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Gen Z has the most trouble working from home during the new normal

Is your company deciding when or if to head back into the office, and if so, how do you feel about it? Gen Z certainly wants to return.
Written by Eileen Brown, Contributor

When businesses were suddenly forced to adapt to the stay at home order and remote work became the norm, different ages had markedly different experiences.

Poland-based email marketing software company GetResponse wanted to gain a new understanding of how important people felt working from home was before the quarantine and after.

It surveyed more than 100 adults from every US state to gauge their feelings about working from home across the generations.

It wanted to delve into what the working from home experience is like for different generations, locations, ages, and genders.

About 27% of people responded that they enjoy working from home. However, one in five people responded that they still had to go into their place of work -- regardless of lockdown.

Men and women both tended to have similar opinions about working from home, although slightly more women felt less productive at home, and slightly more men said they did not enjoy doing it.

Some US states reported that they were more productive when working from home. Tennessee (35%), Washington (34.3%), and North Carolina (34%) topped the list of US states who enjoyed the experience, but residents of Colorado (12%) and Arizona (10.9%) reported being less productive working from home.

Residents of Arkansas had the highest percentage of people (30.8%) who enjoy working from home -- unlike Wyoming -- where 12.9% of people said they dislike working from home.

American Gen Z has the most trouble working from home during the new normal zdnet
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The generational divide between work from home preferences was more pronounced than the gender divide. Less than one in 12 (7.8%) of respondents said they had productivity issues, but this differed from baby boomers to millennials.

Gen Z was the most likely to say that they didn't like working from home, while Gen X was the most likely to say they liked working from home and felt more productive. Gen Z reports the most productivity issues.

The quarantine has completely changed the way people approach remote work, and businesses have had to accommodate this new landscape.

Naturally, millennials and Gen Z want to grow their business network, and socialize with their friends, whereas older generations with an established business and social network can continue to work their connections.

Every business will need to change its plans slightly and adjust how it approaches working from home. Younger generations will have to adapt -- whether they like it or not.

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