Loneliness at work
You can spend all day with people and still feel alone at work.
On a mission to fight the loneliness epidemic by creating more connected workplaces.
The scale
1 in 5
employees worldwide felt lonely a lot of the previous day.
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2024
What it is
Loneliness is a gap.
Connection I want
VS
Connection I have
Loneliness is the gap between the connection someone wants and the connection they experience. Workplace loneliness is associated with lower job performance. Lower approachability and lower affective commitment helped explain the relationship.
Cacioppo and Hawkley, loneliness research
Contact and connection
More contact does not automatically mean more connection.
What companies often add
- Happy hours
- Offsites
- Buddy programs
- Office days
More contact
What I look at instead
- Relationships with depth
- People they can rely on
- Being recognized by name
- Feeling useful to someone
Deeper connection
In practice
Small things, kept up over time.
One place I start is with the small, repeatable ways teams show up for one another. I call these micro-rituals.
Recurring
People know it will happen again.
Meaningful
It connects people to something beyond the task.
Built together
The team has some ownership of it.
The question
Where is loneliness taking hold in your organization?
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