Reading passage
When flexibility isn’t flexible
Flexible work was once presented as a simple exchange: employees gained autonomy, while employers reduced their reliance on expensive office space. In practice, the arrangement has proved more delicate.
Researchers have found that flexibility produces its greatest benefits when teams agree on clear moments for collaboration and protect uninterrupted time for individual work. Without those shared norms, employees may gain freedom over location but lose control over their attention.
The lesson is not that flexibility has failed. Rather, it is that changing where people work without reconsidering how they work merely relocates old problems.
Coach cue: be suspicious of options using absolute words like “always”, “only”, or “less”.