New normal for gold and white-collar workers: The hybrid way

Abstract

The latest COVID-19 pandemic brought about salient alterations concerning several characteristics of people’s lives and routines. One of these major aspects relates to some people’s working places and customs. Unambiguously, the way gold and white-collar workers work has been altered due to the practices applied in response to the latest pandemic. Organizations and people experiencing remote working had an all-inclusive opportunity to evaluate trade-offs regarding working in offices and working from home or other convenient places. This paper defines and discusses the hybrid way, the new normal for gold and white-collar workers. Advantages, disadvantages, challenges, and success factors are also deliberated in this paper. Purposefully, mixed method research was conducted to get and distil experiences and views of gold and white-collar workers regarding the new current normal of working. Pertinent data to be analyzed and evaluated were collected from 2405 people (2365 questionnaires and 40 interviews). The outcomes concluded that the new normal for gold and white-collar workers are the hybrid way (a mix of working in offices and remotely from homes or other convenient places). Facets (items related to policy, tools, and steering) to consider are also discussed in the paper. This paper contributes to the management body of knowledge by providing additional evidence to the hybrid way of working for gold and white-collar workers. As experiences and views of workers are shaping the pertinent success and enhancements, this paper will be valuable for managers of organizations involving gold and white-collar workers, relevant policymakers, and other researchers exploring the new normal.

The hidden costs of working from home: examining loneliness, role overload, and the role of social support during and beyond the COVID-19 lockdown

“…The emerging trend of combining WFH with office work is becoming recognized as the future's "new normal" (Yener, 2022;Degerli, 2023). Supervisors should note that the option to WFH might heighten employees' sense of loneliness.…”

“…Although most restrictions have been removed and both work-and social life seems to recover, many workers have learned to appreciate the increased autonomy entailed by working from home (Wang et al, 2021) and are reluctant toward a full time return to the company office (Liu et al, 2020). Thus, hybrid work (i.e., the blend of WFH and work from the company office) has been touted as the new normal in the future (Yener, 2022;Degerli, 2023).…”