The pitfalls of hybrid working when managers are left on their own to deal with staff

Break-up songs like Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U (a smash for Sinéad O’Connor), Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You (ditto Whitney Houston) and Miley Cyrus’s Flowers have long been popular culture staples. But who knew that breaking up with full-time office work would be so agonising for business culture – and especially for the line managers left to negotiate the wreckage?Workplace tension continues between leaders who demand a return to the office and workers who want flexibility to help defray the cost of living, and to better cope with commuting times and care commitments.The whole debate about whether or not hybrid, or remote, is actually workable, is the wrong question to ask, says Tatiana Andreeva, professor in organisational behaviour at Trinity Business School, who studies hybrid work and collaboration. Instead, how can employers embrace hybrid in a way that creates sustainable value for the business, employees and society? READ MORE More than a third of the labour force now works either a hybrid arrangement or a fully remote one – accounting for an estimated 530,000 people – according to a forthcoming report from the National Economic and Social Council.In 2026, about 35 per cent of the labour force worked from home either usually or sometimes, whereas before the Covid-19 pandemic, only about 14 per cent of employees worked from home to some extent. Even though this is a relatively new way of working, those managing these arrangements may be largely left on their own – without training, support or even simple tips for communicating with hybrid workers. [ New report on impact of hybrid working in Ireland to deliver its findingsOpens in new window ]The problem isn’t with remote work itself, but in how it’s managed, says Andreeva. “We can make it work if the people who are actually managing it on a daily basis – line managers – are better prepared. If we fix this group, the spillover effects for the organisation will be amazing.”The resources already exist to make this possible too, she says. Grow Remote, for example, is a government-supported social enterprise that helps employers, managers and remote workers thrive through online training, resources and community connections. New ways of workingIn the past decade, line managers have taken on more HR responsibilities (onboarding, interviews, appraisals), but the power to manage hybrid work policies and team-oriented ways of working has been taken from them. Andreeva, Dr Jordi Trullen (ESADE Business School) and Jim Copeland (Maynooth University) interviewed 36 line managers across 32 organisations to understand their shifting responsibilities, their reaction to hybrid work policies and the obstacles they face.Most of these qualitative in-depth interviews were with line managers working in US multinationals in Ireland. The study found that hybrid policies were mostly set centrally without consulting line managers, who then had to adapt them informally with little training or information on how to manage hybrid teams. The interviews revealed some worrying trends. Line managers reported that their organisations gave them no say on remote policies, no insights into remote workers’ schedules, and no training or support on how to manage them. They’re flying blind while being expected to deliver the same or better levels of productivity.Although line managers are expected to support or reinforce compliance, they were typically not given access to live or recent individual-level attendance data or monitoring tools. This limited their ability to intervene effectively or anticipate issues within the team. Many managers also expressed concerns over the official reasons provided for returning to the office, as these were often not convincing. This, and getting little or no notice on policy-change announcements, limited managers’ ability to persuade their subordinates to follow the policy.Managers identified persistent challenges with hybrid work co-ordination. Yet few received any structured training or support on how to manage these dynamics. “The line managers feel that there’s an assumption in the organisation that if you were a manager during Covid that you know how to do it, and that is why training doesn’t come up,” says Andreeva.Hybrid teams require complex co-ordination due to staggered schedules and individual exceptions. But, instead of reporting these difficulties to leadership, line managers operated from a place of fear, and often withheld details of these operational challenges to prevent a full return to working from the office for everyone.Managing hybridAndreeva has been working on a book chapter with Prof N Sharon Hill of George Washington University School of Business to help address the information deficit in understanding hybrid work dynamics and best practices. Hill developed the CAARE framework (configuration, autonomy-alignment, relationships, equity) in 2023 and her work was published in MIT Sloan Management Review.‘One of the managers in our study added 15 minutes with no work-related agenda to daily team meetups to allow the team to connect casually, compensating for lost in-person informal lunchtime chats’— Tatiana Andreeva, Trinity Business SchoolThe CAARE framework helps organisations and managers think through and implement remote and hybrid ways of working with their team. Configuration Remote and hybrid teams have a different shape and rhythm compared to teams that work entirely from the office. Configuration is a strategic way to establish agreements on how members will work together. [ What’s the real reason your boss wants you back in the office?Opens in new window ]“Team agreements may, for example, specify core hours of availability, expected response times for communications, and procedures for providing updates on work status,” says Hill. Atlassian and Dropbox designed tool kits for managers to help them co-develop these charters with their teams. Managers are encouraged to review these charters regularly with teams as employee preferences and situations may change.Autonomy and alignment To be effective, there needs to be a balance between individual autonomy and team alignment. Grow Remote found that some companies do this in a quick and clever way that works best for their team. NearForm trained their managers to introduce asynchronous daily stand-ups. Each morning, team members answer four questions in Slack (How are you feeling? What have you done? What will you do today? Do you need help?). The manager scans responses for blockers instead of holding a daily call. The regularity of these check-ins ensures alignment, while also giving employees autonomy in where and when they work.Relationships “One of the managers in our study added 15 minutes with no work-related agenda to daily team meetups to allow the team to connect casually, compensating for lost in-person informal lunchtime chats; another added a five-minute fun fact slot in weekly meetings, inviting one of the team members to share something that you wouldn’t know about them,” Andreeva says. In both cases, the manager’s aim was to provide space for informal connection and relationship-building.Spotify developed “Talk it Through” training for their managers, as a part of their “Heart & Soul” mental health strategy. This training coached managers to include wellbeing check-ins in every one-to-one meeting with employees, to identify signs that colleagues might be struggling, and signpost appropriate support.EquityManagers can use several strategies to ensure they’re not unduly rewarding those they see in person more regularly, or proximity bias. Redesigning work and decision-making processes are key. “For example, a transparent, clear system to monitor and evaluate performance that focuses on results-based metrics, discussed in relation to the autonomy-alignment component, helps mitigate bias in performance appraisal and rewards.” The trust-building strategies discussed for the relationship component and team communication charters can also help to mitigate the perception that employees who are out of sight are not working as hard as those on-site. To help managers make fair decisions, Spotify compares promotion rates and pay increases between employees each compensation cycle, and flags outliers, if any.Margaret E Ward is chief executive of Clear Eye, a leadership consultancy. margaret@cleareye.ie