In a survey by the job site FlexJobs, 57% of respondents said they would "absolutely" look for a new job if they could no longer work remotely in their current position.
Remote and hybrid positions are the clear preferences among workers in countless surveys. Still, nearly a quarter of respondents in FlexJobs' survey said their employer rolled out a return-to-office mandate within the past year.
One emerging trend indicates workers are trying to work from home —even when told to do otherwise. It's called "hushed hybrid."
"Hushed hybrid is when managers may choose to allow their team members to work remotely at a different cadence than the company suggests or mandates," said FlexJobs career expert Toni Frana.
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If you're thinking hushed hybrid is your ticket to remote work, Frana said companies with return-to-office mandates are "pretty adamant" about their policies.
"I would always assume that return to office means return to office," Frana said.
Jasmine Escalera, a career expert with LiveCareer, describes hushed hybrid as "a sticky one."
"Hushed hybrid really is your manager allowing for you to potentially work remotely or have a flexible schedule, even though the organization is saying you have to come into the office," Escalera said.
Instead of hushed hybrid, Escalera advocates for open dialogues between employers and workers about flexible work schedules.
"Putting that human-first approach to employment is really helpful," Escalera said. "Because it makes the employee feel valued and that could in itself increase productivity, innovation, collaboration and all the things that companies are trying to do anyway."
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In a survey, LiveCareer found 49% of employees no longer enjoy traditional office work. But hybrid work options do still exist.
The solutions firm Kforce is one company embracing hybrid work. The company was recently named by FlexJobs as one of the Top 100 Companies for Hybrid Jobs in 2024.
"We launched office-occasional, which is a remote-first hybrid work environment in 2020," said Andrew Thomas, the chief experience officer at Kforce.
Thomas said the company made a conscious decision to move "toward something versus trying to recreate the past," he said.
"We had listened to our people so much," Thomas said, "and with everything going on in the world, we knew that flexibility was a premium for candidates looking for work."
Thomas calls the hybrid work environment "an attraction and retention tool" that differentiates Kforce from its competitors.
"A majority of competitors are requiring more and more time in the office," Thomas said. "As a result, we are seeing more applications coming towards us both internally for us and as consultants for us."
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Career experts say it's important for companies to consider the repercussions of 100% in-office work.
"Employees are no longer just thinking about titles and pay," Escalera said. "And we're thinking more about growth. Also, flexibility and balance."
"I think it's important that employers focus on the value that their people bring, the goals that they achieve, the contributions they make, rather than concentrating or focusing on so much where the work happens," Frana added.
