Women Face a Double Disadvantage in the Hybrid Workplace

Hybrid work arrangements can be configured in two very different ways: “flexible hybrid” and “fixed hybrid.” In a flexible hybrid system, the same employee is sometimes co-located and sometimes remote, so their location changes throughout a typical workweek. In a fixed hybrid system, some employees are always co-located while others are always remote, and their locations don’t change throughout the week. Why does this distinction matter? The author believes we can be cautiously optimistic about how women will fare in a flexible hybrid system, where they work remotely some of the time but in the office at least some of the time. On the other hand, though, there are pretty compelling reasons to be less optimistic about how women will fare in a fixed hybrid system, where they work remotely full-time while at least some of their colleagues are co-located. Especially here, leaders must be aware that women risk being doubly disadvantaged by working remotely in a hybrid system.