Millennials and Gen Z, it may be time to refresh yourself with work attire and everyday commutes: Your remote working days may be numbered, according to a future author.
Steve Cadigan, LinkedIn’s first HR director, said that as the workforce adapts to the “post-pandemic” landscape, it may be in the interest of both employers and employees to return to the office. work full time.
According to Cadigan, younger workers – those in Generation Z and the lower millennials – looking to advance their careers, can especially benefit from returning to work. pre-pandemic standards, according to Cadigan, whose book “Workquake” explores how a pandemic might have occurred. could pave the way for a better workplace model.
“People 20 to 35 years old, especially 20 to 29, 30 years old are really frustrated,” Cadigan told CNBC.
“Their sense of commitment to an organization where they haven’t met people in person, they’ve never been around, is much less than people who are spending time together like we used to be,” he said.
The challenge for that group is to try to be more intentional.
Steve Cadigan
author of “Workquake”
Cadigan said the remote work policies, implemented in the early days of the pandemic, have facilitated major strides, including increasing workforce participation and productivity levels. still high.
But they also lead to disconnection between employees and their teams, fueling phenomena like Great resignation. That, in turn, has led to more mobility in the labor market that, while good in good times, can be risky in the short term. a potential recession.
To remedy that, young workers may need to return to the workplace — voluntarily or otherwise — to nurture important relationships with both teammates and superiors, he says.
“The challenge for that group was to try to be more intentional,” Cadigan said.
“It’s really, really hard to do that in a remote capacity, and that can be a big imperative function of forcing organizations to realize that we need to bring together this young demographic. so they feel more committed and they feel excited about being part of the team. That’s a big challenge right now,” he added.
While many workers have been asked or chosen to return to the office, the number of full-time office workers is still far below pre-pandemic levels.
As of April 2022, two years on from the start of the pandemic, just over a third of workers (34%) had returned to the office full time, base on the research from research group Slack’s Future Forum.
Even then, less than half do it their own way, with 55% of front-office workers saying they prefer a more flexible arrangement.
Indeed, the Netherlands took a step closer to making remote work a legal right this week.
The Dutch parliament on Tuesday passed a law forcing employers to review employees’ requests to work from home if their profession allows it. The bill, which has already been passed by the lower house, now needs to be approved by the Senate before final passage.
The Netherlands, which implemented a more restrictive Flexible Work Act in 2016, is one of dozens of European countries that will introduce law for remote work, including France, Belgium and Estonia. Usually, such laws require the consent of both the employer and the employee.
