There is much talk about what the "return to work" era will look like for companies as the U.S. economy gradually approaches a post-pandemic economy. The most popular option for such a return is "hybrid work." "A hybrid work model is not a temporary fix," said Stacey Richey, vice president of Corvus Insurance, "but instead a new course for how businesses will operate in our new normal." Indeed, according to a recent McKinsey survey, nine out of ten companies are planning to make the shift to a hybrid environment. However, a majority of the companies surveyed don't have a detailed plan in place for such a shift, and nearly a third say their organizations' top teams lack alignment on a vision for the shift. How can employees know if their companies are on the right track with a hybrid setup? FlexJobs has identified ten warning signs that a company's hybrid culture could quickly turn toxic. The FlexJobs team defines a hybrid setup three ways:

1. Having staff work in the office part of the week and remotely the rest of the week, with the staff sometimes choosing their in-person and remote days and other times the company assigning those days based on  business needs and available space;
2. Companies rotating different teams of staff in and out by the week so that one team is in the office for one week and remote the rest of the time;
3. Workers themselves choosing whether they're fully (or mostly) in-person or remote.

"At the very core of all successful remote and hybrid workplaces are leaders that are taking very conscientious efforts to intentionally consider and then thoughtfully build their company's work environments," said Sara Sutton, CEO & founder of FlexJobs. "Job seekers and workers should be aware that hybrid workplaces can be toxic on a number of levels if they're not being carefully managed." See our slideshow for the ten red flags of a toxic hybrid workplace. Related: 

• Employee benefits in 2021: 3 trends for the 'next normal'
• Making it work: Creating company culture in a virtual world
• The remote agency: Building successful work-from-home operations