A job advertisement may call a role hybrid while the contract names the employer’s office as the workplace. That distinction matters when personal plans depend on distance from the office.
Start with the workplace clause
If the office remains the contractual workplace and home working is merely permitted by policy, the employer may have wider room to change the weekly pattern. If both places are expressly agreed, the wording should explain how they interact.
Notice makes flexibility usable
A requirement to attend for a client meeting can be reasonable while still causing difficulty if imposed overnight. Ask whether the agreement sets ordinary office days, a minimum notice period and a route for genuine exceptions such as care responsibilities.
Travel is not a footnote
Someone living near the Berlin office has a different cost and time burden from someone recruited while living in Hamburg. Clarify whether travel to the contractual workplace is an ordinary commute, when travel counts as working time, and whether exceptional trips are reimbursed.
Keep the conversation factual
Before raising the clause, write down the pattern discussed during recruitment, your distance from the workplace and the types of event that genuinely need physical attendance. Concrete examples make it easier to negotiate language both sides can operate.