How does hybrid working affect mental health, team bonds and productivity? Read about its benefits, risks and the practical steps organisations can take.
Remote working, which began out of necessity with the pandemic, has become a permanent model in many organisations. Today, a significant proportion of office workers in particular spend some days of the week at the workplace and some at home. This arrangement, known as hybrid working, offers important advantages such as flexibility and time saved, but it also brings new psychological risks: loneliness, blurred boundaries, perceptions of fairness and weakening team bonds. In this article, for business owners, HR managers and team leaders, I look at the psychological effects of this model and the steps organisations can take to build a healthy hybrid arrangement.
What Is Hybrid Working? Different Models
Hybrid working is a flexible arrangement in which employees spend part of their time at the workplace and part of it remotely (usually at home). In practice it takes several different forms:
- Fixed days: The whole team is in the office on certain days of the week (for example Tuesday and Thursday).
- Flexible quota: Employees spend a set number of days a week or month in the office and decide for themselves which days those will be.
- Team-based arrangement: Each team sets its own office days according to its workflow.
- Role-based distinction: Some positions are entirely on site, while others work largely remotely.
In Turkey, particularly in manufacturing businesses, the last item reflects an important reality: while production, maintenance and logistics staff in a factory are on site every day, part of the administrative staff may work in a hybrid way. This creates two different working experiences within the same organisation and gives rise to its own psychological dynamics.
The Psychological Advantages of Hybrid Working
When it is set up well, this model can contribute significantly to employee wellbeing:
- Saving time and energy: Especially in big cities, long commutes are a serious source of fatigue. Not commuting for a few days a week frees up space for sleep and family time.
- A sense of autonomy: Having some say over when and where to work increases an employee's sense of control. Lack of autonomy is a risk factor reported by 18% of employees in Europe (EU-OSHA, 2022); a hybrid arrangement can make a positive difference here.
- Room to concentrate: Working at home can be productive for tasks that need deep focus, away from the noise and constant interruptions of open-plan offices.
- Work-life balance: It can become easier to combine work with responsibilities such as childcare and caring for elderly parents.
The Risks of Hybrid Working: Hidden Burdens
However, a hybrid arrangement also has its own psychological risks, and these often build up quietly.
Loneliness and loss of belonging
On days worked from home, informal chats, the small conversations over coffee breaks and the support you get from "the next desk" disappear. Over time, an employee may feel less like a part of the team and more like someone carrying out a task list. In Gallup's 2026 report, 23% of employees in Turkey said they had experienced loneliness the previous day (Gallup, 2026, 2025 data). Loneliness is not unique to remote working, but arrangements that reduce physical contact can increase this risk.
Blurred boundaries
When the home turns into an office, the moment of "coming home from work" disappears. The computer stays on in the evening, and work messages are answered in bed. This stops the mind from switching off from work and lowers the quality of rest. In the large European survey, general fatigue ranks first among the health problems caused or made worse by work, at 37% (EU-OSHA, 2022).
Visibility anxiety and "proximity bias"
When employees who are in the office more often are seen more by managers, this can unknowingly influence promotion and recognition decisions. This creates a worry among those who work remotely more of the time: "I'm not being seen, I'm being forgotten." Some employees try to make up for this by appearing online all the time and replying instantly to every message, which increases the risk of burnout.
Communication and collaboration problems
In meetings where part of the team is in the office and part is online, those joining remotely find it hard to be included in the conversation. Information is shared in the corridor, and decisions are made outside formal meetings. In Europe, 26% of employees report poor communication or cooperation within their organisation (EU-OSHA, 2022); a hybrid arrangement can deepen this problem if it is not managed well.
Perceptions of fairness
A perception of "they are privileged" can arise between employees who are on site in the factory every day and the administrative staff who can work from home. This perception can damage trust within the organisation and collaboration between teams.
Digital fatigue
Back-to-back video meetings, constant notifications and multiple communication channels use up mental energy quickly. An employee who looks physically rested may be mentally exhausted.
The success of hybrid working depends less on how many days are spent in the office than on how the team sees each other and how it communicates.
Who Struggles More in This Arrangement?
The hybrid model does not affect everyone in the same way. Some groups of employees experience its risks more intensely and need special attention:
- New starters: The most natural way to learn the organisational culture, the informal rules and "who to ask about what" is to observe experienced colleagues. A new employee who spends half the week at home misses a significant part of these learning opportunities and may feel like an outsider for a long time.
- Young employees at the start of their careers: This group, which has the greatest need for feedback, role models and mentoring, may benefit less from development opportunities while working remotely.
- People who live alone: On days worked from home, not speaking face to face with anyone all day can noticeably increase feelings of loneliness.
- People with young children or caring responsibilities: When work and caring roles overlap at home, the advantage of flexibility can quickly turn into a double burden. This burden often weighs more heavily on women employees.
- People without a suitable workspace at home: Working at the kitchen table in a crowded home increases both physical and mental fatigue.
Say a specialist who has recently joined the team spends three days a week at home. They don't know whom to message when they get stuck, avoid asking questions so as not to "disturb" anyone, and try to fix their mistakes alone. A few months later, their manager notices that both the quality of their work and their motivation have dropped. Structured support in the first weeks and regular check-ins could have largely prevented this situation.
Hybrid Working and Psychosocial Risk Management
A hybrid arrangement does not remove the employer's occupational health and safety responsibilities. Article 5 of Law No. 6331 on Occupational Health and Safety (İş Sağlığı ve Güvenliği Kanunu) requires employers to develop a coherent, overall prevention policy that covers the effects of factors related to technology, work organisation, working conditions and social relationships. The Regulation on Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment also requires psychosocial hazards to be identified and recorded (Art. 8).
The ISO 45003:2021 guidance also addresses psychosocial hazards under the headings of how work is organised, social factors at work and the work environment. Remote and hybrid working affect all three: work organisation (working hours, expectations of availability), social factors (loneliness, team support) and the work environment (ergonomics of the home office, noise, privacy). It is therefore important to include hybrid staff in the psychosocial risk assessment. My article on psychosocial risk assessment, where I cover the subject in detail, may be a useful guide in this respect.
What Can Be Done for a Healthy Hybrid Working Arrangement?
Here are concrete steps organisations can take to keep the positive sides of the hybrid model while reducing its risks:
1. Give office days a purpose
Office days should be filled not with individual tasks that could also be done at home, but with activities for thinking together, planning, problem solving and building relationships. If an employee comes to the office and spends the whole day on video calls with headphones on, there is no point in coming in. Placing team meetings, brainstorming sessions, accompanied learning for new employees and relationship-building activities such as lunch together on these days turns coming to the office from an obligation into a meaningful gathering.
2. Put availability rules in writing
Set out clearly at which hours replies are expected, which channel will be used for emergencies and how out-of-hours messages will be handled. Managers following these rules themselves sends a stronger message than the written rules do. A manager who sends a message at nine in the evening creates a sense in the team that "there is actually an expectation", even if they say "you don't have to reply". Using scheduled sending is a simple way of putting a boundary between writing a message and sending it. In addition, offering employees practical suggestions for separating work and personal space at home (such as an end-of-day "shutdown" routine, designating a work area and switching off screens) helps protect boundaries.
3. Review how meetings are run
In hybrid meetings, make it easier for remote participants to speak; where possible, set things up so that everyone joins from their own computer. Reduce unnecessary meetings, build breaks between meetings and share decisions in writing.
4. Evaluate performance by results, not visibility
What should be evaluated is the work a person produces, not who appears online for how long or how much time they spend in the office. Raising managers' awareness of proximity bias is a precondition of fair evaluation.
5. Schedule regular one-to-ones
When a manager holds regular, short one-to-one meetings with every team member that go beyond simply tracking work, this meets the remote worker's need to be seen and allows difficulties to be noticed early.
6. Watch for fairness between site and office staff
Think of different forms of flexibility for employees who cannot work in a hybrid way: flexibility in shift swaps, priority in leave planning or improvements to working conditions. Sharing the reasons for decisions openly reduces the perception of "privilege".
7. Support managers in leading remotely
It is harder to notice an employee who is struggling when you are not face to face. An employee who keeps their camera off all the time, whose response times get longer or who, on the contrary, starts sending messages at midnight may be signalling that something is not right. In the WHO's guidelines on mental health at work, the recommendation with the strongest evidence is mental health training for managers (WHO, 2022).
How to Get Started in Your Organisation
Structuring a hybrid arrangement in a healthy way is more than writing a few rules. A systematic approach includes the following steps:
- Needs analysis: Run separate anonymous surveys and focus groups for hybrid staff and on-site staff. Ask about topics such as loneliness, boundary violations, communication problems and perceptions of fairness. Evaluate the survey results together with absenteeism and turnover data.
- Programme: Based on the findings, plan an availability policy, a meeting structure, manager training and, where needed, individual psychological support for employees. Instead of a one-off seminar, choose a programme that includes reinforcement sessions and is supported by organisational changes.
- Measurement: Track the same indicators at regular intervals, gather feedback from employees and update the arrangement accordingly. A hybrid model is not something set up once and left; it is a system that is continually adjusted.
You can look at the options for analysis and training suited to your organisation on the corporate services page. For more detailed suggestions on managing remote teams, you can also look at the article on managing remote teams.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does hybrid working reduce productivity?
That depends on how the model is set up. Working at home can be productive for tasks that need focus, but if communication and collaboration are not managed well, team performance can suffer. What matters is less the number of days than how clear the roles, expectations and communication rules are.
Is employees not wanting to return to the office a commitment problem?
Not always. For many employees, working from home brings concrete benefits (commuting time, family balance). However, where office days feel pointless and team relationships are weak, the desire to come to the office also fades. Asking employees what they value about the office is a more productive starting point than laying down rules.
How can we tell that someone working from home is struggling?
Changes such as always turning the camera off, going quiet in meetings, a marked change in response times, working late at night, slipping deadlines and staying away from social events are signs to watch for. These signs on their own do not mean there is a problem, but they are a good reason for a manager to hold a one-to-one conversation without judgement.
What can be done for employees in the factory who cannot work in a hybrid way?
The need for flexibility and autonomy that hybrid working meets can be met in other ways: involving employees' views in shift planning, flexibility in leave requests, arranging breaks and improving working conditions. The important thing is to communicate fairly and openly in a way that prevents a two-tier structure from forming within the organisation.
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Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
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