Back to the Office

Strangely enough, the Financial Times of London breaks with tradition and offers some kind words about Gen Z. 

Those who manage this Gen Z cohort in the business world, know that insolent, arrogant behavior has become de rigueur. To the point where, when you read something flattering about Gen Z, you assume that it is untrue or that it is British.

The subject of the recent FT article is the return to the office, the movement against working at home. As you know, this habit took hold during the covid pandemic. And you also know that serious business executives, from Amazon to the JP Morgan Bank have begun insisting that their staff show up in the office.

According to the FT, Gen Z workers are more likely to be at the office than are their 0lder managers:

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.

Hopefully, we have all learned that being in the office contributes to development:

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.

When you are present in the office, you get to interact with your colleagues and managers, in person, face to face. You develop your social skills and improve your loyalty to your company. None of this is trivial:

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.

Again, it’s about building relationships, connecting with other people. You are not seeing through a glass darkly, as the saying goes, but are looking someone in the eye, face to face.

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.”

Just in case you were becoming optimistic about Gen Z, the article adds that this group still values work/life balance.

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”.

Flexibility means that they do not feel obliged to spend too much time at work and that they insist on having the proper amount of time off. So, for all the good we see in Gen Z, the group still has a long way to go.