Managers hoping to lure employees into offices may find their youngest and newest staff are their strongest allies.
Young white-collar staff feel caught between a rock and a hard place — they value quality of life over old-fashioned 9-5 commuting, but are even more worried about seeing their careers stall unless they head back into an office. That’s encouraging many to be among the first to return to their desks.
While experienced employees often have established professional networks and dedicated home offices, younger staff say the pandemic has left them under-informed and cut off from their teams. There are now growing concerns that they are missing out on career opportunities older colleagues took for granted.
Well over half of staff aged 21-30 stressed the importance of being able to meet and work with colleagues in person again, according to a 6,000-person survey carried out for Sharp Europe, a part of Sharp Corp., results of which were shared with Bloomberg. Nearly 60% said working in a modern, collegiate office environment has become more important to them over the past year.
Despite a majority under 30 saying remote work made them more productive, over half of the survey’s respondents across Europe — ranging in age from 18 to 45 — say they feel anxious about a lack of training and career opportunities when thinking long-term about the future of work