Home office, teleworking and co.

ITA researcher Fabian Fischer, who was responsible for drafting the text on social implications of hybrid work, emphasises that hybrid work can offer a number of advantages: ‘Of course, it saves time, and you may also have a better work-life balance. It also makes living in the suburbs more attractive and leads to less traffic.’ However, Fischer believes that the decisive factor is how your particular work situation materialises: poor ergonomics, high productivity pressure and constant availability are the downsides of hybrid work. Furthermore, options for home office or teleworking would not be available to everyone equally. “Some professions and activities do simply not offer a possibility for hybrid work, and depending on one's position in the company, working from home is more or less accepted”, says Fischer.

Future issues also available in English

The monitoring, which is released in May and November, aims to inform parliamentarians and their staff about current socio-technical developments and provides independent expertise. One frequent addressee is the Committee on Science, Research and Digitalisation. All papers and studies can be viewed on the parliament website in German under ‘Zukunftsthemen’. The latest ITA study on generative AI was also published there in March 2025. The current monitoring report delivers topics for further studies.

For the first time, all texts published since 2022 are also available in English: ‘We are responding to growing international interest,’ says Niklas Gudowsky-Blatakẽs, Senior Scientist at the ITA, who has been involved in the  monitoring activities from the start, adding: ‘Our reports are read by other TA institutions that, like us, work for a parliament, as well as by numerous research institutions and standardisation bodies.’