Gen Z and the office are not at odds. Gen Z workers are not rejecting the office. They are rejecting being told to come in without a good reason.
The pressure on them is real. According to new data from Owl Labs published in 2025, 82% of Gen Z knowledge workers said their company had issued or increased in-office mandates that year, nearly double the average across all workers (47%). And 84% of Gen Z employees were actively looking for more flexible jobs.
Is Gen Z rejecting the office?
No. Gen Z is rejecting office time that has no point. Many younger workers want to be in the office when the day is intentional. What they push back on is a rule to be present with no clear reason, no plan for the day and no idea who else will be there.
The real story is more nuanced than a wish to stay home. Too often they show up to empty rooms and outdated rituals. What they are rejecting isn’t work. It’s waste.
Do return-to-office mandates hurt retention?
The 2025 data suggests they do. A return-to-office (RTO) mandate is a formal policy that requires employees to work from the office on set days or full time. Among HR leaders with strict in-office policies, 44% reported retention problems, compared with 34% of those without mandates.
Mandates were still spreading. Fifty-six percent of HR leaders said their companies had formal in-office requirements, the highest level in three years. And 60% of workers believed full-time office mandates will become even more common in 2025. Among HR leaders with strict in-office policies, nearly two-thirds also said qualified candidates were harder to find.
You can mandate presence. You can’t mandate loyalty.
Why does flexibility matter so much to Gen Z?
To Gen Z, remote work is not a perk. It is a proxy for autonomy, trust and modernity. Take it away without a reason and many will look elsewhere: 70% of hybrid or remote employees said they would start job hunting if forced back full-time at their current salary.
What do companies get wrong about RTO?
The current RTO wave is driven by good intentions: collaboration, creativity and culture. The approach is where it fails. Flexibility is fading, yet most mandates lack the tools or structures that make office time valuable. The result is disillusionment, attrition and headlines about generational disengagement.
What are the best companies doing instead?
They make office time worth the trip:
- Designing for presence, not enforcing it. They align in-office time around collaboration, not control.
- Giving people visibility and choice. They use tools like Kadence to show when teammates are in and what is happening in the office that day. Kadence WorkOps puts desk booking, room booking and team schedules in one place.
- Treating flexibility as a strategy, not a concession. Hybrid work is about performance, not preference. The hybrid work strategy guide and return-to-office guide show how to plan office days around the work.
See how Axalta approached its return to the office.
How can offices win Gen Z back?
Offices can still win if companies let go of control. Gen Z is asking employers to make the office relevant, relational and worth the commute. At Kadence, we help organizations do that with smart scheduling, team coordination and real-time insights. Book a demo with our hybrid experts and design a workplace Gen Z wants to be part of.
Frequently asked questions
Does Gen Z want to work in the office?
Many do, when the time is intentional. They push back on showing up without a clear reason or any idea of who will be there.
How many Gen Z workers faced new office mandates in 2025?
Owl Labs data from 2025 found that 82% of Gen Z knowledge workers said their company had issued or increased in-office mandates that year, against 47% of all workers.
How can employers make office days worth the commute?
Plan office time around collaboration, show people when teammates will be in and what is happening that day, and treat flexibility as a strategy rather than a concession.
