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 to 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.