Not A Return But A Reset: Expert Predictions for Hybrid Work in 2026

Against a backdrop of continued economic uncertainty, a tough talent market, ongoing layoffs and rising scrutiny of employers' value propositions, business leaders are heading into 2026 braced for turbulence.

Over the last three years, the great experiment of hybrid work has rewritten the professional rules. A leading law firm swapped its sprawling HQ for smaller, regulated collaboration spaces with sensitive casework in mind. Asset managers now split their weeks between their home office and trading hubs. Investment firms have redirected millions from long city-center leases into cyber security and compliance toolkits so they can scale using premium flexible third spaces.

Much of this transition has been reactionary, chaotic and improvised. It's no wonder CEOs are heading into 2026 feeling like the rug has been pulled out from under them, and their replacement hasn't quite arrived yet.

At Croissant, we have had a front-row seat to the hybrid work transformation, with all its messiness, challenges and opportunities. And we're here to prepare you for hybrid work in 2026.

Those of you hoping for a return to business-as-usual, daily office attendance will be disappointed. 2026 won't be a return, but it will be a chance to reset. We will exit the disorder of the first phase of post-pandemic distributed work - and enter a more intentional and structured phase two.

Hybrid isn't new, remote work isn't radical anymore, and one physical office is no longer the default. And now that the shockwaves have settled, it's time for a rethink.

The real difference here? Hybrid is no longer improvised, it's part of business infrastructure. As Croissant's Fernanda Grace Lins puts it, in 2026: "We will stop thinking about the office as a place and start thinking about it as an infrastructure layer."

The organizations that thrive in 2026 will be the ones that see the year ahead as an opportunity for reset and refinement. A chance to audit their flexible work strategy, build a powerful data system around their workplace infrastructure and re-design their working ecosystem to underpin collaboration and innovation. Those that try to force a return to 2019 will be left behind.

What To Expect from Flexible Work in 2026: An Expert Guide

1. The office will be for collaboration - not control

For decades, whether they admitted it or not, the office was a place where senior leaders could keep an eye on their teams, make sure they delivered their work on time and supervise their performance. Now that knowledge work no longer requires fixed desks, constant visibility or central tools to be productive, those days are gone.

Croissant data from millions of hours of logged workplace activity shows that 70% of users now go to offices for team collaboration. If it's simply to do their daily tasks under the gaze of their CEO, employees won't come into an office. But what they will travel for in 2026 is meaningful interaction, whether that's mentoring, team problem-solving or cross-discipline idea sharing.

The office, whether in the form of a central HQ, micro-hub or a third space, has a new purpose. As Fernanda Grace Lins puts it: "The office is evolving from a place to monitor employees - to a place to empower employees with the right environment for deep collaboration." Companies that fail to make that shift won't just be resisted, they will be bypassed.

2. More RTO mandates will backfire

Mandates might temporarily increase attendance numbers, but they do so at the cost of employee trust, autonomy, and long-term retention of key talent. The companies insisting that RTO is "working" are the ones that will quietly lose their top performers in 2026.

Firms enforcing rigid return-to-office mandates are proven to experience 13–14% higher turnover. What's more, 64% of remote workers say they would quit or actively look for a new job if flexibility was removed.

In a climate of layoffs and rapid turnover, employer mistrust will unfortunately be rife in 2026. Mandates like RTO will be seen as a move to solve real estate anxiety or management control problems, not genuine collaboration challenges.

Croissant's Fernanda Grace Lins recommends adaptable patterns of office attendance rather than mandates: "RTO will start to feel top-down and old-fashioned in 2026. These strict mandates won't bring people together - they'll actually push them further apart."

3. Collaboration frequency becomes a leading indicator of churn

"The biggest reason companies come to Croissant for workplace solutions is because of a breakdown in collaboration," says Fernanda.

In July 2025, 3.2 million employees voluntarily quit their jobs across the US. Voluntary turnover is soaring and HR leaders are fighting to retain their top talent. Almost 2 in 3 CEOs rank keeping their employees as a top priority, with many looking to identify early indicators of flight risk amongst their teams.

In fact, Croissant data shows that the most powerful indicator of employee churn is a lower frequency of collaboration. When hybrid work is unstructured and chaotic, collaboration breaks down, isolation rises, productivity drops, mental health suffers and employees look elsewhere for a better workplace experience.

In 2026, the companies that measure collaboration, embed that data into their strategic decision-making, and establish predictable patterns of collaboration will have the most success keeping their staff.

4. Outcome-based work will finally overtake time-based work

The shift from outputs to outcomes in knowledge work is reaching a tipping point - setting the stage for a new style of management in 2026.

The most effective hybrid organizations are measuring impact not in the number of hours logged or the number of employees in the office, but in the actual results achieved or value created, whether that's hitting a project milestone on time, reducing the need for product iterations, lower system downtime, higher conversion rates for new customers, better customer satisfaction scores or higher rates of internal promotion.

As Fernanda puts it, "hybrid work models don't fail because people aren't productive. More often it's because companies try to bring old management logic to new ways of working."

Research shows almost 70% of managers think hybrid or remote work has made their teams more productive, showing a powerful uncoupling of attendance from performance.

Only 12% of performance reviews now focus primarily on outcomes, with the vast majority of managers relying on out-of-date success metrics that focus on the work put in, not the value that comes out.

Next year, the most successful organizations will close this gap. Office design will follow, with fewer individual desks and more project spaces tailored for high-value outcome-driven gatherings rather than daily presence.

5. A 'blended workforce' becomes the baseline

Next year will see a composite workforce, made up of full-time staff, freelancers, flex managers and fractional leadership, become the standard model for agility.

We're used to the term 'gig economy' in relation to Uber drivers, DoorDash deliverers, cleaners or TaskRabbit DIYers. But 2026 will see the gig economy climb up the salary ladder, with freelance or project-based work spreading right up the chain to senior leadership who become fractional rather than fixed-term.

As Croissant's Fernanda Grace Lins explains, "when your best people can work anywhere, full-time employment becomes a preference, not a requirement."Studies show that two thirds of workers are happier building freelance careers. 28% of US skilled knowledge workers now work as freelancers, consultants or independent professionals in order to gain greater autonomy, flexibility and control over their finances.

As we head into a new financial year, hybrid infrastructure must be designed to support this blended workforce. Do you have the tools to rapidly integrate contract workers into teams for a specific project? Have you invested in the compliance software to allow your crisis consultant to access the information they need without compromising data privacy? Do you have a hybrid work strategy that maintains cohesion and builds culture in teams made up of FTEs as well as freelancers?

6. Utilization is the new rent for workspace analysis

In 2026, the value of your physical office space won't be judged by square footage, the rent you pay, or the number of people that enter the door on a Tuesday morning. It will be judged on the quality of collaboration, the consistency of attendance according to sophisticated utilization data, and the outcomes generated during in-person office time.

Many pre-COVID leases are set to expire in the coming year, creating a reckoning for corporate real estate leaders as they design their portfolios from 2026-2030. Most will opt not to re-sign at the previous scale, as the real cost of under-utilized space hits home. The office vacancy rate recently hit a near record high of 14% as 'ghost offices' present serious financial risk in cities around the country.

On the other hand, 40% of corporate occupiers report insufficient space on peak attendance days - in spite of overall under-utilization. So it's not about whether you need more or less space in 2026, it's whether you have the data to unlock utilization-led planning.

Two thirds of corporations anticipate that their real estate portfolio will shift away from traditional leases to flexible ones by 2027. But, as Fernanda argues, "the shift from fixed to flexible offices only works if it's data-driven. In a hybrid world, utilization becomes the new rent, and efficiency will beat ownership every time."

7. AI boosts efficiency but doesn't replace human interaction

AI adoption among US workers rose to 80% in 2025 - with 89% adoption among hybrid workers. AI will rapidly accelerate the automation of hybrid work in 2026, and underscore the shift towards outcome-based working.

"AI works well in hybrid environments because the system is already designed for trust, autonomy, and clarity - the same conditions needed for intentional AI integration to add value", says Fernanda.

But AI won't eliminate the need for human gathering, in-person collaboration and interpersonal innovation. Don't make AI your excuse for failing to craft intentional, dependable and ritualized in-person work in 2026.

In fact, AI-powered workflows will drive efficiency and strip away those redundant, long meetings, in favor of more directed in-person work events that are highly focussed on high-value activities like problem-solving and quarterly planning.

8. Hybrid will become critical infrastructure, not just policy

Croissant's most important prediction for 2026 is that hybrid work won't be a temporary perk, it will continue to establish itself as a core foundation of work. Not a piece of policy in HR paperwork, but critical infrastructure that affects every part of your business.

64% of US employees prefer remote or hybrid roles over full-time office attendance, cementing flexibility as a baseline expectation for talent. It's no surprise then that 80% of organizations worldwide now use some kind of hybrid model, showing that an office-first approach is dying out on an international scale as hybrid working becomes the norm for professional life around the world.

This demands a mindset shift: decisions like your workplace design, attendance rituals and office offering are no longer niche HR or real estate questions, they're the bedrock of your organization's operations and value proposition.

What does this mean for the office? It's not dead, it's just being reimagined. Flexible work didn't erase the office, it just exposed what it's really for.

With a central HQ no longer the default location where work happens, a constellation of flexible spaces will fill the void - whether that's a satellite downtown sprint center, or a coworking space abroad for business travel. In fact, the global flexible workspace market is forecast to grow from $6.98bn in 2025 to $58.07bn by 2037 signaling sustained and serious demand into 2026 and beyond.

Design Rather Than Dictate: How to Master Flexible Work in 2026

Hybrid isn't going anywhere in 2026. As Fernanda Grace Lins puts it, "human behavior is the hardest thing to change - and it's even harder to reverse." Flexibility in the workplace has become the baseline, and there's no going back.

Whilst organizations have little option but to work flexibly, they do have a choice to make about its rollout. Will they design the future of work or will they dictate it?

Those that dictate will impose strict top-down mandates, measure attendance not true utilization of their offices, ignore employee data and take a one-size-fits-all approach.

Those that design will move from improv and inertia to intention.

They'll survey how hybrid works for them now, build rich telemetry on utilization and collaboration, embed flexibility and autonomy and structure meaningful in-person work. They will then constantly iterate their hybrid work model in line with changing employee expectations, economic shifts, technological advances, third space options and business objectives.

The difference between the dictators and the designers? A chasm in performance, talent acquisition, and employee loyalty. You choose: more of the same erratic change, mass resignations and sudden layoffs, or rebuilding the social and professional contracts broken by the post-pandemic chaos?

In 2026, successful businesses will reframe their office as an infrastructural layer made up of a suite of spaces tailored to high-value in-person collaboration and culture creation. As Fernanda explains, "In 2026, hybrid work won't be a choice companies make, it will be the foundation everything else is built on."

Get in touch with Croissant today to build the foundations for hybrid success in 2026.