Gen Z Can’t Make up Its Mind About Working in the Office: Study

• Gen Z is divided on the question of remote work, according to a new Dell Technologies study.
• In a survey, 29% of respondents said remote work is important, but another 29% said they favor office-based roles.
• The company surveyed 15,105 people between the ages of 18 and 26 across 15 countries.

Gen Z can’t make up its mind about working in the office, according to the results of a Dell Technologies study.

For its study, Dell surveyed 15,105 people between the ages of 18 and 26 across 15 countries about how investments in technology can be used to support and improve the economy. The report, released in December, found that opinions on the future of work are divided.

While 29% of respondents said flexible and remote working arrangements are important considerations when choosing an employer, another 29% said they are in favor of 9-to-5 office-based roles.

“As a father of two Gen Zers, I see first-hand how crucial it is that we listen to and seek to understand the voice of this tech-savvy generation. They are the first true digital natives and deserve the chance to shape their own futures,” Aongus Hegarty, the president of international markets for Dell, wrote in the study’s foreword. Hegarty did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

As Insider’s Aki Ito wrote in June, the preference for remote work is largely split by generation, with the oldest workers expressing the strongest preference for permanent remote work and the youngest workers — Gen Z — expressing the least preference.

Similarly, a 2022 Hubble study of over 1,000 UK-based employees showed that only 7.4% of Gen Zs want to work remotely every single day. That’s compared to 21.4% of Gen X and Baby Boomers — defined as those above 41 years old.

However, this is also the same generation that says that being forced to go back to the office is a deal-breaker.

Consider this: 71% of the 18 to 24-year-olds surveyed by the ADP Research Institute said they would consider looking for another job if their employers insisted they returned to the office full-time. The study, which was released in April, surveyed over 32,000 workers in 17 countries including the US and India.

The generation’s split reactions to working from home come against the backdrop of evolving workplace standards. Many companies have been changing their remote work policies as the world continues to adjust after the pandemic.

After buying Twitter in October, for example, Elon Musk told employees to return to the office for at least 40 hours a week. Disney CEO Bob Iger told employees to return to the office at least four days a week. Meanwhile, JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon is famously against remote work, and the company has been tracking staff office attendance using employee ID swipes.