Young tech professionals are shunning a full-time return to the office – unless it pays more

Young tech professionals who entered the workforce post-pandemic expect on-site work to be paid more than remote options – and they're demanding it should still include flexibility such as condensed hours or part-time work.

According to the 2025 Global Workforce Entrants Study, conducted by the British Standards Institution and the ResPublica think-tank, the 200 million-odd people worldwide with no experience of the pre-pandemic workplace have different expectations of work.

Nearly half of younger tech workers want a hybrid working structure, with one-in-five preferring to be fully remote. Similarly, more than seven-in-ten believe that jobs requiring their full-time presence should be paid more.

"Hybrid working is not for everyone. But for the generation that entered the workforce during the pandemic the experience has been largely positive," said Mark Morrin, principal research consultant at ResPublica.

"Hybrid workers are more likely to have been promoted and more likely to have had wage increases compared to their site-based peers. But there is some indication that hybrid roles might lead to, or reinforce, a sense of isolation or lack of workplace confidence."

Young tech pros value work-life balance

Notably, younger tech workers rank work-life balance more highly than job stability or financial incentives. Seven-in-ten say a hybrid structure is good for their mental health, with a quarter going so far as to say that social anxiety would impact their decision to take a job fully onsite.

Younger workers do see the social benefits of the in-person workplace, however.

Nearly three-quarters made friends in their first job, more than half found a mentor, and a similar number say they engage in social activities with colleagues at least once a month.

Employers need to take the results of the survey seriously, said Susan Taylor Martin, chief executive of the BSI, else they risk losing valuable talent.

"The results provide a strong counterpoint to the culture war narrative of a lazy generation; instead we have found a cohort thinking very carefully about what they want from life and work and understand the trade-offs involved," she said.

"They are our future leaders. Organizations thinking about how to attract, retain, and get the most from their talent will surely benefit from starting from a place of understanding and empathy about the circumstances that shaped their newest starters and continue to inform what they want from their careers now."

The tech industry generally favors remote work. A survey last month from ScienceSoft, for example, found that eight-in-ten software engineers will be working at least partly from home by the end of this year and that 21% would quit if forced to work full-time in an office.

Around the world, more than three-in-ten IT workers have already done so, according to analysis from Randstad, with the figure rising to 40% in the UK.

A study by the firm noted that IT workers rate flexible working more highly than other industries, with eight-in-ten saying they considered flexibility vital, compared with just two-thirds of their counterparts in other sectors.

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