NextGen

Survey: Gen Z Pushes Back the Most on Fully Remote Work

U.S. Gen Z employees are the least likely generation to want exclusively remote work based on Gallup’s latest May 2025 findings.

Merely 23 percent of remote-capable Gen Z employees state that they would rather have fully remote work versus 35 percent among each older generation. However, despite the desire not to work from home all of the time, fully on-site work is still the least popular alternative throughout all age groups, the survey found.

When Gallup questioned hybrid employees how they want others in their companies to work—more remote, less remote or the status quo—a plurality of hybrid workers in each generation stated that the current balance is correct.

However, Gen Z is the most likely to state that they wish employees in their company worked remotely less often. By contrast, millennials are the most likely to state that they want other employees to work remotely more often.

Why is Gen Z more likely to want less remote work time for other employees? According to Gallup, there are two factors that might be behind this sentiment:

• Gen Z is the loneliest generation with these employees having the lowest life evaluations of all generations at work. Gen Z is almost twice as likely as Gen X, and close to three times as likely as baby boomers, to say they felt lonely a lot of the day yesterday.

• Hybrid Gen Z employees might not see their coworkers as often on-site. Hybrid employees among the three older generations that Gallup studied are mixed in their reports of on-site working requirements and flexibility. However, the most Gen Z hybrid employees (66 percent) note that they are required to work a certain number of days on-site each week, but they are allowed to elect which days.

Additionally, Gen Z is also twice as likely as other generations to say they are encouraged—but not required—to come in each week. This could mean they are going to the office when their coworkers are not, limiting the chance for meaningful and in-person interactions.

Within the hybrid employee pool, millennials are the group with a stronger personal attachment to remote work flexibility compared other generations, according to Gallup. When questioned how likely they would be to look for another job if remote options were partly or entirely eliminated at their firm, 41 percent of remote-capable millennials say they would be extremely likely to look for another job, considerably higher than other generations.

Millennials are also different since they believe remote is where they do their best work. About half of millennials (49 percent) say they are most productive at home or off-site, which is higher than all other age groups. Only 19 percent of millennials say they are most productive on-site or in the office.

In contrast, though a plurality of Gen Z employees says they do their best work remotely (37 percent), they are nearly as likely to say they are most productive on-site (32 percent) or that their location does not matter (31percent).

Parenting plays a role in the evolving views on remote work. Very few Gen Z workers are the parent or guardian of a child aged under 18. Employed Gen Z and young millennial parents ( who were born in 1989 or later) are more likely (39 percent) compared to non-parents in this age group (29 percent) to choose exclusively remote work. But, for older millennials born 1980 to 1988, there is no difference between parents and non-parents (36 percent for each) in selecting remote work.

Gallup concluded that Gen Z prefers hybrid work the most, but they might miss in-person benefits if they show up to an office that's empty. A solution is to change hybrid policies so that younger employees are more likely to interact with others. An even better alternative is for leaders is to talk to their team about how each person works best and coordinate in-person time as a team.