A new book by social science researcher Dr Barbara Plester examines how hybrid work is changing the way people connect and find happiness in the modern workplace.
Have you ever misinterpreted a colleague's tone on a Teams chat? Or wondered what Mike meant by his face-without-a-mouth emoji in response to your carefully worded idea?
A new book by University of Auckland Business School Associate Professor Barbara Plester explores how communication, fun, humour and happiness are evolving in the age of hybrid work.
Hybrid Happiness: Fun and Freedom in Flexible Work investigates the social and emotional effects of flexible work. Based on prior research, Plester shows how hybrid models, when people divide their time between home and office, have altered workplace behaviours and made social aspects more crucial.
Over four full-immersion weeks, she spent time in two businesses, observing, collecting data, and interviewing workers at all levels, including CEOs and senior staff, as well as junior and newly hired staff.
Her first study was within a technology company she calls 'Gecko', and the second was conducted in a food manufacturing organisation (code-named Firefly). This research underpins much of the book.
"I took a grounded theory approach to my research; I didn't start with any specific hypothesis of what I would find, rather I let the findings emerge organically as the study progressed," she says. "This is how my research on fun and humour developed into a book about happiness, because participants conflated these ideas and constantly linked them."
Pictorial language builds liveliness into textual conversations and can indicate fun, play and humour - but it can easily be misconstrued and misread.
Associate Professor Barbara Plester University of Auckland Business School
The emotional landscape of hybrid work
Hybrid Happiness captures both the freedom and the frustrations of hybrid work. One chapter, The Emotional Landscape of Hybrid Work, explores how flexibility can also bring tension and anxiety, and how reading and comprehending message chats, emoticons, and GIFs has become a challenge for workers.
"Reading others' emotions online is complex and raises questions about emotional regulation and emotional labour," Plester writes.
"As emotions are increasingly expressed through technological channels, new forms of language such as emojis or pictograms are often used to illustrate feelings and as a substitute for in-person emotional cues. Pictorial language builds liveliness into textual conversations and can indicate fun, play and humour - but it can easily be misconstrued and misread."
Another chapter, Tech-Powered Freedom, investigates trust, surveillance and the blurring of boundaries between home and office.
Working in a hybrid model implies trust in workers, and Plester says all her research participants reinforced this point.
The benefits of feeling trusted at work usually flow on to positive work behaviours and improved job performance, she writes, pointing to an interview during her time at the food manufacturing organisation, Firefly, where one worker emphasised the importance of trust in hybrid working and her increased productivity when working from home:
"I prefer working from home because I'm more productive there. I do feel stress when I'm around people, as much as I love them… but I prefer to be away from a crowd… it's just about trust …trust. If you don't trust your employee, why employ them?"
Another chapter, Psychological Safety in Hybrid Fun, highlights why feeling safe to participate in workplace events - or to opt out - is essential to genuine workplace enjoyment. Examples detail the experience of employees, some of whom struggled with 'forced fun' in their workplaces.
The notion of forced fun, where workers feel compelled to join fun activities even if they don't enjoy them, may seem harmless, innocuous, and even positive, but Plester says earlier research shows that contrived 'fun' can cause distress, cynicism, loss of dignity and a feeling of being patronised by management.
She ultimately argues that safety, fun, play, and connection are vital elements of productive collaboration in hybrid workplaces.
Her research shows 'hybrid happiness' can't be forced, but can thrive in environments that value and foster trust, empathy, and adaptability.
