More Duluth businesses are embracing hybrid mode of working

Remote working became the norm during the pandemic lockdown and a lot of employees prefer to continue working this way even though the lockdowns are over.

We continue to normalize out of the pandemic and many companies are now requiring their staff to return to the office. But this move is getting significant push back from employees who are in jobs that can be performed virtually. Recently Disney announced that it will now be requiring all employees to work in person four days a week.

Director of Marketing and Communications, Christina Johnson at Duluth Chamber of Commerce says they’ve been monitoring how organizations in the area are doing business.

”The Chamber conducted a survey last summer to survey our members on what modality they were working in kind of pre-pandemic and post-pandemic, and what that looked like as we had 250 respondents, 70% of our respondents were completely in-person before the pandemic. And as of last summer, those same people that completed this survey, only 35% of those respondents were completely in-person. So we are seeing a shift in our membership, too, and that’s not all completely remote. But that’s, you know, some kind of hybrid system”

She says working from home or some form of hybrid work is the new normal.

”In a lot of respects, I believe that the hybrid or remote work model is here to stay, and certainly entities will have to define what that looks like on an individual basis, whether that’s hybrid or completely remote, completely in-person. But I do think in some regards there will be some aspect and some more flexibility here to stay.”

She says her job at the chamber is also adapting to the new mode of working.

”Currently, the chamber is operating with a hybrid model. So we’re in the office three days a week. We’re allowed to work remote two days a week. And there is a lot of flexibility within that. So we’re allowed, if we have a sick child or something where we need to work from home and remote, we certainly can do that.”

Hybrid, remote of in person mode of working is going to be ultimately decided by individual organizations and job description.