When global politics become unstable, economies often return to strategies used in past crises. This seems to be happening now. Recent tensions in the Middle East, especially near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s key shipping routes, are raising concerns about oil supply disruptions, energy security, and higher transportation costs. If oil supplies decrease and fuel prices rise, we might once again turn to one of the most effective solutions from the COVID-19 era: remote work and more flexible workweeks.
The Strait of Hormuz is a major bottleneck for global oil. About one-fifth of the world’s traded crude oil moves through this narrow channel. Even small signs of trouble there can unsettle energy markets. Airlines buy fuel in advance to avoid price spikes, logistics companies adjust their shipping plans, and governments prepare backup strategies. For families and businesses, higher oil prices quickly lead to more expensive commutes, higher shipping costs, and overall inflation as transport expenses spread through the economy.
In this situation, reducing daily travel is an obvious way to respond. During the pandemic, we saw that much office work can continue remotely without hurting productivity. Digital tools like cloud platforms, messaging apps, and video calls have grown rapidly since 2020. What started as a temporary solution is now a regular part of how people work.
The idea of a shorter workweek is also becoming more popular in many countries. Iceland tested a four-day workweek from 2015 to 2019 and found that productivity stayed the same or even improved, while workers felt much better. Similar trials are underway in the UK, Spain, Belgium, and Japan, as both governments and companies look for ways to balance productivity, energy use, and quality of life.
Most of these trials still involve four days in the office, either with longer hours or shorter weeks. However, from an energy and fuel standpoint, especially when oil supplies are uncertain, a different approach could be even more effective.
A three-day office week combined with two remote days could provide a more practical balance between productivity and flexibility. In this plan, employees work in the office on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, while Monday and Friday are designated as remote days.
The logic is pretty simple.
For one, this significantly reduces commuting. Many office workers would see their weekly travel drop by up to 40 percent. At scale, that means less urban fuel demand and, in aggregate, lower national energy imports—especially in countries where car commuting dominates.
It also preserves what offices are genuinely good at. By clustering in-person work midweek, teams can reserve those days for meetings, collaboration, brainstorming, and social connection. The Tuesday-to-Thursday window becomes the default time for high-interaction work. Remote days, then support deep-focus tasks, writing, analysis, and digital coordination that don’t benefit much from being physically co-located.
There’s a third benefit: less strain on transport systems. During the COVID-era traffic drops, many cities saw not just lower emissions but smoother flows for freight, public transit, and essential services. A stable hybrid pattern would lock in some of those gains without shutting offices entirely.
Energy shocks tend to accelerate workplace change. During the 1970s oil crisis, countries across Europe and Japan implemented major efficiency reforms in transportation and industry. Today, the structure of the economy is different. Much of the potential efficiency isn’t in factories or freight yards, but in how and where knowledge work happens.
A more formalized hybrid model could therefore hit two targets at once: reduce energy use during periods of geopolitical risk, and boost long-run productivity by aligning work patterns with the strengths of digital tools.
The key point is that none of this depends on new technology. The infrastructure is already in place. Companies worldwide have invested in cloud services, secure VPNs, digital workflows, and remote collaboration platforms over the past five years. What’s left is mostly about policy choices, management practices, and organizational culture.
If tensions in the Middle East keep casting a shadow over global energy supplies—and if shipping through the Strait of Hormuz looks less reliable—governments may start to treat remote and hybrid work not just as labor-market trends, but as explicit tools of energy policy.
In that sense, the hybrid model that took shape during COVID-19 may be entering a new phase. It’s no longer only about employee preference or work-life balance. It becomes part of how economies respond to global energy risk.
And in a world where both climate concerns and geopolitical instability are shaping economic decisions, simply cutting unnecessary commuting might be one of the easiest and most effective adjustments we can make.
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