Remote and hybrid working arrangements are giving rise to more conflict in offices across the country “than ever before”, according to experts in human resources who labelled the issue as the “root” of many workplace problems.
While it may come as no surprise that remote working was the most prevalent industrial relations issue last year, according to HR professionals, amid the increasing and ongoing drive to return workers to the office, the greater flexibility previously shown to them appears to be giving rise to conflict at an increasing rate.
Although those working in human resources agree that flexible working patterns allow for better work-life balance and general wellbeing, its adoption and the speed at which it was adopted has seen negative consequences.
“I would have thought when everyone’s working remotely or in a hybrid way, surely there should be less conflict between people, because they don’t have to see each other as much,” says Michelle Halloran, an independent HR consultant and workplace investigator with Halloran HR Resolutions.
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“But I’m seeing more conflict than I’ve ever seen,” she adds.
The vast majority of employees and employers now communicate through email or messaging apps while working from home and even while in the office, rather than by phone call or face-to-face.
This negates other vital forms of communication such as tone of voice or related facial expressions, she says, and is generally leading to conflict.
“Instead of replacing face-to-face contact with phone contact, which is also pretty good because you can hear their voice, we’re replacing it with email,” she says.
For example, styles of written conversation on behalf of some employees or managers can sometimes appear “abrupt”, which others might find rude, she says, leading to misconceptions, misunderstandings and eventual conflict.
“I think we have opened up huge opportunities to misunderstand each other, and when I’m investigating workplace allegations of bullying and harassment, I’m being sent reams and reams of emails by way of evidence –because the row is all happening by email.
“It’s getting worse and worse and worse,” she says.
“It’s important that we pay attention, going forward, to relatedness and connections with team colleagues and for managers to pay attention to building those relationships with their teams.”
While there are benefits to remote working, Halloran adds, “as a HR professional, I do not think it’s healthy for someone to work completely remotely – whether they think it is or not”.
Although flexibility can be a positive for employees and employers, “unfortunately, an awful lot of the time, it is this flexibility that causes issues”, according to Damien McCarthy, founder and chief executive of consultancy firm HR Buddy.
‘It is unfortunate, in my experience, that so many workplace issues nowadays are rooted back to something that should have been such a positive change or evolvement’
— Damien McCarthy, HR Buddy
“We have such a mixed world of work now that it inevitably causes grievances. In our experience, as an outsourced HR consultancy, a lot of the issues are being rooted back to the flexible mix of working patterns, working hours and working locations,” he says.
When grievances, performance issues or bullying are investigated by his firm, “you realise that there are rooted cultural issues in the organisation, and a lot of the time, it has to do with how and where someone is working”, McCarthy says.
“It is unfortunate, in my experience, that so many workplace issues nowadays are rooted back to something that should have been such a positive change or evolvement,” he says.
On the other hand, “proximity bias” is arising in workplaces whereby some employees believe individuals attending the office more regularly are getting ahead in terms of promotion, advantageous relationships with managers, or having “sweeter project work” being designated to them.
“It may not be true, but it may be difficult to stop someone from thinking that way and becoming disgruntled, and therefore taking actions such as quiet quitting, soft quitting or even resigning,” he says.
However, he describes the emergence of flexible working patterns as a “very quick journey”, and if not for the pandemic, “we would not be anywhere near the level and standards of remote and hybrid working that we have today”, adding that it may otherwise have taken up to 15 or 20 years to get this point.
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The accelerated establishment of remote and hybrid working over a short space of time has led to workers expecting it to be a “given”, he says, while the task for management to keep teams happy has become more complicated, as work, in general, has become “individualised” post-pandemic.
“Further individualisation is dangerous, tricky to manage, and many employers and managers will feel that they are on a hiding to nothing,” he says.
However, the flexible working world is here to stay. Although it will evolve, it will not go into reverse, he says, particularly as employees have “had the balance of power” in recent years amid full employment.
“So, recruitment and retention has been a huge focus throughout 2024 and, bar an economic meltdown in 2025, that will not change,” he says.
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