How People Work Today

Gensler measures how office workers work across five work modes: working alone, working with others in-person, working with others virtually, learning (including professional development and coaching), and socializing (including connecting and networking). We measure time spent for each work mode as a percentage of time during a typical work week.

Over the last two decades, we’ve seen time spent working alone slowly decrease, while since the pandemic, we’ve seen time spent learning and socializing increase. Although time spent working with others virtually spiked during the pandemic, it has surprisingly returned to pre-pandemic levels. For the first time, we see time spent working alone is the same (40%) as working with others (total of in-person and virtual) with socializing and learning remaining fairly high since the pandemic.

These findings have implications for a variety of spaces in the workplace. Three-quarters of working alone time, or 30% of a typical work week, requires high concentration, which drives a need for quiet and distraction-free spaces in the office. Spaces for hybrid meetings are also needed, with six out of 10 meetings hosted in the office having both in-person and virtual participants.

Every industry works differently so time spent varies substantially as well. Government/Defense, Legal, and Media workers spend more time working alone, while Consumer Goods, Government/Defense, and Energy workers spend more time working with others in-person, and Technology workers spend more time working with others virtually than other industries.

How people work also varies by country. While working with others in-person is surprisingly consistent, Japan and France spend more time working alone, Costa Rica and India spend more time working with others virtually, and India spends more time learning and socializing than other countries. How people work is fairly consistent by age but there are differences by role.