We’ve all heard the pitch: “Hybrid work is the future.” But dig beneath the slogans and you’ll find wildly different realities—some thriving, others quietly imploding. In this episode, I sit down with Lynette Caruso, a PhD candidate at Australian National University, to unpack her field research across public and private sectors on what makes hybrid work succeed—or fail.

From the power of casual coffee chats to the pitfalls of hot desking, Lynette shows how flexible policies often collapse under rigid cultures. If you’ve ever wondered why your “flexible” workplace feels anything but, or why your team can’t seem to find its rhythm under hybrid rules, this conversation will help you cut through the noise.

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