Is full-time WFH working out?

Fewer of those routine tasks means fewer chances for a junior employee to be corrected, mentored and gradually trusted with more, which puts far more weight on whatever in-person time remains. HR teams aren’t watching these employees quit. They’re watching something quieter and, in its way, more worrying: Kahoot! growth director Ahteram Uddin has described a “neutral middle” emerging among early-career employees, workers who show up, do what’s asked, but remain emotionally checked out.

“Having the right mentor, a mentor who can actually coach them, someone who can give them the hand-holding that they need, even if it’s remotely, that is a very important part of the learning, onboarding, as well as growth success,” Uddin said, noting that hybrid and remote setups can still deliver that support if organizations design for it deliberately.

So, is it working out?

Not as cleanly as 2021’s remote-work evangelists promised, for most companies. Hybrid, done well, looks like a genuine win on productivity, performance and retention. Fully remote trades some retention and happiness for real costs to promotion, innovation and mentoring, costs that are harder to wave away now than they were in 2021, given the mentoring gap AI has opened up for junior staff.

None of that means fully remote can’t work. Bloom points to payroll, benefits and IT support as functions where it runs smoothly. But for roles built on coordination, judgment-sharing and on-the-job learning, the evidence suggests the real trade-off was never hybrid versus office. It’s hybrid versus fully remote. And right now, only one of them is winning.