- As companies like JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, and Starbucks ramp up return-to-office plans, Gen Z may be their biggest ally. As the youngest generation of workers fights off loneliness and seeks career progression, they are the least likely to prefer working fully remote, according to a new survey. But that doesn’t mean they hate the idea of working from home altogether—like their millennial coworkers, they’d prefer a hybrid work schedule above all else.
Gen Z and Jamie Dimon may not have much in common, but they can both relate on one thing at least: they are both not fans of fully-remote work.
Less than one-quarter of all Gen Z workers, just 23%, would prefer to work at home five days a week, according to a recently released survey by Gallup. That’s compared to 35% of millennials, Gen Xers and boomers who would prefer to WFH every day—crowning the newest members of the office the ones most eager to be at their cubicles.
Gen Z’s pro-office sentiment is likely to please Dimon, as the JPMorgan CEO issued all his employees back into the office every weekday last spring. His reasoning: enhanced efficiency and creativity.
“You can’t learn working from your basement,” he told Bloomberg earlier this year. “…I think our employees will be happier over time.”
However, full RTO is a policy that doesn’t have much support. Even though Gen Z aren’t fans of remote working, they also don’t love the idea of working from the office day in, day out. Just 6% of Gen Z would want to work in-person every day of the week.
The most senior members of the office aren’t big fans either; only one in 10 boomers are in favor of being in the office every day—the highest proportion of any generation, the Gallup survey finds. Other age brackets are not far behind: 9% of Gen X and 4% of millennials approve of full RTO.
Meanwhile, clocking in from couches on Mondays and Fridays remains supreme; hybrid work remains the most popular among workers of all ages, with each yielding over 50% approval.
Why Gen Z aren’t fans of remote work
Gen Z’s disdain for being behind the screen all day at home may come at a surprise, considering they grew up as ‘screenagers,’ watching TV and using their chunky computers all day. It’s an affinity from childhood that has grown to the young professionals spending upwards of seven hours a day on their phones.
Among the workers who do work at home, they’re spending their job hours staring at more screens. Over eight in 10 Gen Z workers admit they stream shows and movies while working from home, according to a survey by streaming TV service Tubi. However, this could just be another symptom of the generation’s feeling of loneliness.
After all, Gen Z are the loneliest of any age group; young workers are almost twice as likely as Gen Z, and nearly three times as likely as boomers to say they were lonely the day prior, according to separate Gallup research from last year. Despite the saved time and money that comes with working from their bedroom, the benefits of being with coworkers and making friends at work may be contributing to the generation’s inclination to work at the office.
Building connections in the office can help drive future success
JPMorgan Chase is not alone in the push back to the office. Other companies, the likes of Amazon, Starbucks, and Google, have also reduced the flexibility of their workdays in recent months.
“We are reestablishing our in-office culture because we do our best work when we’re together,” Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol wrote announcing the change this month. “We share ideas more effectively, creatively solve hard problems, and move much faster.”
Once past the frustration of having to set up childcare, pack lunches, and deal with office yappers—there can still be career benefits to chatting with coworkers beyond just a Zoom screen, like landing in-person mentors. One Gallup survey from 2023 found that employees with mentors are twice as likely to strongly agree that they have had opportunities to learn and grow at work in the last year.
Moreover, simply showing up to the office could lead to faster internal career progression. Over 80% of chief executives have said employees who come into the office will be prioritized for assignments, raises, or promotions, according to a KPMG survey of 400 U.S.-based CEOs. As companies also seek to reduce their workforce in favor of AI, less seen remote workers could be the first to go.
At a time when fellow Gen Z college graduates are struggling to land jobs, those with roles may have reasoned that giving up the comfort of their home office to work in their corporate cubicle may be worth it in the long term.
