Hybrid Living, we shout for all to hear! Why won’t you join us in implementing this staggeringly cool new work model?
‘Remote’ working, ‘flexible’ working, ‘hybrid’ working: When will we settle on one concept for how we work so organisations can start rebuilding their operations for a lasting future?
Ok. Well, the bad news is that at Cloudbooking, we don’t see a one-size-fits-all working model ever returning.
There’s plenty of good news, including the growing number of corporations that have long accepted this and are keen to know more about how they can best accommodate the evolving trends they face.
What’s Right For You? Listen And Learn
The best ‘right thing to do’ for now for companies is to keep their ears to the ground and listen hard to their employees, teams, clients and partners.
Things are still changing, and last week, we at Cloudbooking started talking about something called Hybrid Living. It’s a short but crucial hop of evolution from the notion of Hybrid Working.
Hybrid Living can be described and illustrated in countless ways using thousands of examples but is best summarised thus: the workforce now wants to fit their work around their lives rather than their lives around their work.
It can relate to where they physically work, their work hours, and the culture surrounding them.
Hybrid Living rejects the implied structure of Hybrid Working (‘in-office team rotas’; ‘two days in the office, three days at home’). Such a system is helpful to organisations but doesn’t meet the evolving expectations of today’s workforce.
Supporting Wellbeing
In a blog last week, we listed the following ‘use cases’ of Hybrid Living:
- Parents feel empowered to put childcare first
- Pet owners expect to be able to bring animals to the office
- Employees want to insert physical and mental health activities and hobbies into their working day
- Second jobs and ‘side hustles’ are increasingly factored into working practices
- Commuters decide each morning whether to get on a train or work from home
Hybrid Living Is Working On The Road
But here’s a real-life example of Hybrid Living, close to home for those of us at Cloudbooking. We recently hired a brilliant content and SEO marketer named Kat. She’s just planned a trip to Morocco in April. Exciting.
Her words when a colleague asked her about the trip:
“A friend randomly invited me last week, and I checked in with Jane to see if it was something I could do whilst working, and she was all for it. It’s more travelling than a holiday. One of the people coming with us has created an itinerary where we travel from Rabat to the North. We’re going to hike in the Rif Mountains, which I’m really excited about. We’ll be taking long train trips, giving me time to get on the laptop.
It’s been a long time since I got to do some proper exploring, and I’m so excited to be back out on the road. I feel so much better knowing I’ll be out seeing the world again.”
Yep. Kat will deliver on her work goals while “on the road”. She’ll meet the needs of our content strategy and will remain an essential member of our marketing operations and contributor to our output.
But she’ll be in Morocco.
And she won’t be on anyone’s schedule but that of herself and her travelling partners.
All because she wanted to get out and travel and explore.
Hybrid Living Is Working Around Your Life
Think about that urge in the current context rather than the legacy working practices we all adopted – why on earth would your employer want to get in the way of that? And why would we want to let them?
If this still feels outlandish or over the top, it’s probably because it’s new. But such changes to the notion of work are fundamental and becoming normalised – no matter what terminology you use to refer to it.
If you’re interested in a deeper understanding of the trends we’re talking about, we hosted a deep conversation in this free-to-view webinar. The session features Denise Brouder, Founder of SWAYworkplace and Marissa Huber, Workplace Strategy Director for Cushman & Wakefield and is hosted by Cloudbooking’s CEO, Gerry Brennan. Be ready to hear some sharp, expert analyses and predictions on the factors impacting work transformation.
If the quality of your talent and their happiness and motivation at work make up even a fraction of your strategy for growth, a few challenges will be more important to you.
