How to Gameplan Your Office Days: An Guide to Hybrid Work

Pre-pandemic, you were often the first to arrive in the office and the last to leave. So how, as an overachieving employee, can you make the most out of the new, hybrid workweek?

The rules for maximising office face time with the bosses are about to get more complicated as many companies gear up to reopen offices in the coming months. With Covid-19 cases back on the rise and many employees uneager to give up remote work entirely, many employers plan to let staff decide what days—and how many—they come into the office. For the ambitious worker, that means strategizing what in-office days will get you noticed the most and how to maximize the time to your career’s advantage.

The consensus among many managers and leadership coaches for companies where showing up to the office matters: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are shaping up to be peak office face time days. Mondays are for those looking for an extra jump on colleagues in getting more alone-time with senior leaders—though it isn’t a sure thing those managers will always be there. Fridays are arguably the most negligible, but a jackpot office day if it is just you and the top boss.

Or, you could follow this basic rule: “Your boss’s schedule is your schedule,” says Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Another strategy, he adds, is to simply come in as much as possible. Though many companies say they are letting workers keep some degree of flexibility, it is inevitable that employees with the most in-person access to leaders will get the first crack at promotions, Mr. Cappelli argues. In a hybrid work world, those coming in as much as possible have another advantage: Plenty of co-workers will still be away.

“It’s better that other people are not there and you’re not fighting for attention,” he says. That is particularly the case if you tend to be more introverted. “You don’t have to go out of the way to make contact” with higher-ups, he says.

Others argue the old maxims of office face time no longer apply. To show off your talent and skills in person, it is better for employees to coordinate office appearances with their teams for optimal collaboration, rather than show up on their own schedules, says Cali Yost, the chief executive and founder of workplace-consulting company Flex+Strategy Group.

“Your success should be coordinating with everyone else,” she says. “An overachiever is defined differently as we move into the future. It’s not going to be who comes on site every day but the person who can work and lead effectively across different places and spaces effectively.”

Some companies aren’t leaving what days employees come into the office to individual ambition. Apple Inc.’s initial reopening plans called for most office workers to show up Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the option to work remotely on Wednesdays and Fridays. Those plans, first set for September, then pushed to October, have now been delayed until at least January because of the fast-spreading Delta variant. Salesforce.com Inc. discovered, after reopening its Sydney office, that Thursdays emerged as the most popular day for people to come in.

“Thursday’s the new Monday,” says Brent Hyder, the company’s chief people officer.

Mastering the hybrid workweek also isn’t just about the days you come in, but how effectively you use them, says Tsedal Neeley, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of the book “Remote Work Revolution.”

“It’s not just looking at people’s calendars and trying to run into them,” says Ms. Neeley, who argues that Thursdays—as the week’s work comes to a head—are likely to become the most popular in-office day in many workplaces. “You want to coordinate activities for the week whenever you have in-office days,” she says. That means using the days to set up coffee chats with managers, power lunches and project powwows with co-workers.

Francis Ndicu, a 26-year-old product manager at marketing-and-sales platform provider HubSpot Inc., went to the company’s Cambridge, Mass., office every day but Friday when it reopened in early July. By coming in more often than some team members, Mr. Ndicu says he was able to network with more leaders from other parts of the company he wouldn’t normally work with. To maximize the office time, Mr. Ndicu says he never eats lunch alone.

“Getting that face time, it’s a visual reminder you exist in the company outside of your team,” says Mr. Ndicu, who has since cut his office days to Wednesdays and Thursdays because of the Delta variant. “The next time they are thinking about a new project, you’re closer to the top of their mind than others.”

Keith Ferrazzi, an executive coach and author of “Leading Without Authority,” recommends scheduling 15-minute coffee breaks with the boss and other senior managers each week. Use the time to talk about your accomplishments while you were working remotely or to ask about side projects you could help with, he suggests. It is also a good opportunity to ask more personal questions—such as, how the children are doing—that can be neglected in a virtual setting, he says.

“If you’re really a go-getter, you want to do this for other people around the organization,” he said. “You can just ask for career advice or say, ‘Hey I’d love to have 15 minutes with you just make sure I’m aligning my thinking with your goals for the company.’ ”

The U.S. and Chinese governments should take action to lower future borrowing, as a surge in their debts threatens to have “profound” effects on the global economy and the interest rates paid by other countries, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.

In its twice-yearly report on government borrowing, the Fund said many rich countries have adopted measures that will lead to a reduction in their debts relative to the size of their economies, although not to the levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, that is not true of the U.S. and China, which will continue to see a surge in borrowing if current policies remain in place. The Fund projected that U.S. government debt relative to economic output will rise by 70% by 2053, while Chinese debt will more than double by the same year.

The Fund said both countries will lead a rise in global government debt to 98.8% of economic output in 2029 from 93.2% in 2023. The U.K. and Italy are among the other big contributors to that increase.

“The increase will be led by some large economies, for example, China, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which critically need to take policy action to address fundamental imbalances between spending and revenues,” the IMF said.

The IMF expects U.S. government debt to be 133.9% of annual gross domestic product in 2029, up from 122.1% in 2023. And it expects China’s debt to rise to 110.1% of GDP by the same year from 83.6%.

The Fund said there had been “large fiscal slippages” in the U.S. during 2023, with government spending exceeding revenues by 8.8% of GDP, up from 4.1% in the previous year. It expects the budget deficit to exceed 6% over the medium term.

That level of borrowing is slowing progress toward reducing inflation, the Fund said, and may also increase the interest rates paid by other governments.

“Loose US fiscal policy could make the last mile of disinflation harder to achieve while exacerbating the debt burden,” the Fund said. “Further, global interest rate spillovers could contribute to tighter financial conditions, increasing risks elsewhere.”

A series of weak auctions for U.S. Treasurys are stoking investors’ concerns that markets will struggle to absorb an incoming rush of government debt. The government is poised to sell another $386 billion or so of bonds in May—an onslaught that Wall Street expects to continue no matter who wins November’s presidential election.

While analysts don’t expect those sales to fail, a sharp rise in U.S. bond yields would likely have consequences for borrowers around the world. The IMF estimated that a rise of one percentage point in U.S. yields leads to a matching rise for developing economies and an increase of 90 basis points in other rich countries.

“Long-term government bond yields in the United States remain elevated and sensitive to inflation developments and monetary policy decisions,” the Fund said. “This could lead to volatile financing conditions in other economies.”

China’s budget deficit fell to 7.1% of GDP in 2023 from 7.5% the previous year, but the IMF projects a steady pickup from this year to 7.9% in 2029. It warned that a slowdown in the world’s second largest economy “exacerbated by unintended fiscal tightening” would likely weaken growth elsewhere, and reduce aid flows that have become a significant source of funding for governments in Africa and Latin America.

An unusually large number of elections is likely to push government borrowing higher this year, the Fund said. It estimates that 88 economies or economic areas are set for significant votes, and that budget deficits tend to be 0.3% of GDP higher in election years than in other years.

“What makes this year different is not only the confluence of elections, but the fact that they will happen amid higher demand for public spending,” the Fund said. “The bias toward higher spending is shared across the political spectrum, indicating substantial challenges in gathering support for consolidation in the years ahead, and particularly in a key election year like 2024.”

How to Gameplan Your Office Days: An Guide to Hybrid Work

What days in the office will get you the most face time with senior leaders

Says U.S. and China, which will continue to see a surge in borrowing if current policies remain in place.