Why are Gen Z craving a return to the office?
get that kettle on
A new survey suggests that 45% of young people are considering looking for jobs with ‘more social interaction.’ As the novelty of virtual meetings and home offices subsides, are Gen Z missing out on a crucial part of their personal and professional development?
New research this week has suggested that nearly half of all young people are yearning for jobs that provide more social interaction, office time, and in-person events.
According to a piece by The Guardian, Bupa surveyed 8,000 workers on their feelings toward hybrid work and office responsibilities earlier this year. Gen Z’s apparent drive for offices and traditional desks appears to be fuelled by an innate loneliness, with 38% saying they feel ‘socially isolated’ due to their work setup. This is notably more than their older peers.
Should we be surprised by these numbers?
We’ve mentioned the phenomena of ‘taskmasking’ before, whereby young people are now having to learn the traditional art of pretending to be constantly productive for the first time as they return to real offices. In many ways, the conventional brick-and-mortar setup is likely regarded as fairly novel to a generation that came of age during the pandemic. Zoom calls, virtual hangouts and isolated home offices are standard practice, rather than the exception.
Given that Gen Z are a particularly lonely generation as it is, it shouldn’t be too shocking to consider that they now want to be surrounded by their peers during working hours.
There are many intrinsic positives to a workplace, especially for creatives. Casual chatter, making lifelong friendships, finding romantic partners and enjoying social nights out have always been an important pillar in company offices. Ask Gen X’s where they met their partners and a big majority are likely to tell you it was at work, on a Friday night out, sometime in the 1990s.
It’s worth considering too that Gen Z make most of their connections digitally, online, via apps – and they’re sick of it.
We won’t be the first to tell you that dating platforms like Tinder and Hinge are struggling to keep younger users engaged, as more of them feel burnt out on endless swiping and seek more meaningful connection via in-person events. Burner, or ‘dumb’ phones as they’re often called, are finding large user bases, promising minimal interfaces that don’t badger you with endless notifications.
There is clearly a growing sense of fatigue toward online spaces that keep us technically connected but physically distant. Sitting alone in your bedroom answering sixty Team calls a day and having nobody to decompress with can feel extremely isolating. Young people need to make new friends in their twenties, live outside of their homes and ultimately interact with the world outside.
We see this in their drinking behaviours. As we wrote in a Gen Zer newsletter several weeks ago, it seems that young people are leading a resurgence in alcohol consumption, opting to spend their disposable income on socialising and late nights. They value spontaneity and actual, physical connection just as much as any other generation before them, despite all of the online tools at their fingertips.
Of course, there is a balance to be struck.
It’s no secret that large corporate firms like Amazon are desperate to return to a five-day, in-office working week, where everyone can be monitored and the timely tradition of pseudo-productivity can return in full force. We’re not saying Gen Z want this. They definitely don’t.
Instead, young people want a mix of both, where office work and real socialising is encouraged. A hybrid model where office time is mandatory a few days per week is likely the ideal to most Gen Zers, as they can manage their own schedule while also spending valuable one-on-one time with their colleagues. It gives them space to catch up and have real meetings in an actual room together without it feeling cumbersome and overbearing.
The age of corporate dominance is fading. Gen Z value their free time, no longer necessarily look to climb a career ladder, and want to spend time with people in real life. Hybrid models are the way forward – and most young workers would be happier with this type of schedule encouraged by their bosses.
See also:
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I appreciate your thoughts and observations on this topics, and interestingly, Chinese Gen-Z have another word for taskmaking, which is “moyu”, means catching fishes in a fish tank.