Report: Gen Z Professionals Have Far Fewer Strong Business Relationships Than Older Generations
Gen Z professionals are entering the workforce with a measurable networking deficit compared to older generations, according to 2026 workplace research examining the effects of remote-first career starts on relationship building.
The research found Gen Z professionals average just 16 strong business relationships, compared to 21 for Millennials and 40 for Gen X — a gap researchers attribute largely to structural circumstance rather than individual skill. Many Gen Z workers began their careers during or shortly after widespread remote work adoption, missing the incidental hallway conversations, in-person onboarding, and office social events that traditionally built early-career professional relationships.
The same research links the deficit to measurable downstream effects, including higher reported burnout among Gen Z workers relative to other generations, attributing part of the gap to the isolation of beginning a career without in-person workplace community. Separately, a Deloitte Global 2026 survey of Gen Z and millennial professionals found that roughly two-thirds of respondents in both generations report having at least one close personal friend at work, and that employees with close workplace friendships report meaningfully higher retention and job satisfaction.
Researchers describe the deficit as fixable rather than fixed, recommending deliberate, scheduled relationship-building — recurring virtual coffee chats, structured mentorship requests, and intentional participation in cross-team projects — to substitute for the ambient networking that used to happen automatically in shared office space. For a structured way to benchmark and track this kind of network rebuilding over time, see The MOR Score network calculator, or read our guide on networking for remote workers.