AmEx employees can work from anywhere for 4 weeks every year! 🌎‍

AmEx announced a few weeks back that they will adopt hybrid working where employees can WFH for 2 days/week — Mondays & Fridays.

To further work flexibility, they are now planning to introduce full remote for a certain % of employees and a lucrative 'work from anywhere' policy for everyone!

From 2 days/week to a more flexible hybrid working model

80% of AmEx employees had indicated in a survey that they want some form of hybrid working.

AmEx CEO, Steve Squeri, also believes that a majority of employees will continue to work in a hybrid setting. However, the decision on what & how many common days to come in office will reside with individual business unit leaders.

He's expecting everyone to be in office for 2 days/week on average, and WFH for the rest of the days.

But here's the more interesting part. AmEx is adding a 'work from anywhere' policy for all employees irrespective of whether they work in a hybrid, fully remote or in-office setting.

Everyone will get to work from anywhere in the world for upto 4 weeks in a calendar year! Moreover, the 'work from anywhere' weeks don't have to be consecutive.

I think it's a really nice perk to add to a hybrid working model, that effectively lets employees plan some form of staycations or longer stays with their family.

Hybrid working is seeing increased popularity, but is it the future of work?

Firstly, it's important to understand what we mean by hybrid working.

We have full remote on one extreme, and in-office working on the other extreme. Now, everything in between is loosely termed as 'hybrid working'.

So effectively,

• WFH for 2 days/week, and stay within X miles of a designated office ⇒ Hybrid working
• WFH for X% of employees for Y days/week ⇒ Hybrid working
• Offices used only for collaboration, but you can work full remote if you like ⇒ Hybrid working

The underlying point I am driving is that not all hybrid models are great, and not all are bad either. So I still believe that a hybrid working model can work really well if it provides enough flexibility to employees while making sure in-person collaboration also takes place regularly.

Honestly, it's going to be hard to get hybrid working right. Possibly even harder than full remote or distributed working. But that's the choice most companies are making right now, and we can only wait & see how it actually plays out.

Meanwhile, enjoy this new video Microsoft posted about what hybrid working will possibly look like, at Microsoft: