Refers to the practice of some company managers offering flexible work to their own teams to retain talent, often going against company rules which have “return to work” mandates or employees will lose their job.

Alternative or related terms for this practice include:

• Quiet Flexibility – informal flexibility granted by managers without formal approval / sanction.
• Shadow Remote Work – used informally to describe when remote work continues unofficially despite formal policies.
• Policy Discretion – neutral HR term for how managers interpret and enforce (or not) workplace rules.
• Decentralized Compliance – organizational behavior–focused, referring to uneven enforcement of top-down mandates.
• Managerial Discretion – the authority individual managers may use to interpret or selectively enforce corporate policies, including return-to-office (RTO) mandates.
• Policy Drift – when the formal policy is not enforced as originally intended over time.