Rosie Labbett is an office evangelist. The 21-year-old, who works in wholesale catering, finds the moments chatting before a meeting invaluable – starkly different from logging on to Teams calls.
“Ideas and creativity thrive,” she says. “Personal relationships are so important ... More people should see the value in connecting with others in real life.”
Contrary to some stereotypes, Generation Z, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012, is leading the charge back to the office, while older generations are more reluctant to return to past patterns of presenteeism.
Workers under 24 years old are more likely to be in the office than their older counterparts, according to research by property group JLL: on average coming in 3.1 days a week, while other age groups put in between 2.5 and 2.7 days.
Mandated office returns are partly being justified on the grounds of young people needing time working in-person. Comments on remote working from Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, were leaked this year. “The young generation is being damaged by this,” he said. “They’re being left behind socially – ideas, meeting people.”
Other leaders have expressed concern that the old apprentice model, of learning by listening, is deteriorating due to homeworking.
Generational disparities can create challenges for managers, who must balance competing demands for flexibility from older workers who have existing networks and caring responsibilities, with younger peers’ desire to learn and meet colleagues. It highlights some of the difficulties for a generation that spent part of their education in lockdown.
Bryan Berthold, global lead of workplace experience at Cushman & Wakefield, the property group, says a gap in office attendance between older and younger workers can lead to lower satisfaction among junior staff.
[ Majority of workers see hybrid working as essential to wellbeing, survey showsOpens in new window ]
Lucy Blitz, a 22-year-old content producer at Two Circles, a sports marketing agency, finds relationships easier to build in-person: “Actually being able to speak to my colleagues and managers face to face if there’s an issue is easier than communicating over Slack, which I can’t stand.”
One 23-year-old finance worker, who asked to be anonymous, says the absence of older managers makes going into the office feel pointless. “Why would I, as a young person with student debt, say goodbye to around a quarter of my salary just on trains and the occasional coffee?”
For Johnnie Dowd, a 22-year-old strategy analyst at British Land, one motivation to work in the office is his small flat, where the kitchen table serves as a desk. “It’s not the right height and I basically end up hunching over my laptop, whereas I can go into the office, have a huge desk with all these monitors and a really well-regulated temperature.”
Dowd says he wants to “interact and be social ... my vision of my twenties is not being sat at home with lots of Zoom calls”.
The needs of these younger workers are prompting creative responses from some employers, says Brian Elliott, chief executive of consultancy Work Forward. He knows of companies hiring junior staff in fewer locations “in order to build larger cohorts ... so they get more social connection [and] support”. One company launched a programme whereby managers set “anchor days” to attend the office with a daily minimum hour-long open time for their reports to drop by with questions.
More common, however, is the introduction of companywide mandates demanding all staff in the office for all or part of the week.
[ Hybrid working is not going anywhereOpens in new window ]
Elliott says leaders are “concerned about the professional development of younger workers if they don’t get enough time with managers and mentors broadly. That’s understandable”. However, he believes increasing office attendance will not necessarily mean more management time.
“Often the same managers have little training, and in the past few years firms have laid off layers of managers to expand ‘spans of control’ for six to eight direct reports to 10 to 16. The odds of junior staff getting a lot of hands-on feedback don’t go up if the manager has double the team and still their own workload.”
Berthold says blanket office mandates can make young people feel they are not trusted. “You’ve let the cat out of the bag: it’s like going from high school to college, no one’s checking in on you. The mandates are like going back to high school. It’s hard to build trust.”
While young people are more enthusiastic about the office, survey responses suggest they also appreciate flexibility.
The JLL report, which questioned more than 12,000 employees across industries and countries, found the youngest workers said their ideal number of days was 2.6 – lower than the days they actually spent in the office but higher than 35- to 44-year-olds who wanted just 2.1.
It also found workers under the age of 34 prioritised work-life balance and flexibility, while over-55s were more “sensitive to physical conditions like temperature, noise and air quality”.
A survey by Deloitte found 26 per cent of Gen Zs felt more engaged and connected to their organisation as a result of their employer mandating at least part-time office work, but 18 per cent thought being forced back meant their productivity had decreased. A further 21 per cent of Gen Zs “believe being required on-site full time or on some days has negatively impacted them in a financial sense”.
Even office fan Labbett appreciates working from home some days: she heads to the office four days a week. A hybrid arrangement “encourages a trusting relationship between the employer and the employee”, she says, but “when the trust is misused” things can get difficult.
Heejung Chung, professor of work and employment at King’s College London, says employers need to think about how different generations work together in the office, not just insist they show up. Managers need to get better at planning group workshops, coaching and brainstorming in-person, otherwise time in the office is spent “having Zoom meetings”. Creating social moments helps young people “feel embedded in the company”, she says.
Contrary to work-shy stereotypes and memes encouraging “quiet quitting”, Mark Dixon, founder and chief executive of office group IWG, says Gen Z are “not only rapidly rising as a demographic of substantial influence, but are incredibly hard working” and “expect a healthy balance between their professional lives and their personal pursuits”.
Interest in navigating white-collar workplaces partly explains a rise in office-related social media content.
[ Office attendance is becoming a performance metricOpens in new window ]
Jemima Grace, a risk consultant, is one of many Gen Z workers making TikTok videos about life in a corporate job. They feature office outfits, preparing for networking events and “get ready with me” morning routines.
Grace recently posted a #corporategirlies “day in the life”, recording getting the Tube at 7.20am, arriving at the office at 8.15am, before answering Teams messages, having lunch at her desk, reading a proposal and creating a presentation, before leaving at 6pm. It was played four million times and generated 180,000 likes, far outstripping her normal content.
Grace believes such posts help Gen Z navigate the workplace. “Young people think, ‘What the hell am I supposed to do?’ People on TikTok are younger, and don’t know what [the office routine] is like.”
However, she was surprised by some of the reaction. There were “lots of comments saying, ‘Thank god I don’t do this.’ Others said I looked unhappy.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
