It’s a cliché, but it’s also true – the pandemic has forever changed the world of office work.

Survey after survey has found that office staff have an overwhelming preference for the flexibility of hybrid work, mixing their work location from home to the office as is necessary and convenient.

That preference is also universal, as we can see in this video from The Economist – 76% in Europe, 86% in the US and 78% in Asia.

More than two years since the start of the COVID pandemic, managers, organisations and even city planners are learning to respond to the demand for hybrid working.

As Ben Hamley from real estate corporate JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) says, offices used to be little more than boxes that held staff and equipment. Offices are still the centre of the work ecosystem, but their role now is to act as a social hub as it is a place where work is produced.

Singaporean Fae Wong is typical of hybrid workers. Her deskwork is done at home while the office is used to meet-up with colleagues over lunch or informal training.

For Fae, the opportunity for hybrid working is her most important priority, and more important than money.

However, not everyone is equal when it comes to hybrid working. University of South Australia academic Carol T. Kulik warns that married women, who already endure inequality in the workplace, might face further unfairness because it’s more difficult for them to get into the office.

Carol also says hybrid working requires managers to change the way they evaluate the performance of staff, away from the number of hours employees spend at work to a judgement about their effectiveness.

The impact of hybrid working will go beyond individual managers and companies to effect whole cities. Heng Chye Kiang from the National University of Singapore says we’re starting to see a trend back to a time when workplaces were located in the midst of residential areas.

Heng says the domination of cities by cars led to more segregated neighbourhoods. Hybrid working means the dreaded commute is out, and that when we do go into the office, we want it to be located as close to where we’re living as possible.

There’s no reason, he says, why once more businesses can’t be integrated into residential areas, with the outcome a win / win for individuals, communities, and businesses.