RTO is the new normal. Flexibility is still the hiring advantage

In 2025, return‑to‑office (RTO) policies spread across Big Tech and large enterprises, and many headlines framed it as “the end of remote work.”

In early 2026, it looks less like a debate and more like a new norm. Hybrid with mandatory office days has quietly become the default format for many teams.

The market has moved into a phase where employers set the rules and employees adapt, often accepting less favored work models.

The question is what this new reality means for productivity, hiring, and retention in teams.
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Employer preferences: 2024 vs 2025 vs early 2026

In 2024, about one‑third of IT specialists in Poland worked entirely remotely, while roughly 42 % ^[1] were in hybrid setups.

According to our internal data, most of the roles we handled that year were still flexible or remote‑friendly, with only a few customers explicitly requesting hybrid. By the end of 2024, however, more than 40 % of open positions were hybrid.
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In 2025, over 60% of the roles we hired for customer teams were hybrid with mandatory office days.

By early 2026, roughly 90% of the vacancies we handle now are hybrid with fixed office days.

On paper, this looks like a clear win for RTO policies. In practice, we often see a mismatch with candidate preferences: most candidates say they still feel most productive in flexible setups, but the jobs available now often require mandatory office days.

Even though employers have the upper hand now, competition for strong candidates is still intense. When a role offers a meaningful degree of flexibility in the work format, we see an immediate impact on shortlist quality and on how often people say yes to offers.

— Yana Tsiareshchanka, Recruitment Lead, On The Spot
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What our local survey revealed about work model preferences

In early 2025, we ran a survey on the local tech market in Poland to understand how people felt about different work models. We collected responses from 471 professionals and asked them to rate their own productivity, their team’s productivity, and meeting effectiveness in each one.

Respondents evaluated four work arrangements: fully remote, remote with optional office access, hybrid with mandatory office days, and office-only.
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Who we surveyed

We surveyed engineers, team leaders, C-level, and specialists in HR, marketing, and sales. About 80% of respondents worked in small teams of 2–20 people, while the rest belong to larger teams.

When it comes to their work setup, most worked remotely with optional office access.

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Key insights from the survey

Across roles, people said they felt most productive in remote + optional office formats, with fully remote coming in a close second. Mandatory hybrid scored lower, and office‑only reliably sat at the bottom of almost every chart. 

Teams showed the same pattern: they rated their productivity highest in flexible setups, and lowest in office‑only environments.

We also saw a clear split by role when it came to meetings. Executives were the most likely to say in‑office meetings are more effective, while most individual contributors reported that the format doesn’t change much for them as long as the meeting itself is well‑run. Team leaders were somewhere in between.

The results showed how people felt about work models in early 2025. And it seems people still feel more or less the same way in 2026, at least for now.

What changed is the market around them. In 2026, most open roles are now hybrid with fixed office days, so people’s preferences and the options they see don’t always match. And that gap might explain some of the hiring and retention challenges we’re seeing today.
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Key takeaways for scaling teams in 2026

• RTO has moved beyond a trend and become the new normal. Office and hybrid setups with fixed days are now the default reality for many teams, and most people have either already adjusted to this model or are in the process of adapting.
• The market currently favours employers, but preferences remain. Companies can insist on hybrid and still close roles, yet our survey and public industry data show that around 80% ^[2] of specialists in the Polish market continue to prefer flexible work setups.​
  
• Hiring is still challenging, but many employees are adapting to stricter work models, accepting hybrid roles even when they would personally choose more flexibility. This adaptation doesn’t mean their preferences have disappeared. It simply shows where they are willing to compromise to stay in interesting roles.
  
• The gap between what people want and what they accept is widening. In 2025, more than 60% of roles we filled were hybrid and the rest remote; by early 2026, about 90% of our open positions are hybrid, even though most respondents say they feel most productive in flexible arrangements.​
  
• Flexible setups remain popular for a reason. People value time for deep work, fewer distractions, and less time lost to commuting or meetings that don’t add much. And as the balance of power shifts back toward employers, it feels like the task for them is to figure out how to keep the perks people got used to while bringing teams back together in the office.
  

At On The Spot, we build R&D teams in Poland in different work setups depending on what makes sense for your product, team, and culture. If hiring is on your agenda for 2026, feel free to reach out and start a conversation with us.