Remote, Hybrid, or In-Office? Comparing Productivity and Well-being Outcomes Across Work Arrangements in India's IT Industry
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Most research on remote work treats it as a binary choice -- either you work from home or you do not. But India's IT workforce in 2026 operates across three meaningfully different arrangements: fully remote, hybrid, and traditional in-office. This paper compares all three simultaneously, examining their effects on employee productivity and well-being, with work-life balance (WLB) as a mediating variable. We surveyed 378 IT professionals across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai, grounding the study in Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory and Boundary Theory. Structural equation modeling (CFI = .961, RMSEA = .046) showed that both remote and hybrid workers reported significantly higher productivity than their in-office colleagues (standardised beta = +0.38 and +0.29 respectively, p < .001). The well-being picture was more complicated. Hybrid workers gained more on that dimension (beta = +0.26, p < .01) than fully remote workers (beta = +0.21, p < .05), and we think this has a lot to do with technostress -- remote workers reported the highest technostress scores in the sample (M = 3.58), which appeared to partly offset the gains from avoiding the daily commute. Hybrid workers also reported the strongest work-life balance overall (M = 3.47, versus 3.29 for remote and 3.01 for in-office). WLB mediated outcomes meaningfully in both the remote and hybrid groups. Taken together, the findings suggest that hybrid work -- rather than full remote -- may be the more sustainable option for IT professionals trying to maintain both performance and personal wellbeing over time. We close by discussing what this means for managers navigating return-to-office decisions, and where future research needs to go.
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