The 'hushed hybrid' work schedule is the latest way employees are getting around a return to the office

• Some employees trying to avoid going back to the office are using a "hushed hybrid" work schedule.
• That involves continuing to work from home despite RTO mandates — with a manager's sign-off.

In the quest to get around returning to the office, a new tactic has gained steam. It's called working a "hushed hybrid" schedule, and unlike other forms of sneakily evading a return to the office, you actually want — no, need — your boss to know about this one to make it work.

Hushed hybrid refers to employees working from home more often than companywide policies would otherwise permit them to, thanks to the flexibility of their managers.

It could entail bosses "enforcing a return to office selectively among employees, allowing flexibility on certain days, mandating on days only when someone's presence is absolutely necessary, or even misreporting attendance in some cases," said Shelley Majors, a strategic HR advisor at Boardwalk HR.

Managers may feel that cutting employees some slack can help with employee satisfaction and worker retention — even if doing so is officially against company policy.

Some research has shown hybrid work schedules can boost employee happiness and reduce turnover without affecting productivity, said Hatim Rahman, an assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

"From an organization's standpoint, they may have an overall policy, but some managers may not enforce it as strictly as long as the results are being produced," Rahman said.

'Hushed hybrid' can be a risk for managers

Still, some managers may find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place as they try to juggle employees' desires to work remotely with firms' mandates to haul them back to the office.

Especially as power has shifted back to employers in recent years, amid mass layoffs and return-to-office mandates, "you may see unsanctioned attempts by managers to assert control in ways that make sense for them and for the people who report to them — and that don't necessarily attract attention from people higher up," Rahman said.

While some workers could benefit from working "hushed hybrid," uneven enforcement of work policies could raise questions of favoritism. That could also crush morale for workers who see their peers getting exemptions but don't reap any benefits themselves.

"It could be viewed as this manager might like this person more than everybody else so they're allowing them to not be on-site," Majors said. "So someone else may wonder, 'Why would I work hard if this other person gets to do whatever they want?'"

And "hushed hybrid" might keep employees happy, but of course, it's a risk for managers who are in on it: If that manager's boss were to find out, the whole arrangement could come crashing down — and who knows what kind of potential punishment could be doled out.

In the new world of work, Majors said employers should consider the different needs and functions of different employees and roles when making return-to-office policies. That could help eliminate the need for "hushed hybrid" working.

"These decisions reflect a lot about organizational culture and the level of trust between employees and managers and upper-level management," Rahman said.

Depending on how companies track attendance at the office, some managers may not be able to cover up for their employees' remote work.

For those employees, there's always coffee-badging.