Does Hybrid Work Increase Stress? [A Definitive Answer]

For many workers, the prospect of shifting to hybrid work is full of promises of work-life balance.

Spend only two or three days at the office and work the rest of the time from home!

Reduce your commuting time!

Get out of bed 30 minutes later than usual!

Enjoy a flexible work schedule!

Have more time to spend with your family!

With true benefits like these, hybrid work does sound ideal — and it can be. But if it isn’t managed well, it can affect employee stress levels, because hybrid work introduces a new working format that may be unfamiliar and require a whole new way to think about your work day.

So: does hybrid work increase stress? It doesn’t have to — as long as you have the right policies and technologies in place.

There’s an art and a science to implementing hybrid work in a way that keeps your employees happy, in a good mental state, and motivated to keep doing good work.

This article covers how to prevent stress from building up in employees who work in hybrid environments.

Quick Answer:

Hybrid work by itself doesn’t increase stress. The split between home and office is a working format, not a stressor. What raises or lowers stress is how the model is managed: clear policies, the right tools, and respect for boundaries. A 2025 study of 4,002 hybrid workers across the US and UK by International Workplace Group found 70% experienced fewer stress-related health conditions and 80% reported better work-life balance and reduced anxiety.

But to get those results, work through the following eight mitigation tips:

1. Set clear work-from-home policies.
2. Respect employees’ work preferences.
3. Use the right hybrid work management software.
4. Encourage employees to have a dedicated workspace at home.
5. Honor employees’ work/life boundaries.
6. Encourage breaks.
7. Conduct frequent, friendly check-ins.
8. Offer an informal digital meeting space.

These tips and other information on whether hybrid work increases stress are covered below.

The hybrid work experience paradox

Companies and employees are still weighing hybrid work’s advantages and disadvantages, even though it’s now the dominant setup for people who can do their jobs remotely.

Many workers simply love hybrid work. They like the flexibility and report that it gives them less stress than other arrangements.

Gallup’s 2025 data shows that among US employees in remote-capable jobs, 51% work hybrid, about 28% are fully remote, and 21% are fully on-site. Those splits have barely moved since 2022, which tells you hybrid isn’t a transitional phase. It’s the operating model.

Preference runs the same way. Roughly 6 in 10 remote-capable employees say they’d choose a hybrid arrangement, and the ideal for most sits at two to three office days a week.

Despite that enthusiasm, other research shows hybrid work can still leave employees stressed — and the reasons are usually about management, not location.

Owl Labs’ 2025 State of Hybrid Work report, based on 2,000 full-time US workers, found that 9 in 10 employees say they’re stressed at work, and for 39% of them it has gotten worse over the past year. Stress shows up across every work model. The top drivers workers named were lack of career growth (50%), limited flexibility (47%), worry over job stability (47%), and having their activities monitored (47%).

Check out this article if you want more hybrid work stats.

So if employees love hybrid work, especially compared with entirely in-person arrangements, why is stress still so common? The answer is what happens around the format: unclear boundaries, weak communication, and thin management support. We’ll get into that below. First, some context on workplace stress in general.

What is work-related stress?

Work-related stress is the harmful physical and emotional response that happens when the demands of a job don’t match a person’s ability to cope with them.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work frames it as a negative psychological state that arises when work pressures become excessive and prolonged relative to a person’s perceived ability to cope.

The traditional workplace contributes plenty of it.

Starting the day with a rush to get out the door, caring for dependents, and slogging through traffic jams or the daily grind of a crowded commute is just the first source of stress.

Once at the workplace, common stressors include:

• Unclear directions or processes
• Conflicts with coworkers or supervisors
• An unhealthy or unsafe work environment
• Not feeling adequately compensated for the work done

So if working partially from home removes the morning commute and eases other pressures, does hybrid work increase stress or reduce it?

Types of employee stress related to hybrid work

Hybrid work reduces some stressors outright, such as the daily commute or being physically present in an unhealthy workspace.

Here’s the catch:

The other stressors on that list — unclear directions, interpersonal conflict, feeling underpaid for the value you bring — don’t disappear when someone works from home.

In many cases, a hybrid environment not supported by clear hybrid work policies exposes a real gap in off-site communication or in operations and processes.

Even with its benefits, hybrid employees report new challenges that can cause stress over time:

• Distractions at home (spouse/partner, kids, pets, deliveries, etc.)
• Difficulty staying disciplined or motivated
• Fear of covert electronic monitoring by supervisors seeking to maintain control
• A sense of becoming disconnected from coworkers (this can be triggered by generational differences)
• Lugging equipment, such as a laptop, back and forth between work and home
• Technology challenges such as lacking adequate equipment, the right software, or company network access at home
• A slow or unstable internet connection
• Feeling like you’re always working, or that your work life is seeping into your home life
• Difficulty connecting virtually with one’s boss, team, or department
• Feeling like it’s harder to take time off when you’re not in the office

The blurred line between home and work deserves a closer look, because it’s one of the most consistent stress signals in current research. Owl Labs found that only 27% of hybrid workers say they have a clear start and end to their workday, compared with 64% of in-office workers. When the day never really ends, checking email and chat at all hours becomes the norm, and that “always-on” pattern is what tips flexibility into fatigue.

Surveillance is the other one worth naming. In Owl Labs’ 2025 data, only 19% of workers said their company isn’t using employee tracking software, and having their activities monitored ranked among workers’ top concerns. Monitoring tends to erode trust, and low trust is a stress multiplier.

The good news: employers can address most of these contributors through good hybrid work management (more on that below).

But first, what’s the impact of going hybrid on employers?

Employer stress related to a hybrid workplace

Employees aren’t the only ones facing new stress from hybrid work. Employers, managers, and supervisors also have to adapt to this way of working and prevent burnout.

Their stressors look a little different, but they’re tied directly to how employees experience stress:

• Staying on top of employee engagement and productivity when the team isn’t always present
• Juggling meetings when key employees aren’t in the workspace
• Investing in, mastering, and maintaining new technologies to keep the hybrid workforce connected
• The sunk costs of empty offices
• The effect of empty desks on employee morale

Managers carry a real load here. Gallup found that where teams, not individuals, set the hybrid rules, people are more productive and less anxious. That points to a fix worth stealing: let teams agree on shared norms rather than leaving each person to guess.

To minimize hybrid work stress, it helps to understand how potential stressors affect different personality types. That makes managing a hybrid workforce, and finding solutions, much easier.

How hybrid work affects different personality types

There’s no one best personality type for hybrid work.

Any personality type can do well in a hybrid environment because the format is flexible by design. The trick is to account for each employee’s strengths and needs when you manage the team.

There are many personality frameworks, but for brevity we’ll use the DiSC® model. Many companies use DiSC in hiring to gauge how well an applicant fits the role and the company.

DiSC works with four profiles: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. Each responds differently to workplace stress, and you can adapt the hybrid environment to their strengths.

Dominance

A person with a high D score wants to make things happen, ideally in no time.

As the typical drivers in the workplace, D-types love action and thrive in creative tension. They handle stress better than most and generally do well in a flexible environment.

So throw the Ds into hybrid work head-first. Most will be eager to take on the new challenge.

Influence

The i-types love the social side of life. They’re enthusiastic, optimistic, collaborative, friendly, and convincing.

Their greatest fear is loss of influence. Being thrust into an environment where social connections thin out can cause them a lot of stress.

So make sure your i-types have ways to stay connected in a hybrid setup so they don’t lose their social moorings.

Steadiness

Those with a high S-score enjoy collaborating. They tend to be calm, consistent, patient, and predictable, and they like stable, routine work.

S-types fear a loss of stability. A hybrid arrangement can stress them simply because it uproots fixed patterns and demands more flexibility.

So go easy on the S-types. Reassure them that new processes will soon settle. And if they struggle with the change, give them the option of staying put.

Conscientiousness

C-types are knowledge-oriented, factual, and methodical. They demand accuracy and use their analytical skills to get things done the right way.

C-types may resist processes that seem random to them, such as changing desks every day. But once they understand the rationale, they tend to do well in hybrid arrangements.

So help the C-types see the concrete benefits of hybrid work. They may well become your best advocates.

With this extra effort, each type will feel supported as they settle into hybrid work.

8 tips to reduce hybrid work stress

Keeping personality types and different stress responses in mind, here are eight ways to manage potential hybrid work stress.

1. Set clear work-from-home policies

For many companies, policy still lags behind practice. That gap creates stress-inducing situations where employees aren’t clear about what’s expected of them.

So before going hybrid, write a straightforward work-from-home policy that applies to everyone. Where you can, let teams shape the specifics: Gallup’s data shows shared, team-level norms lower anxiety more than top-down rules.

Here are two free ebooks on developing a hybrid work model:

1. Hybrid Work For Dummies, OfficeRnD Special Edition
2. Guidelines and Policies for Optimizing Your Hybrid Workspace

2. Respect employees’ work preferences

Not everyone takes well to hybrid work. Some simply don’t like it, even if they could manage it.

To keep your workforce happy, don’t pressure people into hybrid work when it clashes with their circumstances.

Instead, run an employee-centric workplace strategy that lets workers shape their own arrangements.

3. Use the right hybrid work management software

Coordinating hybrid schedules gets complicated fast, but workplace software takes the manual work off your plate.

OfficeRnD Workplace gives HR, facilities, and IT teams desk and meeting-room booking, scheduling, and workplace analytics in one place, so people come to the office for the moments that matter without the coordination headaches.

Watch a 1-minute video on desk booking and more:

4. Encourage employees to have a dedicated workspace at home

Help your employees get set up remotely with recommendations for a good home office.

Provide the equipment you’d give them in the office, such as a large monitor and an ergonomic chair.

Check out this article on the top hot desking accessories.

Set up a system to reimburse home office expenses such as pens, printer ink, and copy paper. Nobody should have to come begging for basics.

5. Honor employees’ work-life boundaries

Set clear guidelines for when people at home can and can’t be contacted for work, so they don’t feel always on call. This matters: only about a quarter of hybrid workers report a clear end to their day, so the boundary won’t hold itself.

Encourage the “turn off notifications” feature in whatever communication tools the company uses.

6. Encourage breaks

Breaks reset the mind and body during the day.

Remote workers tend to take fewer of them. Some feel guilty stepping away from the computer for anything more than a bathroom break.

So reassure your remote employees that breaks are fine. Encourage them to get out of the chair and go outside for some movement and fresh air.

7. Conduct frequent, friendly check-ins

Since disconnection from coworkers is a real risk, have supervisors touch base regularly with remote workers.

Do it not just over messaging or email but in person, via phone or video, and show interest in the person’s life beyond the job.

8. Offer an informal digital meeting space

Isolation is a well-documented risk of remote work. Owl Labs found that among workers who feel left out of meetings, hybrid and remote workers make up a real share of the group, and connection ranks high on what employees say they miss.

To counter it, give employees a space such as Zoom or a team chat channel where they can touch base informally, the way they would at the office. You can also organize virtual team-building activities.

The final verdict: does hybrid work increase stress?

Hybrid work can raise stress for some people, mostly through blurred work-life boundaries, adapting to new technology, and feeling cut off from colleagues. It can also lower stress by adding flexibility, reducing commuting time, and improving work-life balance.

Which way it goes comes down to management. Employers control most of these stressors through policies and tools designed to make hybrid work easier for employees and managers alike.

Reduce workplace stress with OfficeRnD Workplace

OfficeRnD Workplace helps HR, facilities, and IT teams run a hybrid office with desk and room booking, scheduling, and workplace analytics, so coordination stays simple and people know what to expect.

Start for free with OfficeRnD Workplace, or book a live demo and talk to our workplace experts about the right fit for your team.

FAQ

Does hybrid work cause stress or reduce it?

Both are possible, depending on management. Hybrid work removes commute stress and adds flexibility, but weak boundaries, poor communication, and employee monitoring can push stress back up. In IWG’s 2025 study of 4,002 hybrid workers, 70% reported fewer stress-related health conditions and 80% reported better work-life balance.

Are employees happy with hybrid work?

In general, yes. Gallup finds that most remote-capable employees prefer a hybrid setup, with the sweet spot at roughly two to three office days a week.

Is hybrid work better for mental health?

For many workers, the flexibility to choose when and where they work brings more peace of mind.

To offset the risk of feeling disconnected from the company and colleagues, employers can give people structured ways to stay in touch.

What are the negative effects of hybrid working?

The most common ones are blurred work-life boundaries, difficulty staying focused for people who prefer fixed structure, and a sense of isolation. Owl Labs found that only 27% of hybrid workers report a clear start and end to their day, which feeds an “always-on” pattern. See our guide on how to manage your time in a hybrid workplace.

What are the problems with hybrid work schedules?

Employees often feel their work-hour boundaries are unclear, so they’re always on call. Statista reports that 43% of hybrid employees feel left out of meetings.

Employers can also face reduced office occupancy. Tools such as OfficeRnD Workplace help manage these challenges.