I can't speak to the New York part of it, but as a college senior, I definitely see many of my friends glamorizing the start of an in-office career, and certainly turning away from fully remote options. I think this is for exactly the reasons you described - feelings of ambition, independence, wanting to live a "real" life, as opposed to a digital one. Also (and this is probably only relevant for younger people) but the office represents an opportunity to cultivate friendships at work (also the work crush, which Emily has written about, too). On the other hand, I also know people who want to delay office work as long as possibly by taking extra degrees, travelling, etc. Overall though, consensus seems to be that, office or not, young people do want to go back to living life IRL.
Totally agree. So interesting to hear that college students are actually turning away from remote options - when I was graduating, everything was still largely remote, so people were mostly taking whatever they could get.
But I agree, there’s a push and pull among Gen Z between a desire for the way things used to be and wanting to do things differently (traveling, going back to school, starting your own business, etc.). I’ve previously written about how it seems like much of Gen Z is eager to work for themselves, which is evident in social media conversations around entrepreneurship. At the end of the day, that still connects to these themes of ambition and drive and risk-taking in your career too!
This was a really interesting read. As an older Millennial I often wondered why Gen Z is so obsessed with a time they never lived in. Millennials lived during that time and got to experience the simpler life (no internet, no cell phones, no social media). That pop culture, like SATC and rom-coms are the reason an entire generation has become so nostalgic is fascinating - and I fully understand. I cannot imagine how awful my teenager years would have been with social media in the mix.
"corporate fetish is rooted in nostalgia" -- this is so true!
I can't speak to the New York part of it, but as a college senior, I definitely see many of my friends glamorizing the start of an in-office career, and certainly turning away from fully remote options. I think this is for exactly the reasons you described - feelings of ambition, independence, wanting to live a "real" life, as opposed to a digital one. Also (and this is probably only relevant for younger people) but the office represents an opportunity to cultivate friendships at work (also the work crush, which Emily has written about, too). On the other hand, I also know people who want to delay office work as long as possibly by taking extra degrees, travelling, etc. Overall though, consensus seems to be that, office or not, young people do want to go back to living life IRL.
Totally agree. So interesting to hear that college students are actually turning away from remote options - when I was graduating, everything was still largely remote, so people were mostly taking whatever they could get.
But I agree, there’s a push and pull among Gen Z between a desire for the way things used to be and wanting to do things differently (traveling, going back to school, starting your own business, etc.). I’ve previously written about how it seems like much of Gen Z is eager to work for themselves, which is evident in social media conversations around entrepreneurship. At the end of the day, that still connects to these themes of ambition and drive and risk-taking in your career too!
This was a really interesting read. As an older Millennial I often wondered why Gen Z is so obsessed with a time they never lived in. Millennials lived during that time and got to experience the simpler life (no internet, no cell phones, no social media). That pop culture, like SATC and rom-coms are the reason an entire generation has become so nostalgic is fascinating - and I fully understand. I cannot imagine how awful my teenager years would have been with social media in the mix.
Thank you for writing this!