Missing voices: Office space discontent as a driving force in employee hybrid work preferences

Abstract

This paper draws on rich qualitative and survey data to show that employee discontent with office space is a major driving force in employee hybrid-work preferences. Despite voice marginalisation, employees wish to take advantage of increased control over their physical working conditions and the locus of work that hybrid work has unexpectedly brought in their working lives. Taking cues from the literature on employee voice, this paper suggests that employee missing or silenced voices can be conceptualised as latent: hidden but potentially influential and inactive but potentially triggered by shifts in the labour market conditions or other external to organisations changes. The paper also brings attention to empirical academic studies as an employee voice mechanism.