Loneliness at Work Is Rising. Here’s How Leaders Can Respond.
Workplace loneliness is at an all-time high, with 69% of employees report that they feel isolated and socially lacking in their workplace. On top of that, 43% don’t feel a sense of connection with their colleagues at all.
For organizations, this should not just be considered a personal issue between their employees.
Why? Because loneliness and, ultimately, the dissatisfaction and sadness that comes with it, is a business issue too.
What Is Workplace Loneliness?
Before we address workplace loneliness, it’s important to paint a picture of what it looks like and why it’s becoming more common.
Firstly, loneliness at work is not just about being physically isolated, nor is it about occasional feelings of isolation. Those are part of it of course, but it’s also about feeling:
Disconnected from their team and the organization’s overall purpose
Excluded from conversations and decision-making
Unsupported by leadership and colleagues on a regular basis
Unlike general loneliness, which often stems from an overall lack of social connection, workplace loneliness is tied instead to the employees’ sense of belonging and value within the organization.
Additionally, it doesn’t affect everyone in equal measure. For example:
Remote Employees: Could feel isolated from team-building dynamics or excluded from spontaneous discussions.
Marginalized Employees: May (i.e., women, BIPOC employees, LGBTQ+ staff, and people with disabilities) face additional barriers to inclusion, especially when organizational culture is not a focus or intentional decision.
Introverts vs. Extroverts: For introverted individuals, loneliness can come from lacking deep one-to-one connections, while extroverts may experience disengagement without frequent social interaction.
Recognizing these nuances can assist leaders from better identifying who might be struggling and why.
So Why is Loneliness on the Rise?
Several workplace trends contribute to increased loneliness.
Shifts to Hybrid/Remote Work
While flexibility is crucial to the workplace, it’s undeniable that it reduces connection between employees. Suddenly, spontaneous lunch breaks, after-work drinks, and watercooler conversations are no longer possible. These moments might seem small, but they work to build team dynamics and relationships between employees.
Increased Workloads and Burnout
Whether you work in an office, retail, a hospital or even a trade, you’ve seen teams being stretched thin. This leads to employees having less and less time to nurture important connections.
Communication Gaps
As younger generations join the workforce, differences in communication styles and work preferences make it far more difficult to create genuine connections and relationships.
Underrepresentation and Exclusion
Employees who come from historically marginalized groups are far more likely to feel isolated, especially if they don’t see themselves represented in team culture and, ultimately, their leadership.
Additionally, if a work culture doesn’t encourage belonging or inclusivity, marginalized employees may find themselves experiencing microaggressions or being excluded, increasing loneliness.
The Organizational Impact
Furthermore, workplace loneliness doesn’t just affect an individual employee. It shapes organizational outcomes too. This includes:
Overall Decreased Productivity and Engagement
Higher Turnover
Reduced Collaboration Efforts
Less Innovation
Lower Well-Being Across Teams
The Connection Between Inclusivity and Loneliness
With all these points in mind, it’s easy to see how loneliness at work goes beyond the physical. Loneliness lives in being unseen, unheard, and unsupported. Employees might be sitting in their weekly meetings and commonly used Slack channels, but if they don’t feel valued or safe, they can still experience deep disconnection. And this disconnection often only worsens; despite how common workplace loneliness is, talking about the experience can be stressful and even discouraged depending on the work culture.
At its core, combating workplace loneliness comes from creating inclusive environments. This kind of inclusive culture doesn’t just bring people together either: it ensures that they feel they belong, too.
3 Pillars of Inclusivity To Reduce Loneliness
Representation => Seeing Yourself Reflected at Work
Representation is an essential part of inclusivity and without it you cannot achieve belonging or psychological safety. Seeing yourself reflected in organizational leadership, management teams, and in decision-makers is a powerful and important part of building trust in both oneself and in their workplace overall.
And that trust doesn’t stop with the feeling itself: rather, it leads to teams and employees trusting themselves enough to grow beyond their current positions, offer innovative ideas, and participate in discussions with ease.
Belonging => Feeling Valued and Accepted
The American Psychological Association indicates that a sense of belonging is critical to employees, and should therefore be at the forefront of cultivating connected communities of workers.
Having a sense of community, connection, and belonging at work go hand-in-hand, and as humans we have an innate need for social connectedness regardless of whether we are in school, work, or our home.
Psychological Safety => Speaking up Without Fear
There is a strong link between psychological health and safety, inclusion, and workplace wellbeing. In fact, the 4 stages of psychological safety show this connection clearly, described as feeling included, safe to learn, safe to contribute, and safe to challenge the status quo without fear, shame, embarrassment, and punishment.
With those in mind, imagine a workplace that does not meet the criteria of psychological safety. It would be difficult to function at your best for fear of encountering pushback, isolation, and marginalization, causing you to become quieter, lonelier and, ultimately, disengaged from work.
How Can Leaders Respond?
Tackling workplace loneliness starts with intentional choices from leadership teams.
Employees turn to their managers and leaders to set the overall tone for connection, belonging, and inclusivity, and the more it is portrayed and practiced the more it grows across teams.
With that in mind, here are three practical strategies to get started:
1. Build Internal Connections
As said previously, social connection is a basic human need for our social, psychological, and even physical wellbeing. Leaders should aim to create spaces where employees feel seen and supported.
Try:
Prioritizing one-on-ones and check-ins amongst teams to build connections beyond simple task updates.
Design inclusive social spaces and opportunities, whether that means virtual coffee chats, team discussions, and cross-department collabs.
Use hybrid-friendly strategies to ensure remote employees also have equal access to relationship-building.
2. Support Employee Wellbeing
Employee wellbeing is tied directly to feelings of connection and belonging, and conversations surrounding it should aim to normalize rather than marginalize.
Try:
Normalizing conversations around mental health to reduce stigma, embarrassment, and shame, as well as open the door for extra support.
Offer resources for employees, including Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), wellness initiatives, peer support groups, and a number of mental health days per year.
Aim to recognize the early stages of burnout via training and direct feedback (via surveys or alternate anonymous feedback methods) to stay attuned to disengaged employees, withdrawal, or dips in performance.
3. Embed Inclusivity into the Everyday
Inclusivity is not just an initiative. It’s an integral part of daily workplace culture.
Try:
Making onboarding inclusive by ensuring new employees feel welcome and connected from day one. This could mean Slack announcements, encouraging one-on-ones conversations between new employees and external teams, or even simple coffee chats.
Support mentorship programs and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to encourage connections amongst employees from underrepresented groups.
Review languages and processes regularly, whether through internal or external means, to ensure policies, job descriptions, and team dynamics are free of exclusionary language, focus on inclusivity, and encourage team-building.
Common Challenges
By no means is any of this easy, especially if you’re starting from zero. Building a culture of connection isn’t without obstacles. Common barriers include:
The Ticking-the-Box Trap
Many organizations have policies and procedures that expound inclusivity and zone in on their efforts, but it is clearly bureaucratic and superficial. For example, they might make social media posts about mental health but not explore the current mental health of their employees or offer psychological benefits. And employees can tell when those efforts don’t truly match a workplace’s goals, which leads to isolation and an overall lack of buy-in and organizational trust.
Resistance to Change
Resistance in inclusivity efforts is not rare, and many efforts falter here, especially if leadership teams do not buy into these efforts. You can see it in even the simplest of changes: altering routines, roles, strategic direction, team dynamics, and more. It’s easy to imagine how employees might be resistant to even bigger changes to policies and procedures, especially if their view of inclusive work is negative.
One of the best ways to overcome this resistance is to directly address it, whether that is discussing fears, misunderstandings, or anxieties. Practice safe spaces for discussion, and consider working with inclusive consultants that aim to meet employees where they are rather than steamroll them into change.
This slower form of transitioning helps employees become accustomed to change over time, and allows for questions, concerns, and fears to be addressed.
Resource Constraints
Inclusivity is often seen as a project that requires a big budget. However, it is more important that inclusive efforts have heart and purpose to them. Maybe that sounds cheesy, but it’s absolutely true: providing small relationship-building groups and activities, safe feedback channels, and inclusive meetings go a long way towards increasing belonging for all employees.
That is to say, providing spaces to connect is key
Remote and Hybrid Work Complexities
Hybrid and remote work can weaken connection by taking away opportunities for day-to-day conversations and communication.
However, there are a number of ways to do so. You could try:
Creating team-building activities, whether they are virtual or in-person (should your team structure allow for it!);
Prioritizing communication at work by crafting clear channels of communication between teams members and different teams;
Or, ensuring that leaders don’t just recognize their employees when they perform well, but being generous with that praise and appreciation, openly acknowledging efforts and offering encouragement.
Final Thoughts: Loneliness Isn’t Inevitable
Employees experiencing loneliness and isolation at work is beyond an individual problem: it’s an organization-wide challenge that holds real consequences when it comes to overall engagement, retention, and innovation.
The good news? Leaders have the power to make a difference.
Nurture psychological safety, embed inclusivity in every stage of the hiring, onboarding, and employee experience and prioritize connections. Make employees feel seen and supported. Tell them how valued they are, and how much their hard work means for the company.
Work towards resilience, lead with a willingness to change, and build a thriving workplace culture, together.
FAQ: Quick Answers to Your Questions About Loneliness at Work
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Loneliness is not always obvious, but signs can include disengagement at meetings, reduced collaboration efforts, quieter participation, withdrawal from team activities, or a decline in performance. Conduct regular one-on-ones, distribute anonymous surveys, and craft open-door policies can help leaders spot early indicators and create space for honest conversations.
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Employees can always tell when initiatives are performative. The solution however is to focus on action, not optics. Try to:
Pair inclusive policies with authentic experiences
Align leaders with organizational values
Measure your impact regularly utilizing feedback, not by just shifting policies
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Psychological safety means building spaces where employees feel they can speak up, speak out, and share without fear or repercussions. Without this, employees often feel more disconnected and excluded. Build trust between leadership teams, managers, and employees and model vulnerability by inviting feedback.
