Stuck in a hybrid work setup dilemma with coworkers
**Not sure if it's the right flair haha
I’ve been with my Makati-based employer since the start of the year. When I accepted this offer, I honestly thought I’d be working as a one-man team since it was a fixed-term role. I took the job after being let go from my previous company, thinking I could still find a better opportunity before the contract ended anyway.
What I didn’t expect was that I would actually become the first hire of a new team — and also the oldest by a pretty significant margin (more than an 8-year age gap). Because of that, there’s been a noticeable generational difference in how we view work and responsibilities. One example is our onsite setup.
The company’s standard arrangement, which was already mentioned during the interview process, is a hybrid setup requiring employees to work onsite 2–3 times a week. During my first month, I consistently went to the office twice a week even though I was alone, mainly to familiarize myself with the workplace, observe how people operated, and adjust to the environment.
About a month later, my teammates (who are based in Fairview, Mandaluyong, and Quezon City while I stay in Makati) joined the team. I thought, yay, going to the office will be exciting! Almost immediately, they started trying to avoid coming onsite altogether. They would make excuses or look for ways around the requirement. I mentioned this to my Singapore-based manager, and at the time she simply said not to worry too much about working onsite yet.
At the start of this month, despite rising gas prices, our Manila-based team head announced that everyone in the team, including us, would now officially follow the hybrid work arrangement. My teammates were unhappy about it and argued that we didn’t directly support the local teams anyway... although, ironically, we actually do now. Still, our Singapore-based manager agreed that we should comply, even if we didn’t necessarily stay in the office for the entire shift, as long as we maintained a visible onsite presence.
Lately though, it feels like my teammates are trying to bypass our manager’s instructions. Instead of following the agreed setup, they only come in once a week and sometimes just book meeting rooms the whole day, which completely defeats the purpose of onsite work. Personally, I think being in the office helps us collaborate better with local teams and also gives us opportunities to build connections in case we eventually want to move into other roles internally.
Now I’m stuck wondering what I should do. Part of me wants to continue following the setup discussed with our manager, but another part wonders if I should also just go onsite once a week like everyone else. At the same time, I don’t want to come across as a snitch by bringing this situation up again to my manager.
I honestly don’t know how to navigate this. Thank you!