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Lately, the conversation about office policy has been dominated by reports of return-to-office mandates, with many employers aiming to get all of their workers back in-person by the end of the year. But a new study shows that, despite the best efforts of many RTO proponents, hybrid schedules represent a lasting shift in the way we workand employees like it that way. The study is the ninth annual State of Hybrid Work report from Owl Labs, a company that offers remote work tech like video conferencing. It found that, across industries, hybrid work isnt just a trend. Rather, its now become a priority that workers are often willing to trade compensation or quietly sacrifice productivity to protect. Here are three main takeaways from the data: When flexible work gets taken away, employees start looking for a way out A Resume Builder survey released in January found that nine in ten companies plan to require workers back in the office by the end of the year, with 30% already enforcing full five-day, in-office schedules. In the past several months, high profile companies like JPMorgan, TikTok, and Ford have implemented stricter RTO policies. Based on Owl Labs report, chances are pretty high that, once those new policies came into place, employees started looking a lot more closely at their LinkedIn Jobs page. Per the survey, 40% of employees reported that, if hybrid work were taken away, they would start job hunting. Another 22% said thatd expect a raise for the lost flexibility, while 5% said theyd quit on the spot. Some companies have already seen the impact of this trend: After Amazon implemented its RTO strategy late last year, more than half of its office workers started looking for new jobs. Hybrid workers have a clear preference on how many days to spend in the office Any company still working out its hybrid schedule has encountered one key question: How many days should we ask employees to come to work? The answer, according to Owl Labs, is fairly clear: Workers want to spend three days in the office, and two at home. Of the total respondents, 32% chose the three-day-a-week option, 24% voted for two, and only 14% voted for four. Quiet quitting is real; quiet vacationing is not quite as common Buzzwords like job hugging, job hopping, and clock-blocking have become popular ways to describe workplace trends, but it can sometimes be tricky to parse which are real practices and which are just passing fads. Owl Labs looked into some of the most popular terms to see which have been proven out, especially among hybrid workers. One trend that appears to be here to stay is polyworking, or juggling multiple jobs at once. Owl Labs found that 31% of hybrid workers have at least one additional job, compared to 27% of in-office workers. Coffee-badging, or showing up in-person just long enough to be seen by colleagues, is also common: 43% of hybrid employees said they show up to work just to get a bit of face time. Some much-hyped trends are less common in actuality. Only 17% of workers said theyd tried (and would try again) quiet vacationing, the art of taking time off without actually using vacation days. Meanwhile, though, 32% of employees said theyd engaged in quiet quittingwhich refers to performing only the bare minimum requirements of ones’ job to avoid getting fired. One rising trend that may become more popular, Owl Labs notes, is unbossing, which occurs when workers intentionally dodge management positions to focus on individual career progression versus managing others.
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E-Commerce
Two U.S. senators sent a letter to Tinder parent Match on Wednesday, pushing for action against dating scams on the company’s platforms and asking for information about its efforts to detect fraud and protect its users. In a letter to Match CEO Spencer Rascoff, Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan and Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn asked the company to provide documents about its policies and procedures related to fraudulent activity on its platforms. Romance scams often involve fraudsters creating alluring but fake profiles on dating apps, stringing along victims for weeks or months before asking for gifts or money. “We are also concerned that Match, through its algorithmic design, creates trust that romance scammers can exploit,” the senators wrote. Cybercrime of all stripes cost victims over $16 billion globally last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in an April report, including hundreds of millions of dollars in losses caused by romance scams. The senators have given Match, which also operates Hinge and OkCupid, until October 15 to provide evidence that it has made efforts to prevent romance scams and the factors that allow such fraud to occur on its platforms. Match said in an emailed statement to Reuters that it was looking forward to “constructive conversations” with the senators. “In recent years, we have made significant investments in advanced fraud detection, cutting-edge safety features, and expanded partnerships with law enforcement, industry, and civil society groups to better safeguard our communities,” said Yoel Roth, Match’s Trust & Safety head. Match has previously been caught in regulatory crosshairs, with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission alleging in 2019 that the company knowingly sent automated advertisements via Match.com with expressions of interest from accounts that it knew were likely fake. The Department of Justice closed its investigation related to the FTC lawsuit in 2020. Match has rolled out new features such as “face check” to detect fake profiles and prevent impersonation. Kritika Lamba, Juby Babu, and Steve Stecklow, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Heading into the fall last year, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate slipped to a low of 6.07% by September 17, 2024 as the market reacted to weaker than expected labor market data. At that point, there was a noticeable upswing in refinances as some 20222024 borrowers took the opportunity to get payment relief. However, it was short-lived and quickly fizzled out once labor market data tightened a bit and mortgage rates popped back up. Fast-forward to September 2025, and were once again seeing a mini refi boomlet. Similar to early last fall, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has fallen a bit heading into Septemberwith the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hitting a calendar year low of 6.26% last week, according to Freddie Macs weekly reading. With the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate sitting well below 2025s calendar-year high of 7.04%, some recent borrowers are taking the opportunity to refinance and gain some payment relief. The Mortgage Refinance Index reading for the second week of September, by year: September 14, 2018: 917 September 13, 2019: 2,274 September 11, 2020: 3,289 September 10, 2021: 3,186 September 9, 2022: 533 September 8, 2023: 367 September 13, 2024: 941 September 12, 2025: 1,597 If you look closely at the chart above, youll notice that last years peak weekly reading for the Mortgage Refinance Index (1,133 on the week ending September 21, 2024) is well below the reading we just saw for the week ending September 12, 2025even though mortgage rates last September dipped slightly lower than they did this September. The reason this Septembers refi boomlet is likely bigger than last years is that many borrowers who held out for a larger rate drop last fall were burned when mortgage rates jumped back up late in 2024. So when the opportunity for payment relief came around this year, many jumped on it. You may have noticed that ResiClub calls this a refi boomlet rather than a refi boom. We use the term boomlet because theres a ceiling on how big this refinance pop can getand how long it can lastwithout a much more substantial drop in mortgage rates. After all, according to the latest FHFA data, 71.3% of U.S. mortgage borrowers still hold an interest rate below 5.0%. How far would mortgage rates need to fall to spur a real refi boom? Read this ResiClub article.
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E-Commerce
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