The myth of “returning to normal”: why work has fundamentally changed for parents

Many organisations are trying to return to normal.
The problem is - for working parents, normal no longer exists.

Workers are being encouraged back into the office. Policies are hardening around more face-to-face time. Teams are being pulled into new rhythms that look increasingly like old ones.

But for working parents, there is no “normal” to return to.

What has taken place over the past few years is not a temporary disruption. It is a structural reset that has permanently reshaped how working parents organise their work and home life. Yet many organisations are still operating as though nothing fundamental has changed.

Research from WOMBA and Hult International Business School has consistently highlighted that flexible and hybrid working are no longer nice-to-haves - they are critical enablers of workforce participation, particularly for parents and carers.

The redesign of everyday life

During the shift to hybrid and remote work, families didn’t simply adapt - they redesigned their lives.

Childcare arrangements were rebuilt.
Commutes were eliminated or reduced.
Daily routines became more fluid - but also more complex.

Flexible working has since become one of the most valued aspects of employment, particularly among working parents. Without it, many parents - especially mothers - face significant barriers to remaining in or progressing within the workforce.

Remove hybrid working, and the system doesn’t flex - it breaks.

The policy vs reality gap

There is a growing disconnect between how organisations design work and how people actually experience it.

On paper:

• Flexible working exists

• Return-to-office policies are “balanced”

• Support systems are in place

In reality:

• Meetings cluster around school pick-up times

• Visibility still drives progression

• Flexibility is inconsistently applied

This gap is not just frustrating - it is systemic. Many organisations overestimate the effectiveness of their inclusion and flexibility policies, while employees report a very different lived experience.

As WOMBA’s research highlights:
“Without an enabling culture that proactively and genuinely supports diverse groups such as working parents… at best talent will not perform at their best, and at worst, they will leave.”

Policy without cultural adoption creates performative flexibility, not real inclusion.

The hidden cost of “normal”

The push to return to pre-pandemic norms is often framed around productivity, culture, and collaboration.
But rarely is the cost to employees’ lives fully accounted for.

For working parents, this cost includes:

• Reintroducing long commutes

• Rebuilding childcare infrastructure

• Losing autonomy over time

When flexibility is reduced, the burden does not disappear - it shifts back onto individuals, often invisibly, and disproportionately onto women.

Hybrid work was never about location

One of the most persistent misconceptions is that hybrid work is about where work happens.

In reality, it is about how life is structured around work.

For working parents, hybrid work enables presence at key family moments, reduces logistical strain, and makes sustained performance more realistic. Flexibility is not a concession - it is a performance enabler.

Which raises an important question:

Are organisations trying to manage a digital economy using industrial-age assumptions - where visibility is still treated as a proxy for effort?

Because if work has fundamentally changed, leadership must evolve with it.

What leadership needs to understand now

This requires a shift:

• From Policy to Experience - Design work based on lived reality

• From Visibility to Output - Measure performance through outcomes, not presence

• From Flexibility as a Benefit to Flexibility as Infrastructure - Treat it as essential, not optional

This is not about where people work.
It is about how work is designed.

A Leadership Question Worth Asking

Instead of asking:
“How do we get people back to the way things were?”

A more useful question is:
“What has permanently changed - and how do we redesign for that reality?”

Because the organisations that succeed will not be those that try to restore the past, but those that recognise that, for many employees, the future of work is already here.