The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Remote, Hybrid, or In-Office: What's the Right Fit?

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Since 2019, I’ve led major IT programs, including Workday ERP and the technology for a new children’s hospital, while mainly working remotely. In this episode, "Remote, Hybrid, or In-Office: What's the Right Fit?", I break down the pros and cons of remote, hybrid, and in-office work, drawing on real-world experience and leadership lessons.Links:Full article on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/remote-hybrid-in-office-whats-right-fit-your-work-life-kevin-pannell-kqvceRelated episode from 2020: https://blubrry.com/peopleprocessprogress/83155078/how-to-transition-to-effective-teleworking-in-2020-ppp-12/

Welcome to the People, Process, Progress podcast. I'm Kevin Pennell, project management office leader, US Navy veteran, father, creator of the Stability Equation book. You can find it on Amazon. Here at Believe in Putting People First, Combining Process and Making Progress Together. So today's episode is for everyone navigating

the ongoing question, where should we work? Remote, hybrid, or in office? And whether you're leaving teams or just trying to stay productive and present in your own life, there are real pros and cons to each setup. But first, let's set some ground rules. Please silence your cell phones,

hold all sidebar conversations to a minimum, and let's get started with the People Process Progress podcast. Three, two, one. As we do often here, let's start with people because no matter what the model, work still comes down to relationships, trust, and communication. So remote work can be a gift, really, especially when it comes to presence at home. Since 2019, I've worked almost fully remote. I've been able to lead full scale IT programs this way,

including the planning and implementation of Workday and Enterprise Resource Planning System, and standing up to technology to help a brand new children's hospital open. And the key has been building trust from a distance and showing up to a person when it matters, right? So site visits, working sessions, or key go lives. But remote also brings some challenges, right?

When cameras are off and the hallway chats don't happen, connection slips. New team members can feel isolated because they're remote, they haven't met anybody in person, maybe sometimes for years over the past few years. It takes intention to build culture remotely. Hybrid work has the potential to give us the best of both worlds. You get the flexibility of remote and the face time of in-office work.

But it can also cause some disconnection if people don't coordinate their schedules. If people are in the office different days, then we don't see each other anyway, things get lost. I've seen folks make the effort to go in, only to end up sitting alone on a Zoom, which to me provides zero value. In-office work helps people read body language, right? It's where we really get to pick up our soft skills. And sometimes we can learn faster

by being around others in person. So that matters, especially for early career professionals or team members trying to grow. So my two cents here for people is that people thrive in different models, right? But the need for real connection stays the same. So both for yourself as an individual, you need to figure out what model's best for your life

as it is now. And then your organization needs to figure out what's the best balance for their people. Now let's start process. So how we structure our day, collaborate, and manage projects changes based on where we work. So for remote, right, it makes process even more important. Because we don't have shared physical space, we're not sitting in a room right you need shared digital habits what are your agendas what's the focus of the meeting did we write follow-ups do we have guides and rules for how we communicate whether it's email or message or on those you know zoom calls or teams calls or whatever video conferencing software

you're using it's it's how I've helped keep large-scale IT programs moving and projects and keep in touch with my team is we have a focus whether it's a short stand-up, what's happening, what's gonna happen, what do you help with, or it's kind of a longer agenda based on some requirements for project or something like that right even while managing from my home office and it's very doable. So the flexibility that you get from remote work is very very powerful, right? You can go heads down for deep work, no interruptions, and then walk or have lunch with your kids. But with no structure, you can drift.

And some folks know they can't do that. They can't be home alone. They'll get distracted. So you have to have the discipline too. That's a big factor of remote work as well. That should be part of your process. Hybrid work is process alignment, right? So who's in on what days?

And when are the in-person meetings? When are required in-person meetings versus when are ones where it'd be great if folks were together? Are we using an office for collaboration? Are we gonna log in from a desk? Like what's the standard? Where can we work from?

How does that work for everybody that's typically been out of the office and they're coming back in or people that have been in the office and they're starting to become more hybrid but we need to get our process and our rhythm aligned and shared if not the hybrid work can can really I think fall apart the in-office work really good real-time adjustments right everyone's there oh this this room's not booked I know that's old school for some people's minds.

So let's just go sit in a touchdown space, an open area, have a discussion, or just go get some lunch or something. And you can read the room. To me, this is the biggest value. In addition to after hours breaking bread with folks or just catching up is you can read the room. You can see people's faces and bodies, which makes a big difference. It gives you a much better picture of somebody's emotional state

and kind of their thought process as well. You can drop in and solve something. Hey, let me just get up and come talk to you, right? But you also got a plan, right? You got to commute now. Does parking cost money? Are you taking food to try and stay eating more healthy or what you want?

Or there's not dining options near you. And that's a little friction if you don't manage it well. It's things that we've been doing for you know a long time in the modern world when folks have been commuting and working but it's something you got to consider but no matter the model process is what keeps things from slipping through the cracks right. Your own process I did a an episode a while ago tips on remote work right because some folks weren't used to it. I started a little before COVID when folks had to do remote work and so I helped with the process of like get up and get dressed.

Of course, get up and exercise first, then shower and get dressed, don't work from your room, get a workspace, all these kinds of things. And I'll share that in the show notes as well. But having a process, whether you're fully remote, whether you go in sometimes and you're remote sometimes

in that hybrid environment or you're in the office all the time is very helpful, some of that structure. So let's get to progress, right? So the goal isn't just to work, it's to move forward personally and professionally and to move your work forward personally and professionally and your teams, right? So for me, remote work has allowed massive progress, right? More time with my family, better workouts in my garage gym,

more time for jujitsu classes, and the ability to build things like this podcast in my book, right? Now I balance personal time and professional time, but there's crossover for that. And the old school notion to me of you can't ever do personal things during the kind of nine to five hours is silly,

and it's not practical, and it wasn't fair before. And I think that's largely dissolved a bit. But it's also enabled a deep focus when needed, right? I can sit there and churn through a bunch of costs for a project proposal or looking through evals or something, I can just sit there and do it largely, especially during the school year where my kids are gone, my wife's working in her office, and it's just super focused.

No one's gonna come bother me or check in, you know, which can be bothersome if you're trying to be heads down. So I can do that as needed and really intentional travel. And again, these days, if the infrastructure is there, which is in most of the parts of the world where you're, if you're trying to stay connected, unless you're trying to disconnect and go off grid, kind of into the mountains or whatever, you can work really from anywhere, which is pretty helpful. So that being said, I still really believe

in the power of being in the room. Some of the best ideas in trust building I've had were face to face, particularly in public safety and emergency management, we're planning for a big sporting event or a response. And the only way to do that is to get there, grind through the tough conversations, write the stuff on the whiteboard or the documents

or the big laminated we used to use forms and stuff and it's super helpful and and then you know you go through the hard parts together and the good parts together and everywhere in between and that's why I see kind of hybrid is really the strong intention and clear expectations, right? We're gonna be here these days. Everyone's gonna be there the same day as we're gonna focus on these things for our focus time together But that doesn't mean we have to play in the whole day as we're going to focus on these things for our focus time together. But that doesn't mean we have to plan the whole day together for all on-site hybrid. As long as that's the best long-term path for the teams, who all is there from your teams, who's there from leadership, who's there from the organization that's going to

be beneficial to each other. Progress really looks different to me, I think, depending on where you are in life. If you're a parent, remote might be key and super helpful. Or if you're taking care of your parents who are aging, similarly, right? If you're just starting out, to me, being in the office is the place to go, or at least hybrid. You need to see the people that you work with in person. You need to see the facilities, the company you work for, particularly me in healthcare,

seeing where patients are taking care of, seeing where they're building the things that you're hoping sell, like the widgets or whatever, and that's huge, and it'll accelerate your learning. You'll have a better understanding when you're remotely facilitating a project, and you can picture what the output of that is, because you've been there and you've seen it, right?

And the point is, match the work model to the human and the mission. Right, so what's the right model? It depends. It depends on your team, depends on your role and your life season, but I think what stays true, whether it's remote, hybrid, or in-office work, is people need connection, process provides clarity,

and progress should show the output of the work regardless of the style that it is. Right, and so you need to tailor that. And I'd love to hear your take, right? What's working for you right now? What challenge are you still running into? I'm Kevin Pannell on LinkedIn. I'm on at P-A-N-N-E-L-L-K-G, PannellLKG on X and Instagram.

And you can reach out to me there. You can go to peopleprocessprogress.com. There's a contact form, but would love to hear about it. You can reply when I post this on the website and other places. You can find the full written conversation of this. I wrote this as an article today actually on LinkedIn, so you can go there and comment as well.

I'll put that in the show notes. If you enjoyed it, please share this with somebody. Leave a review on Apple, Spotify, the big players. You can, of course, listen on pretty much every podcast platform. And again, I share the social contacts. I really appreciate it. But share with someone who's leading the team

or trying to figure out what's their idea of work with them or what's the work with them for their team or their organization. Thank you so much for listening. As always, people first, process combined, and progress together. Godspeed y'all.