Are home working ‘missing managers’ holding the economy back?

New survey evidence suggests that in London, older workers spend the most time working from home – not gen z. They report seeing less value to being in the office, but are home working ‘missing managers’ harming the skill development of their younger colleagues?

Blog post published on 4 September 2024 by Oscar Selby

A widely held view is that young people are relatively reluctant to come into the office, with some media outlets suggesting that graduates are now demanding exclusively remote positions, and even refusing to come in for job interviews.

Recent Centre for Cities research suggests this is not the case. By surveying office workers in central London, our new report – Return to the office: How London compares to other global cities, and why this matters – finds that it is in fact older, more senior workers that are more likely to work from home.

It is older workers who are more likely to be working from home in London

Older workers in London are dragging down the city’s average number of days spent in the office. Figure 1 shows that Londoners’ aged 18-24 come into the office around half a day more per week than every older age group surveyed. They have seen the fastest recovery towards pre-pandemic levels of in office work, going in just 0.8 days less than they did before the pandemic. In contrast, the average London worker aged 45-54 comes in almost two days less frequently.

Figure 1:

This sets central London apart from the other cities surveyed. Every age group in London, except 18-24 –year olds, ranks last or second last when it comes to the average number of days workers come into the office. Meanwhile, London’s youngest working demographic comes in the second most, just behind Paris.

Older workers value flexibility more, partly explained by childcare

So why is this? Different age groups’ responses to polling on attitudes towards the office give some insight.

According to survey responses, older workers tend to value the flexibility benefits of working from home more than younger people. Figure 2 shows that the share of respondents who reported this as a benefit of home working is higher amongst older people: 38 per cent of 18–24-year-olds compared to 64 per cent of people 55+.

This is partly explained by the way childcare obligations vary by age. Only 10 per cent of 18-24 year olds stated that a greater ability to manage childcare obligations was a benefit of home working. Unsurprisingly, amongst 25-34 and 35–44-year-olds, this figure grows to 25 per cent.

But while reference to childcare obligations tapers off (again unsurprisingly) amongst people over the age of 44, the value given to flexibility increases. It seems that childcare fails to explain everything.

Figure 2:

Older workers see less value to being in the office

As well as saying that they experience greater flexibility benefits when working from home, older workers are also less likely to recognise the benefits of being in the office. Older workers:

disproportionately report fewer productivity gains from being in the office. Only 25 per cent of 18-24 year olds said they are more productive at home compared to 36 per cent of workers aged 55+ (see Figure 3).

are also less likely to say that decision making is quicker when they are in the office and that there is no benefit at all to in person work – something that no 18–24-year-old surveyed said was the case.

Figure 3:

tend to report that being in the office is less likely to give them the opportunity to do new things and learn new skills. 37 per cent of 18-24-year-olds reference the former as a benefit of being in the office while only 19 per cent of people aged 55+ say so (see Figure 4).

are less likely to think that being in the office provides the opportunity to do new things.

Figure 4:

Home-working senior colleagues may be harming the long-term skills development of younger staff

On the individual level this may all be true. But the value an older worker provides to the workplace isn’t just getting through his or her to do list.

Younger employees rely on their older colleagues to make decisions, teach them new skills, and provide them with new opportunities – key benefits of office working. Given this, persistent home working amongst managers and executives may impede the skill spillovers and stunt the development of workers early in their career.

As companies look to get their employees to spend more time in the office, to prevent these consequences from materialising, it may be wise to concentrate efforts on getting senior staff back in person.