London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Jul 23, 2025

How mass remote working is setting the UK up for an employment skills crisis

How mass remote working is setting the UK up for an employment skills crisis

Who will be left to pick up the pieces? Those comfy mid-careerers pushing to abandon the office.
Around the same time that the first Covid cases were diagnosed in the UK, the Resolution Foundation reported the death of the teenage Saturday job. Over two decades, the proportion of teens earning a few quid at the weekend had plummeted by half, to just 25 per cent. Similarly, far fewer university and college students were working alongside their studies. In the context of the pandemic-induced debate about the future of office working, that’s more important than you might imagine.

Over the past year, company after company has announced plans to shrink their office space. Property is pricey, and having seen that working from home does not in fact mean shirking from home, businesses are seizing the opportunity to appear enlightened champions of flexible working while boosting their bottom line. And it’s fine, because poll after poll shows we want to work from home.

Except we don’t all want to do that, and, more importantly even those of us who do, shouldn’t – at least not for a majority of the time. The office is more important than you think.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a generational divide in attitudes to home working. Ipsos Mori found that one in five 18-34 year olds are finding working from home “very challenging” compared to closer to one in 17 over-35s.

For people mid-way or more through their careers, with a comfortable work from home set-up and long-established networks, life might feel easier out of the office: no more commute, no more having to attend awkward work socials or dull, stuffy conferences; no more interruptions by colleague queries or office banter.

But for young people, the picture is very different – and not only for the obvious reason that a kitchen table and noise cancelling headphones are no substitute for a decent workspace. Young people’s very ability to become great employees is at stake. That stuff that mid-lifers want to leave behind? It really matters to people starting out on their careers, and its absence will have repercussions for everyone.

If young workers are anxious and miserable – which finding your working conditions “very challenging” is likely to induce – they’ll perform worse. There’s a wealth of research showing that happy workers are more productive workers. And while there are lots of things that go into creating happy workers, one well-evidenced factor is high-quality workplace relationships.

Building professional relationships is very different to making friends at school or college. It means building networks across a diverse set of colleagues – and clients. It means figuring out how to build an effective relationship with your boss, and with people you don’t like but have to learn to communicate with.

That’s why the death of the Saturday job matters. Many Gen Z graduates are starting their careers having never done any paid work. And despite the plethora of digital tools now available to help us collaborate online, when it comes to relationship building, there is no substitute for office life.

On an intrinsic level, we all know this. Haven’t we been lamenting young people’s increasingly virtual existence precisely because it impacts their ability to form productive relationships? We might find it tricky to quantify the benefits, but awkward work socials and office banter matter.

In fact, a 2017 Deloitte survey found that 37 per cent of these digital natives are themselves worried about their ability to maintain strong relationships and develop people skills. A LinkedIn survey the following year found 61 per cent of HR professionals believe Gen Z will need extra support to develop soft skills.

If that was the case before the pandemic hit, imagine the situation now. Entire graduate intakes are yet to meet their colleagues and see an actual real-life office in person. The result, as one global consultancy contact told me, is “they’re just not picking up the softer skills”.

That should surprise no one. So much learning is done by watching people – literally seeing them navigate difficult conversations, network with strangers, build professional relationships, interact with clients and customers, give presentations, lead meetings, motivate teams. So much on-the-job training is delivered informally – the slightly embarrassed whisper to a more experienced colleague when something doesn’t make sense; the everyday micro-feedback and coaching that is invaluable to development.

Young professionals are missing out on gaining what scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi termed “tacit knowledge”, learned not from training modules or books, or even through discussion, but through observance. It is how we learn the culture of an organisation, how we interpret the behaviour and hunches of colleagues, and how we pick up the tricks of our trade. It’s key to success.

Employers never miss an opportunity to lament the lack of soft skills among today’s graduates. If these skills aren’t learned at the start of a career, those new entrants aren’t going to blossom into the high-performing managers and leaders of the future.

And who will be left to pick up the pieces? Those comfy mid-careerers pressing to abandon the office. Suddenly short-term property savings and avoiding the commute don’t look quite so attractive.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
×