Most white-collar employees have spent the bulk of their career working in teams. However, the rise of hybrid work environments is changing work paradigms in ways that make us wonder whether we still need teams. We’re not saying this lightly: Between the two of us, we’ve spent more than 40 years examining the ins and outs of teams in organizations.

Our recent conversations with employees at all levels have made something clear: While concern about work-life balance, burnout, employee disconnection, and turnover is common, those who seem to worry the most are those leading or working in teams.

It’s good to take a step back and remember that teamwork—to the extent that it’s used now—is relatively new. Enabled by technological advances, teamwork only became the norm for knowledge work during the early 1980s, in response to globalization.

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