When thinking about making work work—especially what lies ahead in 2024—it’s important to remember the past. And the past year has been a doozy.

Here are some of 2023’s highlights:

• The recession that didn’t happen. Well, at least not evenly. Despite some much-publicized tech layoffs during the year, which were seen as a possible harbinger of darker days ahead, the recession that many economic sooth-sayers had predicted for 2021, 2022 and, again, for 2023 still hasn’t happened. Indeed, we end the year with continued low unemployment, cooling inflation, and 8.7 million jobs still available for willing workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, during the quarter ending September 30, the U.S. economy expanded at a robust 5.2% annual growth rate.
• The talent competition continued. While the 8.7 million U.S. job openings reported by BLS were noticeably down from the number reported earlier in the year, it is still nearly 35% greater than the number of people—6.5 million —looking for work. In other words, the labor market remains tight!
• The RTO debate that didn’t go away. The fact that we’re still debating who should return to the office (RTO) and when indicates that many executives have been having more trouble letting go of old ways than we realized—or are unwilling to make the deep investment in rethinking how work is done and building the capabilities to do it in fundamentally different ways. The answer for office workers seems clear: hybrid work, with teams deciding what works best for them and leaders providing the empowerment and resources—not edicts and badge-swipe monitoring—to succeed.