Young workers twice as likely as senior staff to want full-time office working

Posted on 26th October 2026

Junior employees say being around senior colleagues helps them develop their career and is a major motivation for returning full time to the office. But with management choosing less time in the office, younger works risk missing out on important career development steps.

New data from CV-Library, one of the UK’s largest job boards, has debunked the stereotype of younger workers wanting to work from home.

Far from resisting office life, entry-level jobseekers are twice as likely as senior and management staff to want a fully-office based role.

The latest Candidate Behaviour Barometer, which surveyed 1,043 UK jobseekers, found that 51% of entry-level candidates would prefer to work fully in the workplace, compared with 26% of senior and management-level candidates.

This creates an unusual dynamic: the employees most eager to learn from senior colleagues in person are increasingly the ones least likely to find them there. With 60% of senior and management staff preferring hybrid working – more than double the 42% of entry-level candidates who feel the same, junior workers hoping to learn on the job may find the office quieter than they expected.

The findings challenge the assumption younger workers are the driving force behind demand for greater remote working, suggesting instead that those at the beginning of their careers see real value in being around colleagues and developing their careers in person.

More than half of workers (56%) believe spending time in the office can improve career progression, either through learning from colleagues or gaining greater visibility with employers. This rises to 69% among Gen Z candidates aged 18-28, compared with just 43% of Baby Boomers aged over 60.

Overall, hybrid working remains the most popular setup, with 49% of jobseekers choosing a combination of office and remote working – up from 40% in the 2025 Candidate Behaviour Barometer.

But the appetite for some office time is strong, as 90% of UK jobseekers would prefer to work in the office at least some of the time, including those who’d like to be permanently in the office.

For more information visit www.cv-library.co.uk