\n<\/p>\n
Name:<\/strong> Office work.<\/p>\n Age: <\/strong>The first purpose-built offices appeared in the 18th century.<\/p>\n Appearance:<\/strong> Cubicle-shaped.<\/p>\n Why<\/strong> are we talking about the office? What a buzzkill. <\/strong>Because it\u2019s back, baby.<\/p>\n Is this about employers forcing people back into the office, citing \u201cculture\u201d and \u201cconnection\u201d, but mostly wanting to check employees aren\u2019t slacking?<\/strong> It\u2019s true that there\u2019s been a push from big employers such as Amazon and Tesco over the past year to get people back on site, but this is different: in a new Bupa survey of 8,000 workers, 45% of gen Z respondents said they were considering looking for jobs with more social interaction.<\/p>\n Interesting. Why? <\/strong>Because they\u2019re lonely: 38% of them feel socially isolated because of their work circumstances; that\u2019s more than other generations. \u201cI specifically applied for roles with a physical office where I have supportive colleagues, can socialise at lunchtimes and meet friends in the evenings,\u201d one gen Z worker explained.<\/p>\n I thought they wanted to be TikTok content creators not corporate drones? <\/strong>Actually, the influencers were the loneliest of all: 45% said their work made them feel lonely and a third were considering returning to \u201cfull-time, traditional employment\u201d in the next five years.<\/p>\n Huh. You can tell they have never been in an office if they think it\u2019s something to aspire to. <\/strong>Aren\u2019t you excited about this infusion of new young blood? They\u2019ll be a breath of fresh air!<\/p>\n I\u2019m fine with the old, stale, instant coffee and resentment-scented air. Young people in the office sounds loud and tiring. <\/strong>But the office is becoming the new hype place to be! Maybe they\u2019ll start queueing outside? Telling you your spreadsheet \u201cate\u201d and complimenting your suits as \u201cSeverance core\u201d?<\/p>\n I doubt it. Didn\u2019t another recent survey find only one in <\/strong>10 young workers wanted to be in the office full-time? <\/strong>Yes, but even if they are only in a few days a week it would be fun. Just imagine the glow-up you\u2019ll get by association: \u201cHi guys, get ready with me for the absolutely fire Q3 P&L presentation!\u201d<\/p>\n GRWM<\/strong> for an afternoon of glaring at Dave eating sardines al <\/strong>desko<\/strong> again<\/strong>, more like. Hang on though \u2013 didn\u2019t I read about <\/strong>gen Z just pretending to work when they are in the office? <\/strong>Erm, yes: in February, Fortune magazine explored the phenomenon of gen Z \u201ctask masking\u201d at work \u2013 typing frenetically, or walking around pretending to take calls.<\/p>\n A-ha! Well pretending to work is a time-honoured tradition. With a bit of mentorship, it sounds <\/strong>as if they\u2019ll fit right in. I could teach them to walk around holding a piece of paper for hours, unchallenged! <\/strong>That\u2019s the spirit. Sorry, \u201cSlay, queen\u201d.<\/p>\n Do say:<\/strong> \u201cThe office provides lonely gen-Z workers with social interaction, support, intergenerational friendships and vital career mentorship \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t say:<\/strong> \u201c\u2026 But more importantly, free stationery and toilet roll.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Name: Office work. Age: The first purpose-built offices appeared in the 18th century. Appearance: Cubicle-shaped. Why are we talking about the office? What a buzzkill. Because it\u2019s back, baby. Is this about employers forcing people back into the office, citing \u201cculture\u201d and \u201cconnection\u201d, but mostly wanting to check employees aren\u2019t slacking? It\u2019s true that there\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1297,86,456,1008,514,5215],"class_list":{"0":"post-17733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-careers","9":"tag-gen","10":"tag-home","11":"tag-office","12":"tag-work","13":"tag-working"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}