MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Five Hybrid Work Trends to Watch in 2025

What hybrid work trends should be on every leader’s radar screen in the new year? As debate heats up, Brian Elliott explains how to navigate turbulence and come out ahead.

Just a few months ago, many people thought the battles over the value of the hybrid work model — and, on the flip side, return-to-office (RTO) mandates — were finally dying down. Two-thirds of U.S. companies had settled into a flexible work policy, according to Flex Index data on 13,000 companies. Office attendance, measured by building occupancy data, had stabilized at around 50% of pre-pandemic norms for almost two years. Then Amazon CEO Andy Jassy pushed the topic of RTO mandates back into prominence, pressing the company’s workers to get back to their offices five days a week.

Next, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and coleader of a proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the upcoming Trump administration, joined in: He has raised the potential of requiring the entire U.S. federal workforce to work in-office full-time.

About the Author

Brian Elliott is an executive adviser and speaker. He is a coauthor of How the Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to Do the Best Work of Their Lives.

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