As companies spend billions on AI in the race to automate work, a surprising office trend is taking hold among the youngest generation of employees.
Gen Z workers are embracing the decidedly low-tech: premium notebooks, colorful desk pads, handwritten notes, and the humble Post-it.
Gen Z office workers told Business Insider about the importance of carving out a personal space in increasingly standardized workplaces, and it may offer employers a clue for making return-to-office mandates easier to swallow.
“A space that I can call my own, I think, is very important,” Jessie Lei, a human resources professional, told Business Insider. “It feels like there’s a place for me to exist, so my decorations weren’t just entirely for aesthetic.”
Lei said one of his favorite office “perks” is free Post-it notes, which he began to rely on heavily for meeting notes and pinning reminders to his monitor instead of keeping everything inside Google Docs. The smaller sticky notes also become miniature sketchbooks where Lei doodles cats, birds, and artwork inspired by his favorite songs during breaks.
“Handwriting helps me focus and remember information better than typing, and it just feels more natural than trying to keep up with conversations on a keyboard,” Lei said. “I know it’s such a small thing, but having it is a tangible upgrade to my well-being.”
Retailers are feeling the trend
The analog revival is spreading from CDs to stationery.
A July survey from office supplier Quill, a Staples subsidiary, found that 94% of Gen Z and millennial office workers say physically crossing an item off a paper to-do list feels more satisfying than checking a digital box. About one-third said the constant stream of Slack messages, emails, and Teams notifications makes them long for more analog ways of working.
“They are twice as likely as boomers to handwrite notes in a journal or during meetings,” Gil Grandbois, the head of Quill, told Business Insider.
The company found that 56% of Gen Z workers would rather leave a colleague a Post-it note than send a direct message, reflecting what Grandbois described as growing digital exhaustion.
Rather than opting for basic supplies, Grandbois said that Quill has seen stronger demand from Gen Z for premium notebooks, colorful leather desk pads, higher-end writing tools, and other products that reflect individual personality. Nearly one-quarter of Gen Z and millennial workers surveyed said premium supplies boost their motivation as much as high-end technology upgrades.
“It’s the fact that even your basic office supplies are becoming more relevant with this generation,” Grandbois said.
Business Insider previously reported that stationery brand Papier doubled down on analog products, such as scrapbooks and notecards, and has seen sales double between 2022 and 2025, mainly driven by Gen Z consumers.
Based on a report by The Business Research Company, the global luxury writing instruments and stationery market is expected to grow from $4.33 billion in 2025 to $4.53 billion in 2026.
The hottest office upgrade? A desk.
The move to analog is also part of a broader push to make workspaces feel more personal and permanent.
Lei, who is in between multiple short-term contract jobs, told Business Insider that his former workspace featured five Japanese kokeshi dolls arranged from shortest to tallest beside a thrifted teacup that became his personal tea station. When sunlight reflected through nearby office windows, Lei said he sometimes paused to photograph the dolls as the light changed.
“I also ended up keeping a lot of my own artwork around my desk,” Lei said. “Just little decorations — my own handmade mark on the office — makes a huge difference for the amount of stability I feel in that space.”
Calvin Lee, who works at the anime streaming company Crunchyroll in San Francisco, told Business Insider that having a permanent desk is essential, making him much more receptive to return-to-office policies than to constantly moving between hot desks.
“As an anime fan, it gives me joy to personalize my own space,” Lee said. “I like giving thought to how to balance between a functional and comfortable workspace, along with being able to display my own version of fandom.”
Lee said his “maximalist” workstation includes Pokémon sticky-note pads, Genshin Impact-themed pens, Marvel fidget toys, stickers covering his laptop, and practical essentials like lip balm and eye drops.
“Everyone has assigned desks in the office, and it’s fun to see how people personalize their own space,” Lee added.
Leah M. Omilion-Hodges, a professor specializing in leadership communication at Western Michigan University, told Business Insider that Gen Z workers tend to bring “a lot of intention and honesty to their work.”
“What we are seeing with decorative notebooks, stickers, and personalized desk spaces goes beyond aesthetics,” Omilion-Hodges said. “They are largely rejecting the rigid notion that there is ‘one right way’ to do things,” Omilion-Hodges added, “Choosing instead to lean into the fact that there are many paths to successfully achieving a task.”
The future of work may be AI-powered — but the person behind the screen still wants somewhere to put a Post-it.
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