More will work from the office, but hybrid is here to stay

2025 marks five years since Covid-19 shattered entrenched beliefs about the nature of work.

- Stephanie Yeo

When the pandemic swept in, it forced companies around the world to accelerate digitalisation at an unprecedented pace so their employees could work remotely some or all of the time.

Workers quickly learnt to treasure the benefits of remote and hybrid work, which allowed them to better balance corporate and personal commitments.

Headlines hailed hybrid as the default work mode in 2023, but by the end of 2024, the tables were turned as multinationals from e-commerce giant Amazon to tech company Dell recalled their white-collar staff back to the office five days a week.

Coffee chain Starbucks threatened to fire staff who did not work three days in the office, and some companies started tracking their employees' location in various ways, such as when they scanned their passes.

In Singapore, employers are calling the shots even in a tight labour market.

About 61 per cent of the workforce is now working from the office, up 7 per cent year on year, according to Blackbox Research's platform SensingSG. It polls 1,500 Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 18 and up every three months.

Yet, survey after survey indicates that Singapore workers want flexibility in their jobs, which covers not just telecommuting but also arrangements such as flexi-hours, compressed work weeks and part-time work.

Workplace experts say that despite the wave of return-to-work mandates, hybrid arrangements are here to stay.