Original Coverage & Source Attribution: businessdesk.co.nz
Working Well is an ongoing series from BusinessDesk in partnership with Southern Cross Health Insurance, exploring the issues that shape employee health and wellbeing – and the practical solutions for happier, healthier workplaces.
Hybrid work is settling into a more realistic rhythm in New Zealand as memories of pandemic-era days spent working from the dining room table recede.
Recent employer data suggests 43% of New Zealand employers operate hybrid workplaces, while just over half of remote workers have set office-day requirements averaging three days a week.
University of Auckland senior lecturer in organisational behaviour and human resources Dr Joanne Mutter says organisations have had enough time to move beyond the emergency experiment of the pandemic.
Frictionless re-engagement
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The argument is shifting from whether it works to how employers and households can make it work without turning flexibility into an always-on treadmill.
“We know now what the challenges are,” she says. “We’ve had enough time to recognise that work intensification and socialisation are probably the two primary challenges.”
The most stubborn problem may not be the late-night email from the boss. It is how easy it has become to slip back into work when the spare room is permanently wired as an office.
Mutter calls it “frictionless re-engagement”. The laptop is open, the large monitor is ready, and the files are a few steps away. The commute that once placed a physical boundary around the working day has disappeared for many.
“For hybrid workers and fully remote workers, it’s about the fact that you can return to work so easily,” she says.
“Those barriers stopping you from returning to work or keeping working are no longer there.”
Culture before legislation
That’s why Mutter is unconvinced New Zealand needs right-to-disconnect legislation modelled on Australia’s, which was introduced into the Fair Work Act on August 26, 2024, for most employees, and on August 26, 2025, for small businesses.
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions is campaigning for a statutory right to refuse unreasonable out-of-hours contact. The coalition Government has said it is not currently considering such legislation.
Mutter says a blanket legal response risks cutting across the autonomy that makes hybrid work attractive. A parent may choose to stop early for school pick-up, then send emails after the children are asleep. The useful boundary is not necessarily when a message may be sent, but whether anyone expects an immediate reply.
“For some people, they want to be able to send their emails at night. That’s what the flexibility is offering them,” she says. “It’s about organisational culture. Yes, you can send your emails at this time of night, but don’t have any expectations of replies.”
Employers still need clear rules. Teams should agree on ordinary availability, what constitutes an emergency, and which roles genuinely require on-call cover. Managers also need to confront “flexibility stigma” – the fear that people who work remotely will be viewed as less committed and passed over for challenging assignments or promotion.
That fear encourages employees to overcompensate by working longer or making themselves conspicuously available.
“It should be productivity, not presenteeism,” Mutter says. “You should be measured by what you produced rather than how many hours you were sitting at your desk.”
Anchor days in the office
Office days also need a purpose. Anchor days can support collaboration, mentoring and belonging, particularly for new employees. But there is little benefit in commuting simply to spend the day wearing headphones on video calls.
“What is the point of having an anchor day where you’re still having hybrid meetings, or you’re sitting there staring at your computer? Make sure when people do come in that it’s worth their while,” Mutter says.
The sensible split depends on the work. Creative collaboration, induction and relationship-building may be better face to face. Uninterrupted analysis and writing may be more productive at home. Employers should design the week around outputs and tasks rather than impose a uniform attendance score.
The two-person office
The harder negotiations often happen at home. In research conducted with couples in which both were building careers, Mutter and a colleague interviewed both people rather than treating working from home as an individual experience. They found hybrid work succeeds when couples deliberately co-ordinate professional demands, household labour and the boundaries between the two.
Some people are “integrators”, moving in and out of work and returning to it at night. Others are “segmenters”, preferring a firm cut-off. Either approach can work, Mutter says, if partners understand the difference and negotiate around it.
A closed office door might mean do not interrupt, even to ask about dinner. A shared Sunday calendar can allocate meetings, school runs, cooking, shopping and care for older parents before the week begins. The allocation can change during a deadline or month-end crunch, but it should be discussed rather than silently defaulting to one partner.
A short end-of-day debrief can replace the transition once provided by the drive or train ride home. So can putting away the laptop, walking around the block, or writing tomorrow’s to-do list. The research found these modest rituals help couples leave work mode together and prevent job pressure from spilling into the relationship.
“We’ve taken away the commute. We’ve taken away that natural end of the workday,” Mutter says. “So you need to do it for yourself.”
Offer flexibility, set expectations
Hybrid work improved the sharing of home responsibilities for the couples interviewed, or at least did not make it worse. But when one partner had more flexibility, that person often still absorbed more of the domestic load.
“Nobody said it’s not helping,” Mutter says. “But there were certainly those who said it’s good – but it could be better.”
Even the floor plan can tilt two careers. Couples often gave the quiet office to the partner with the more senior or outward-facing role, leaving the other at the kitchen table to field children, pets, deliveries and family requests. The better workspace then supports better concentration and performance, reinforcing the original career gap.
Employers cannot manage every household negotiation. But they can offer genuine flexibility rather than three rigid office days, provide proper home equipment, set clear availability expectations, and assess remote staff fairly for development and promotion.
Hybrid work is no longer a temporary concession. Making it sustainable requires trust at work, negotiation at home, and boundaries strong enough to let people stop.
This is editorial produced by our journalists. Southern Cross Health Insurance is a sponsor of the Working Well series but does not necessarily endorse these articles. It is not its opinion. Read more in the series as it progresses here.
