4 tips for combatting workplace loneliness

Loneliness has become one of the biggest public health issues in the last few years, and the problem is bleeding into the workplace. Between remote or hybrid schedules and a long readjustment period after Covid-19, many feel the tradition of making friends with colleagues has started to wane. 

In its 2024 State of the Global Workplace, Gallup found that 20% of workers experienced loneliness "a lot" the previous day. That means 1 in 5 workers, both remote and in-person, expressed feelings of loneliness. With the loneliness epidemic seeping into the office, experts say a few tips can help people rebuild their connections while at work.

Understand loneliness

One of the first things you can do to address the issue is to "notice how we perceive loneliness," CNBC said. Despite there being a social stigma around the emotion, it is "important to accept that it is a very common, human feeling." Loneliness is a "natural, appropriate emotional experience" that everyone experiences, clinical psychologist Dr. Annabelle Chow told CNBC Make It. The emotion itself is not the problem, "it's how we perceive loneliness," she said. If we have a negative perception of the feeling, "then naturally our response to that becomes very negative, and then the problem snowballs." Instead, we should take a "healthy, balanced and neutral approach" to manage the feeling more effectively. She said that we should try to find the source of the feeling, which could help determine what to do next.

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Take 10 minutes to connect intentionally 

Alleviating workplace loneliness could be as easy as spending 10 minutes a day connecting intentionally. Doing so could reduce the loneliness gap by 50%, Ann Shoket, CEO of TheLi.st, said to Fortune. Incorporating 10 minutes of connecting is something that everyone can do, and Shoket's company provides a guide, "10 Minutes to Togetherness," for combatting workplace loneliness. Taking small steps to interact with your colleagues can be as simple as asking a coworker out for coffee, congratulating a team member on a project you admired or just checking in about their personal life. 

"It's not showing up at the networking parties and swirling warm Chardonnay. It's not big, fancy, expensive conferences," Shoket said. "These tiny daily habits of staying in touch by text, spending time one-on-one and literally walking around the office are a really valuable way to nurture your connections." It can be nerve-wracking to "introduce yourself to someone new or send a cold Slack message," but we "tend to underestimate how well reaching out feels and is received," said Fortune.

Work on your connections outside of work

If you are happier at work, then you will likely be happier outside of work as well. The opposite can also be true. "When you feel more joy and fulfillment outside of work, you tend to perceive also more happiness within your work," Tracy Brower said in Forbes. You can approve your overall "sense of connectedness and belonging" by "building relationships outside of work, as well as within." Reconnecting with an old friend, or befriending someone new from an environment other than work can help you build bigger networks of connections. "All of these will affect your well-being and reduce loneliness overall," Brower said.

Make the best of the office layout

Some companies are rethinking how the physical space of the office is arranged, with building relationships in mind. For example, some are incorporating staircases to help employees get more steps in and encourage "casual collisions" that can lead to more interpersonal interactions, Suzanne Heidelberger, who works on bringing a hospitality mindset to corporate spaces, said to The Associated Press. Others are converting other spaces into gathering areas or creating both in-person and remote social spaces. 

"Employees spend more of their waking hours at work than just about anywhere else," Dr. Jeffrey Levin-Scherz said to Harvard Medical School. "Creating community and opportunities for social interactions at work, even for those who work remotely, can help address our current epidemic of loneliness."