How The Princess Bride Can Help With Your Generational Return-to-Office Strategies

Megan Gerhardt • June 7, 2022

Something interesting is happening.

With the momentum of our Harvard Business Review article that came out in March, and the continuing ripples from the Gentelligence book, I’ve been speaking to a lot of audiences this year.

Every conversation is a little different, depending on the industry and how they are being challenged by an intergenerational workplace. But across industries and across borders, everyone wants to talk about how generational differences are playing into what is happening NOW. Especially as it pertains to return-to-the-office strategies and the Great Resignation.

The Search for a Magic Answer

At the core of these conversations is the hope that there is a simple answer. Something such as a generational formula that I can share that will help companies understand the percentage of Gen Zs vs Baby Boomers willing to return to the office and for what optimal length of time. Perhaps it could looks something like this:

(Z*BB/5*9-5=X)

While I wish I had that magical solution, I can provide another one instead. This one comes from the insights of Gentelligence®. Gentelligence® means being smarter about how we understand generations at work. It’s about how they are different in meaningful and interesting ways, and also how they share common ground. By leveraging those differences in a strategic way and building upon those areas of commonality, we can more successfully solve tough challenges, including the return to work quandary.

By the end of this post, you’ll know the magic solution. I promise.

But you have to understand the thinking behind it, which I’ll expand on below.

Assume Nothing

My magical solution comes from Gentelligence® Practice #1: Identify Assumptions (see our book for more on this one!). When we first wrote about this practice, we focused on the problem of generational stereotypes. Those are still relevant to this equation, as reverting to broad-based generalizations about Gen Zs, Millennials, Gen Xers and Boomers is lazy and leads to ill-informed strategies.

We saw this when we all first began working remotely during the pandemic. Given the presumed digital savvy of our Gen Z and Millennials, and their prior push for less rigid office hours, it was widely assumed that our youngest generations would be thrilled with the reality of always working from home. Concerns abounded for our older workers, who we worried would be derailed by all the new tech demands. In short, those assumptions were just wrong.

Data from multiple sources began to show that Gen Z was reporting the LOWEST levels of satisfaction with working remotely, followed by Millennials, Gen X, and our Boomers. Basically, the exact opposite of what we had presumed, showing in glaring clarity why generational stereotypes are never a safe bet.

More than Meets the Eye

Gentelligence ®requires us to dig deeper.

Is satisfaction working from home really just about digital savvy? Of course not.

It’s about many things, including having strong professional networks in place to help support your work, confidence in your ability to be self-directed and having the resources you need to do your work effectively. These are things our older workers had in place to a greater degree than many of our younger ones, due simply to their tenure in organizations.

Many younger workers reported greater feelings of isolation and disengagement, and these are key elements of job satisfaction. According to Kara Hamilton, Chief People Officer for Smartsheet, “Even though they may be more proficient with different technologies, the stress and uncertainty might be impacting their work in greater ways,” she stated.

Enter The Princess Bride

That’s just one way assumptions can lead us astray. In the last year, we’ve come to realize that Identifying Assumptions isn’t just about assuming all members of a particular generation fit a stereotype, it is also about a different kind of assumption: that everyone who works for us shares a common definition of important concepts.

In the wise words of The Princess Bride: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

For example, how many times have you heard the word “flexibility” or the word “balance” in the last few months? Or perhaps, something along the lines of: “We need to craft a flexible work policy”.

You bet.

But does a Baby Millennial define flexible the same way a Gen Xer does? As a group, are our Gen Zs defining balance in a very different way than our Boomers might?

Yes, there are important differences within a generation, but also important ones that can exist at a group level between generations, and we need to consider these. Different generations have learned different norms about what it means to “work”, and these are playing into our preferences and definitions of terms that companies may be assuming we all see the same way.

Back to that magic solution you are waiting for. As companies craft their return to the office policies, I’ve received so many questions on “what Gen Zs want” “what Millennials will do” and “how to retain Boomers” (to be honest, no one usually asks me what Gen X wants, and as a Gen Xer, this does not go unnoticed…😉)

Slippery Stats

I can share with you all kinds of amazing statistics that will make your head spin:

Statistics can be framed in so many ways. Usually, we frame them to help support the story we want to tell. It’s hard to make sense of what they mean, and what lessons we are supposed to take from them as we develop these important strategies that will impact our companies for years to come.

Now…are you ready for the magic answer you’ve been waiting for?

Here it is…

Personal Agency.

That’s it.

EVERY SINGLE GENERATION WANTS PERSONAL AGENCY RIGHT NOW. That means your return-to-work strategy has to provide it in order to retain your top talent (of all ages).

What is personal agency? The National Institute of Health defines it as “the feeling of control over actions and their consequences”.

That’s what everyone wants. Every person, every generation. Gentelligence tells us that we will likely see some interesting generational differences in how that agency plays out or what decisions it may lead to, but the underlying need for that agency is universal.

When I first saw the research showing that 74% of Gen Zs would look for a new job if their employer “insisted” they return to the office full time, I was less focused on the Gen Z part and more focused on the “insisted” part.

It’s Motivation 101.

Extensive research supports that “insisting” someone does something will, at best, get you compliance. The employee will do it because they feel like they have to, not because they want to or agree it makes sense for them or the company. Worst case, they won’t comply. They will resist, and then they will leave.

In Search of Commitment

That’s not what we want. We don’t want resistance or compliance. We want commitment: to the company, but also to the strategy. Our employees will embrace our return-to-work arrangements when they understand them, are involved in crafting them, and are given a degree of choice and autonomy in deciding what returning to the office will look like for them.

Employees who feel included in the process and understand how and why decisions were made will be more committed and more likely to stay. This is because they feel heard and seen, not as cogs in a company machine of productivity, but as valuable and complex humans that are vital for the success of an organization.

Sure, we may see different norms emerge from Gen Zs with personal agency than we end up seeing from Gen X, who are in a different life stage and began their careers with different work norms. That story is still unfolding. But return to work policies that understand the need for personal agency at their core will be the most successful ones—for all ages.

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Why Generation A Might Just Be the...Analog Generation

By Megan Gerhardt • February 13, 2026

It has been said that everything old becomes new again on a long enough timeline. There's a fascinating generational trend I've been seeing among younger Gen Zs and the oldest of Gen A (Note: I am not calling that generation Gen Alpha, because that name is nonsensical and outdated already, and that generation is barely in their teens. More on that soon)--a craving for low-tech, no-tech, screen-free experiences. Gentelligence focuses primarily on generational dynamics in the workplace, and I do predict this will have implications for where and how these generations want to work. Despite the chaos surrounding back-to-office policies and experiments, our youngest members of the workplace (and our soon-to-be newest employees) are showing signs that they value time away from screens. I first noticed this last year among my own students, who were overwhelmingly setting change goals in my change management class focused on reducing screen time. Versions included "cleaning up my sleep routine" (putting the phone away at least 30 minutes before bed, eliminating blue light before bed, reading physical books), "reduce my weekly screentime", "stop doomscrolling", and "impose limits on TikTok and Instagram time". It was a sign that it was no longer just their parents or older generations who wanted them off their phones; they wanted themselves off their phones, too. For a wave of young people raised in an era of tech overload, it seems we have reached the point of maximum saturation, and they are pushing back. As one of my students astutely mentioned to me last year, "There are no boundaries now...our generation is just trying to figure out how to put some of them back." I've doubled down on the need for this in my teaching, having conversations with students about how to ethically use AI as a thought-partner while balancing protected time for our most scarce resource these days: deep thinking and connection. It was this need, coupled with the overwhelming research showing the improved retention and learning that occurs when students handwrite their notes and put away their laptops in class, that led me to declare our classroom a laptop and phone-free zone. We still use slides to guide conversations, but there are no longer 30 laptop screens popped up in front of them, distracting even those who are trying hard to focus. Surprisingly, I've had very little pushback. I was concerned they would feel like I was forcing them backwards, but collectively we seem to be exhaling. The discussions have never been better. As our younger Gen Zs reach young adulthood and our oldest Gen As become teenagers, they are emerging from a kind of social experiment they entered unwittingly — a life that has never known a world without constant screens. They are realizing how different they feel when they unplug. Gen Z and Gen A even have a term for this: touching grass. That's right, when the default is constant tech immersion, they had to come up with a phrase to represent the intentional effort it takes to step away. Whenever possible, I try to engage in some real-time generational anthropology, just to explore my hunches and (when possible) debunk stereotypes. Gentelligence is all about being curious rather than judgmental, and I am most definitely curious about these early signs that our younger generations are seeking a better balance between their tech and non-tech worlds. Last month, I was in Chicago for a keynote and found myself in a trendy food hall over lunch. There were little shops surrounding the food hall, including one of my all-time weaknesses, a stationery store . Pens! Journals! Paper! Notebooks! (I, too, love the analog. After indulging myself in a number of vital paper goods, I was tucking into a sandwich in the food hall and saw a (literally) noteworthy sight: a table of early 20-somethings, gathering on their lunch hour and...writing in their journals. Multi-colored pens, stamps, and conversation were plentiful. There was not a phone in sight. That in and of itself was remarkable. It turns out that stationary stores are experiencing a resurgence . Knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and sourdough baking are also all having a moment. Physical books ( and bookstores! ) are making a comeback. A few weeks later, I was at another event, this time a very trendy commercial interior design conference, where we were discussing ways to design spaces that promote intergenerational interactions (yes, it was as cool as you might be thinking). I saw a young designer at the cocktail hour and walked over to introduce myself. I asked if I could pick her brain on something, as I figured it was part of her JOB to be up on the latest trends. I asked her whether she was feeling a personal pull to use less tech, or if this was something she had seen among her peers. That's when she told me about Analog Bags . (I won't go down that rabbit hole here, but feel free to explore the link and know that I am absolutely creating my own Analog Bag as we speak). At that same design conference, a book was recommended to me: Megatrends by John Naisbett. The gentleman who suggested it said it changed his life. He thought I would find it interesting, given my interest in generational trends, behavioral cycles, and, of course, my classes in change management. I ordered it as soon as I got back to my hotel room (fun fact: it was published in 1982, so you'll have to find a vintage copy!). I've been devouring it, and among the many eye-opening insights was the observation that " the more 'High Tech' we become, the more we need 'High Touch.” Now, Naisbett was referring to the high-tech era of the early 1980s, when personal computers were entering the scene, but the relevance of the comment almost 45 years later, in the age of AI, was not lost on me. Those who have lived their entire lives as products of high-tech are now blazing the trail to meet their need for high touch. Let this be my formal declaration (for whatever it's worth) that I predict our youngest generations will lead us back to a balance between tech and high-touch: they are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, and their message is clear. They are living, breathing embodiments of a life flooded with endless tech, fake news, constant connectivity, dopamine hits, and input dictated by algorithms, and it appears they may have had enough.