Despite growing up as digital natives, Gen Z employees are proving to be the most eager to return to physical workplaces. A 2025 Bupa survey revealed that 45% of Gen Z job seekers actively look for roles offering greater social interaction; with loneliness and isolation ranking significantly higher among this generation than others.
Even influencers and self-employed digital workers, often associated with independence, report similar struggles. Nearly half admit feeling isolated, and a third have considered moving into traditional employment for more connection.
For HR and workplace leaders, this shift presents both an opportunity and a challenge: how to create office environments that resonate with Gen Z while balancing the needs of a multi-generational workforce.
Why Gen Z Is Choosing the Office
Far from being driven by top-down mandates, Gen Z’s enthusiasm for office work is rooted in professional and social priorities:
- Learning and mentorship: Early-career employees want real-time access to knowledge. The office enables spontaneous questions, shadowing, and cultural immersion.
- Networking and belonging: After the isolation of the pandemic, many see the office as a social hub where trust and team culture grow.
- Career visibility: Face time with managers and leaders is linked to advancement. In fact, Gen Zers are twice as likely as Gen X to aspire to executive roles (38% vs 18%).
- Routine and structure: For many younger workers, offices provide clearer boundaries between work and personal life.
- Energy and culture: Collaboration and creativity often feel more authentic in shared spaces.
Data backs this up. According to JLL, workers under 24 now average 3.1 office days per week, compared to 2.5–2.7 days for older groups. In other words, Gen Z isn’t just talking about in-person work, they’re showing up.
The Challenges Beneath the Enthusiasm
Still, Gen Z’s return to the office is not without friction:
- Mismatch between preference and reality: Their ideal is around 2.6 days in-office, slightly fewer than their current average. Rigid schedules risk alienating them.
- Economic strain: A UK poll found 59% of workers cite commuting costs as a key barrier, with 21% of younger staff reporting financial stress from in-office policies.
- Wellbeing concerns: Over a third of UK employees say mandated office time worsens wellbeing, driven by long commutes and reduced flexibility.
- Cultural dissonance: The rise of “task-masking”, appearing busy through performative behaviors like typing loudly or pacing with laptops, reflects a deeper disconnect when offices lack genuine purpose.
For leaders, this means enthusiasm must be matched with intentional design. Otherwise, Gen Z’s expectations will go unmet, risking disengagement.
Designing the Right Office Experience.
Supporting Gen Z (and the wider workforce) doesn’t mean reverting to pre-pandemic models. It means making the office worth the commute. Here are a few ways organizations can achieve this:
- Enhance collaboration easily: Desk and room booking systems can help teams coordinate in-office schedules, enabling meaningful mentorship, spontaneous collaboration, and stronger team connections.
- Create purposeful spaces: Workplace analytics reveal how spaces are actually used, allowing organizations to balance quiet zones with collaborative hubs and adapt layouts based on real employee behavior rather than assumptions.
- Support well-being and sustainability: Occupancy-led monitoring of air quality, energy use, and environmental conditions helps create healthier, more sustainable workplaces, factors that are increasingly important to Gen Z and all employees.
- Ensure safety and compliance Macro occupancy data enables safer, more compliant workplaces by allowing you to understand building, floor or specific area busyness and make confident decisions that meet regulatory standards while supporting staff well-being.
- Adapt continuously: Advanced analytics provide ongoing insights into occupancy and usage patterns, enabling leaders to refine hybrid policies, space allocation, and office design over time.
By combining thoughtful workplace design with actionable insights, organizations can create an office experience that resonates with Gen Z, and sets the stage for a more engaging, productive environment for everyone.
Looking Ahead.
The return to the office is not about enforcing rigid attendance. It’s about creating meaningful environments for your business. Work from office policies help drive attendance back, but we shouldn’t rely solely on them, enhancing the overall in-office experience will make people want to come back. Gen Z has made it clear: the workplace should be a space for learning, visibility, and belonging, not simply a location to clock in.
Employers who listen to this message will gain more than engaged Gen Z employees. They’ll create workplaces that attract talent across all generations, build stronger cultures, and optimize real estate investments for long-term value.
With thoughtful design, the right technology, and an evidence-led approach, the office can evolve into exactly what this generation, and the generations around them, are looking for. Get in touch today to learn how Freespace can help.
