THE ELEMENTS OF HYBRID Figuring out how to do this is far from straightforward. That's because to design hybrid work properly, you have to think about it along two axes: place and time. Place is the axis that's getting the most attention at the moment. Like Fujitsu's employees, millions of workers around the world this year have made a sudden shift from being place-constrained (working in the office) to being place-unconstrained (working anywhere). Perhaps less noticed is the shift many have also made along the time axis, from being time-constrained (working synchronously with others) to being time-unconstrained (working asynchronously whenever they choose). To help managers conceptualize the two-dimensional nature of this problem, I've long used a simple 2x2 matrix that's organized along those axes. (See the exhibit "Work Arrangements in Place and Time.") Before Covid-19, most companies offered minimal flexibility along both dimensions. This put them in the lower-left quadrant, with employees working in the office during prescribed hours. Some firms had begun to venture into the lowerright quadrant, by allowing more-flexible hours; others