Becoming a hybrid worker? Some thoughts on how to do it

We’ve got some good news and some bad news: You’re finally going back to the office. But it may be only a day or two a week.

Which is the good news and which is the bad depends on how much you’ve missed interacting with your co-workers in person versus how much you hated the commute.

As the pandemic eases, companies are asking more employees to work face-toface and butts-in-the-cubicle. But many won’t be returning to a Monday-toFriday schedule. Instead, lots of us will become hybrid workers.

In the before times, you likely had your workweek routine dialed in because you’d been doing it five days a week for months or years on end. Now you can’t remember your office phone number or where you left your employee ID.

It’s going to take some adjustment to be productive in the home office and the office-office. Here are a few suggestions on how to hybrid:

How to get there

If you’re only going to the office part-time, the monthly parking contract or the monthly transit pass may be overkill. You could go two different directions here: If it’s only once a week, maybe you treat your car to the heated underground parking ramp.

Or maybe you try bike commuting. Biking to work might seem a bit daunting if you do it every day, but it’s a lot more doable once a week.

It’s even easier if you get an electric bike. Higher gas prices and the pandemic have driven interest in e-bikes as commuting vehicles, including electric-assist cargo bikes, which can also haul kids to school, said Luke Breen, owner of Perennial Cycles in Minneapolis.

“We’re starting to see it in a huge way,” Breen said. “2020 was the beginning of a completely new mentality.”

What to wear

The sweats and slippers we’ve been wearing are likely to accelerate the trend toward casual attire in the office.

But while it might be a drag to iron your shirt five days a week, doing so once every seven days isn’t such a heavy lift. If you only need a couple of work outfits, why not make them nice?

“There’s still this feeling, ‘Because I’m going into the office, I’m going to try a little harder,’ ” said Colleen Flaherty Manchester, an associate professor with the Department of Work and Organizations in the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.

After all, the rest of the week is casual Friday for the hybrid worker.

How to behave

It’s been two years, so it may take time to reacquaint yourself with office etiquette.

“I’m not saying it will be high school reunion awkward, but it will be more than zero awkward,” said

John Kammeyer-Mueller, a professor of industrial relations at the Carlson School.

Informal conversations in the office will be more free-flowing and personal than the stilted, one-at-atime communication on Zoom.

New employees (that means anyone hired in the past two years) may have to introduce themselves to their co-workers.

But resist the urge to hug everyone, says St. Paul etiquette expert and author Juliet Mitchell.

“Some people are not ready for the hugging. They’re not ready for the handshake,” Mitchell said.