with an open mind. 2. Own your rationale(s) A long commute is often top of mind as a reason not to go into the office, but there are other rationales. Think through your rationale(s) and own them. Maybe your team is based across different global or U.S. time zones and it would make sense to conduct some of your 40-hour workweek during times when the office is closed. Perhaps you’re a caregiver to a young child or a parent with Alzheimer’s. Perhaps you’re managing your own medical condition. Leesman, an employee-experience research firm, finds “between 15-18% of workers self-select as having an impairment that impacts them at work.” Maybe you’re going through the grieving process. According to Option B, a nonprofit co-founded by Sheryl Sandberg, 60% of employers still only offer up to three bereavement days. If that’s the case at your company, then your hybrid schedule ask could also test out a low-risk bereavement-support option. Whatever your rationale(s), it may pave the way for a short-term trial run while you build your case for a long-term hybrid work arrangement. 3. Strengthen your ask with purposeful priming Priming, in this context, means reiterating key points to prepare and warm someone up to your ideas. In priming talks with your manager, look for opportunities to prove you’re trustworthy, efficient, and productive in order to calm fears around the previously mentioned remote-work concerns: negative impact on workplace culture, team environment and relationships, communication, and training and mentoring. Here are some ways you can do this: Demonstrate your value. Are you consistently working smarter, and not harder, to drive clear business impact? Can you show that you’ve done some of your best work while working remotely? Perhaps you can also think of times when you’ve deepened connections and built trust while working remotely. Keep these stories top of mind. Now is the time to toot your horn. Demonstrate your communication skills. Indirect communication — such as email, text, chat, and videoconferencing — can often lead to misinterpretation and misunderstanding. Have you shown you’re a strong communicator across these mediums? According to a WFH Research survey of more than 1,900 employees, hybrid workers spent around 50% of their time in meetings, while that number was roughly 24% for fully remote workers, and about 22% for in-person workers. What are you doing to reduce or streamline meetings, and make them more efficient? How can you show the impact of your efforts? Demonstrate your ability to maintain your workload. Communicate your strategy for documenting your workload. Think about what stops you from accomplishing your key objectives — it’s good to know who or what takes you off track, and if a hybrid schedule could help. Proactively documenting your workload makes you and your projects more visible to your manager, which lessens their mental load. Task management tools like Trello or Asana, or even a simple checklist on Google Sheets, can be helpful resources. 4. Propose a thoughtful, logical schedule Microsoft’s data points to three moments when in-person work is most beneficial: strengthening team cohesion onboarding to a new role, team, or company kicking off a project If you’re in any of these moments, now may not be the time to request a hybrid work schedule. If you’re not in any of these scenarios, then consider using data to propose common days and times for in-office and remote work. According to Pew Research Center, approximately 59% of hybrid workers say they work remotely three or more days in a typical week, while 41% say they work remotely two days or less per week. Tuesday to Thursday are the most common in-office days, with Monday and Friday being the most common work-from-home days. Sometimes, the root issue for in-office mandates or manager hesitance to approve a hybrid work schedule is fear over the loss of familiarity and control. You can tackle a small layer of this fear by proactively and intentionally planning. When scheduling workplace days, 81% of hybrid workers scheduled to work onsite on the day they were heading into the office, while only 10% scheduled their days in the office over a month in advance. (Sometimes you can stand out by doing what the data shows most people aren’t doing but should be doing.) Another way to demonstrate intentional planning is to schedule your in-office days when team-building, collaborative, and creative work is happening, reserving your remote days for independent tasks and critical, analytical thinking. To further increase buy-in, set a mutually agreeable timeframe to trial your hybrid schedule, setting goals and expectations so you can measure success. 5. Be confident and respectful when making the ask Now that you’ve done the groundwork, bring it all together in an ask. Schedule an in-person meeting with your manager sometime after your formal annual review period. If that’s too far away, try a time when your performance and impact shine bright. For example, set up a meeting after you’ve received kudos for a high-visibility project. In the meeting, your ask could go something like this: Thank you for acknowledging my work [state a recent achievement or measurable impact]. I’ve noticed common threads around when I do my best work. This tends to be when I’m given space for deep thinking and flexibility, coupled with fun and efficient team collaboration. We’ve spoken recently about how I’ve [highlight something from your earlier priming conversations like how you’ve demonstrated excellent communication skills while working remotely]. Because I’ve noticed [something specific from understanding the employer’s side, such as the CEO’s stance on the future of hybrid work], I thought this would be a good time to ask for a hybrid schedule. Whatever you say, you want to come across as assertive, thoughtful, and respectful. If you follow this advice and your manager is still unmovable, then be mindful that change brings resistance. Flexible work isn’t an ancient concept — for most, this is new and unfamiliar territory. If your employer rejects your request for a hybrid schedule, turn it into a learning experience. Make sure you understand whether this is a “no,” or a “not right now.” Is there an opportunity to revisit the discussion? If so, when and on what conditions? . . . The promising reality is that some companies are formalizing pathways to remote or hybrid work. Under Meta’s new policy, for example, some employees will be able to apply for fully remote positions after 18 months with positive performance reviews. Many companies have employees who are solely focused on flexible work. For example, Upwork has a director of Remote Organizational Effectiveness, Cleveland Clinic has a Remote + Hybrid Work director, and Zillow and Microsoft have directors of Flexible Work. I’d like to conclude with this thought: Workplace flexibility is important but lingering, deeper workplace problems like burnout or languishing require multiple cause-based solutions. If you sense you’re experiencing these deeper issues, I recommend reflecting on your core values and finding different ways to fulfill them. That may look like suggesting a change in return-to-office messaging to include language that seems less top-down and more empowering, being the architect of your career by crafting your job, or setting firmer boundaries at work like communicating preferences around when to include you on emails or what constitutes “urgent.” Building the muscle to advocate for yourself will make you a stronger employee. After all, companies need employees who can tactfully speak up, demonstrate diverse thinking, and confidently drive innovation.
