Hybrid Work in Retreat? Barely.

Bosses are demanding that workers come back to the office. Or are they?

The percentage of remote-capable U.S. employees working in a hybrid work model has decreased from 55% to 51% over the past two quarters. But during that same period, fully on-site work and fully remote work each increased by two percentage points. Hardly a win for the back-to-office camp.

Since 2022, work location trends and remote work statistics have remained fairly stable — evidence that hybrid work has taken hold. Gallup’s latest hybrid work model research shows only minor shifts since the post-pandemic era began.

Slight shifts toward more remote and on-site work suggest that some companies are making policies less ambiguous. But that doesn’t mean everyone is in the same location. For example, fully on-site remote-capable employees now say their team is spread across different work locations, up from 13% in 2023 to 27% in 2025.

If fully on-site work has not increased much, are hybrid employees coming into the office more often? Yes, but slowly. Gallup’s analysis finds that hybrid workers now spend 46% of their workweek in the office, or the equivalent of 2.3 days. That’s up from 42% in 2022. But all that increase happened in 2023. There has been no movement in the past year.

Remote Possibilities

Remote-capable workers make up about half of the total U.S. workforce; hybrid work remains their predominant work location with two exceptions: the tech industry and the federal government.

In the tech sector, remote-capable employees are equally likely to be fully remote (47%) as they are to be hybrid (45%). Just 9% of tech workers are fully on-site. These numbers remain essentially unchanged since 2022.

In Washington, the hybrid era is over. After President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, his administration ended remote work for most federal employees. As a result, the number of federal employees working in a flexible hybrid work model plummeted from 61% in late 2024 to 28% in the latest data from Q2 of this year. Now, 46% of federal government workers are fully on-site, more than double the national average (21%).

Hybrid Is a Team Sport

Employers may be asserting more influence in at least one area: The percentage of employees who say their hybrid work schedule is “entirely up to me” declined from 37% in 2024 to 34% in 2025. Hybrid work schedules are now divided roughly equally between those who determine their own schedule (34%), those whose schedule is decided by their manager or team (35%), and those who say their employer or leadership determine their schedule (31%). But even here, there’s a caveat: The percentage of employees who say their employer or leadership determines their hybrid work schedule has not changed for the past two years.

Control matters. The more say employees have in their hybrid work schedules, the more likely they are to view the arrangement as fair. But there is more than one way to achieve that fairness: 91% of employees who say their team decides their hybrid work schedule see their hybrid work policy as fair —the same rate as those who determine it themselves. (When an employer determines an employee’s hybrid work schedule, 73% say the policy is fair.)

However, self-determined work schedules can come with trade-offs. Compared to team-determined schedules, employees with self-determined schedules are:

• 76% more likely to say burnout or fatigue at work is the greatest challenge
• 57% more likely to say reduced work-life balance is the greatest challenge
• 52% more likely to say meeting customer needs is the greatest challenge

In other words, hybrid work models work best when teams, not individuals, decide the rules. When teams establish shared norms, people are more productive and less anxious. When showing up in the office, employees can reliably expect their coworkers to be there, making in-person time more productive and rewarding.

But Are Hybrid Employees Actually Working?

Hybrid work is common. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.

The Achilles’ heel of remote work is trust. Just over half of managers (54%) who manage remote workers strongly agree they trust their teams to be productive when they are working remotely. Similarly, 57% of employees say they feel trusted by their manager to be productive when they are working remotely.

Gallup research shows that four simple practices can increase employee trust by nearly 30 percentage points. Employees are more likely to feel more trust when they strongly agree with any of the following:

• I receive timely and consistent communication about what’s happening on my team, regardless of whether I’m working from home/remotely or on-site.
• My team has a strong sense of community, regardless of whether we are working from home/remote or on-site.
• My manager holds me accountable for meeting performance expectations when I work from home/remotely.
• When working from home/remotely, I receive the same opportunities for feedback and development compared to when I work on-site.

Managers who invest in these basics — communication, community, accountability and development —strengthen trust and unlock the benefits of hybrid work arrangements.

Takeaway

Aside from the federal workforce, hybrid work has remained stable since the post-pandemic era began in 2022. Fully on-site work for remote-capable employees is uncommon. Even among on-site workers, team distribution is shifting with many now working with colleagues across locations.

While return-to-office headlines may grab attention, most organizations are navigating the hybrid era with flexibility. Many employers — now familiar with the pros and cons of the hybrid work model — are letting managers, teams and individuals work out the details. Even so, team coordination and trust remain defining management challenges that will shape the future of hybrid work.