Workers are being called back to the office full-time. Can Gen Z handle RTO?

Just one week into 2025, JPMorgan announced a five-day return-to-office mandate. Mere months before, AT&T, Dell, and Amazon did the same, despite employee pushback. The era of hybrid work appears to have come to a sudden halt for many.

Of course, the most senior executives sometimes exercise flexibility about where they work, like Victoria’s Secret CEO Hillary Super, who works remotely from New York while requiring her employees to come into the company’s Ohio headquarters. Or there’s Starbucks’ new CEO Brian Niccol, who negotiated a way to work from Newport Beach in California, rather than relocating to Seattle headquarters. But for many younger employees, there is no such choice.

So, how does Gen Z feel about this shift back to the office—especially since many of them entered the workforce during the pandemic and haven’t yet experienced five days a week in an office?

Doomsdayers say that the young employees are fundamentally unprepared for the office. Positivists say that Gen Z has “RTO FOMO,” and is buzzing with excitement to get back in-person. Surveys have been equally mixed; a 2023 JobList survey found 57% of Gen Z wanted an in-person job, while a FlexJobs survey found 80% of Gen Z believed they were more productive virtually.

Fast Company asked five Gen Z employees across industries about their experiences returning to the office. Some loved the ease of virtual work, while others craved the social connections of the office. But they all agreed: Hybrid is king.

The RTO Shock

Lauren McNamara joined Allianz Life as an intern in 2020. The company was fully online—her best chance of meeting her coworkers was through virtual happy hours and weekly check-ins. After graduation in 2022, McNamara returned to the company with a new challenge: Adjusting to their new three days in-person schedule.

“I remember feeling very welcomed, but also overwhelmed,” McNamara says. “There was such an autonomy to remote work. Coming in, [creating a] schedule structure, commute—that all took some getting used to.”

Now 25, McNamara eventually found her groove. In fact, she credits her advancement to developing in-person connections: “Being face-to-face, being able to build those relationships and built that trust, has helped me move forward in my career,” she says. But her experiences reflect a consensus among the Gen Z employees Fast Company spoke with. For those who have had little to no in-office experiences, those first days post-RTO can be shocking.

25-year-old Shannon Aryca Chin works virtually from Toronto in her gig as creative coordinator for UTA Next Gen. She’s had some in-person experiences, though, primarily around her creative direction of the convention ZCon. In Chin’s first year, she gathered with her coworkers in a rented Los Angeles home. This year, she went to the shiny UTA New York office, an experience that she says was a big adjustment.

“It was, for lack of a better word, weird,” Chin says. “In the office, I have to have a different sort of composure and professionalism, and make sure that I’m presenting myself in the best way possible.”

Having only ever worked virtually prior to ZCon, Chin says she “dreamed” of stable, in-person work. “When I did go into the office, that’s when I realized it’s definitely not as glamorous as I thought it would be,” Chin says. She was happy to return to Toronto, where she continues to work fully remote.

Lifestyle changes

Creative strategist Ben Fitchett eagerly wanted in-person work. His virtual jobs in New Zealand had left him frustrated and lonely. When the 25-year-old moved to the United States in late 2021, his new company’s office was still shut down because of the Omicron surge. Eventually the company scaled up to two days in-person, though Fitchett would often go in three or four days, even when his coworkers weren’t there.

Then his company moved offices. Now, Fitchett’s commute has grown to over an hour, requiring him to take two connecting buses. The long commute has extended Fitchett’s in-person days, sometimes making them feel tedious. “My days can really feel like: wake up, eat, work, sleep,” he says. “It keeps me busy.”

All of the Gen Z workers Fast Company spoke to agreed: While in-person work can have its benefits, it requires lifestyle changes, some of which they viewed as negatives. Fitchett has to get his groceries late at night, eating into his rest time. McNamara misses the ability to do household chores like laundry throughout the day.

But all emphasized the lifestyle perks to in-office work, too. Chin found that her in-person days kept her social, and liked having a “desk buddy” to bounce ideas off of. Quinto Melnick, a 25-year-old junior financial specialist, likes to snowboard on the mountain near his office.

When 29-year-old Sally Evans started working at Chipotle’s corporate offices, the company was in-person three days a week. But that policy was flexible, leaving Evans with some difficulty connecting with her coworkers. She wanted more face-to-face ways to engage.

“I decided that first year I wanted to say ‘yes’ to everything,” Evans says. “I found myself in an intramural basketball team. I don’t play basketball—I was just throwing myself into it to find community and to connect in such a big workplace.” The ploy worked; Evans is now closely knit with her coworkers, also playing pickleball with them every week.

Chipotle has since upped their RTO policy to four days a week. And since Evans’ team puts out an internal morning newsletter, more days in-person means fewer late wakeups, and less time writing that newsletter from her couch with her dog. But Evans describes herself as a “social person,” explaining that adding the extra day was not a challenge.

Hybrid is ideal

For young workers, in-person work may be crucial for skill-building. Financial analyst Melnick found that face time with his colleagues was especially important when he was an intern learning the ropes. “It makes for a better learning environment, because it’s easier for someone to show you something right away,” he says. Gen Z workers have also reported facing “proximity bias,” where managers favor in-person employees over their virtual counterparts, making in-office learning all the more crucial.

All five Gen Z employees agreed that their preferred workplace would be hybrid. Most of the young workers we spoke with thought a five-day RTO would be manageable—except Chin, who says she’ll never take a full-time in-person gig. When asked about the possibility of going five-days remote, most said they would seek other work, or at least try to find a social coworking space.

Gen Z at large has been very receptive to the hybrid work model. Per Gallup, 65% preferred hybrid work, a rate that’s higher than millennials (60%) or Gen X (58%). To keep Gen Z happy, employers will likely have to remain flexible. And Gen Z might just need a bit of time to adjust.