Introduction

Do you feel lonely at work? Does it feel like you're wasting your time working at a job with people you don’t know? In this article, Jennifer Moss explains how many people enjoy going to work for social interactions, as it promotes a positive & motivating teamwork environment.

Based on statistics, it’s known that for Generation Z, loneliness has become somewhat of a trend, so a lack of social interaction is not an issue for a younger crowd. However, for many older generations, this is not the case. There are people who unfortunately have to work in an environment that lacks face-to-face interactions with coworkers or superiors. However, for those individuals who need social interactions, working alone could eventually cause emotional or psychological distress. 

Are you struggling with building a psychologically safe space for yourself at work? Keep reading to learn more about how loneliness at a workplace can cause poor employee performance and how to overcome it.

Flexible By Design

One cause of workplace loneliness can be workplace design. The open office, the choice for nearly 70 percent of U.S. companies, is a good example. A recent paper, "The Impact of the 'Open' Workspace on Human Collaboration," by Harvard Business School researchers Ethan S. Bernstein and Stephen Turban, explored how architecture impacts collective behavior. Bernstein and Turban's field research showed that the modern open office architecture "tends to decrease the volume of face-to-face interaction by some 70 percent."

The study tracked two Fortune 500 multinational businesses as they transitioned to more open spaces. It found that employees in the "walled" space spent an average of 5.8 hours a day interacting face to face. In the "open space," physical collaboration time withered to 1.7 hours. Instead, employees sent 56 percent more e-mails and 67 percent more instant messages that also happened to be 75 percent longer. Bernstein and Turban concluded that hyper-stimulated open offices wind up reducing, rather than increasing, productive interaction.

Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking (Broadway Books, 2012) and a frequent speaker on introversion and extroversion in the workplace, notes that, "The best work spaces allow people to move freely between solo and shared spaces. Sometimes we want to work alone. Sometimes we crave company. Sometimes we want both of these things in the space of a single morning. Why not design around these natural preferences? Radically open office plans don't actually increase collaboration or decrease loneliness. On the contrary, they create giant rooms full of worker bees wearing headphones."

Cain's work with Steelcase, an office space and furniture design company, is part of her effort to educate employers about the best ways to leverage the powers of introverts. Appropriate workspaces play a big part in that effort. Cain cites a few design principles with introversion in mind, including:

• Permission to be alone. This means offering workers a private, interruption-free space, the ability to remove themselves from an otherwise highly stimulating workplace.

• Control over the environment. Cain's research shows that introverts are more sensitive to stimulation and have a greater need for control over their environment. They also have a lower tolerance for external forces such as noise and light.

• Sensory balance. Calming influences found in organic materials help introverts manage their sensory needs.

• Psychological safety. Introverts need spaces where they feel unseen―as respite from feeling perpetually noticed by their peers.

"There's a big difference between happily seeking out solo time (for getting into a flow state, or simply to recharge) vs. unhappily feeling lonely (because of social isolation or toxic interpersonal dynamics)," Cain contends. "The best workplaces maximize the former and minimize the latter."

The Social Contagion of Loneliness

A 2018 research paper, "No Employee Is an Island: Workplace Loneliness and Job Performance," found that loneliness affects job performance in several ways. Notably, loneliness has a network effect. Wharton professor Sigal Barsade determined that lonely employees are viewed as less approachable by their colleagues. "Once a person has decided they are lonely, they become hyper-vigilant to social threat, which leads them to behave in defensive, non-socially skilled ways and causes them to appear unapproachable and pushing people away," Barsade says. "The irony is that these lonely people who desperately want to connect are actually pushing away the very people they could connect with. And given how much work gets done through others at work, including the exchange of information and workplace help, being viewed as less approachable by work colleagues hurts the lonely employees' performance."

Managers tend to see loneliness as the employees' problem, but researchers emphasize that organizations need to pay attention. The study found that greater workplace loneliness was strongly related to poorer job performance. That's a result of lower commitment and less positive emotional attachment to the organization on the part of employees. "Given the pernicious effects of loneliness in other life domains, and given that loneliness is domain-specific, and given the amount of time people spend at work, leaders must address the issue," Barsade says. "This is not only, of course, because it's an alienating and upsetting experience for the employee, but also because it's an organizational problem."

Production-Only Focused Cultures

The competitive nature of a highly production-focused company is one of the many examples of how work cultures can breed loneliness. On one hand, competition can be healthy. According to research published in the American Journal of Management, "The Psychology of Rivalry: A Relationally Dependent Analysis of Competition," it can increase an individual's motivation and effort to produce results. But overly competitive work environments can cause stress, secrecy, defensiveness and predatory behaviours. Too much competitiveness can also lead to feelings of isolation among co-workers and an "every person for themselves" culture.

While strategies such as cooperative sales targets and team metrics can help, the best way to encourage healthy competition and mitigate feelings of loneliness among workers is to focus on shared goals, experts say.

Humans are social creatures whose ability to come together and support one another is in large part what drove our success as a species, says Leeno Karumanchery, chief diversity officer at Mesh Diversity, a consultancy based in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. "Feelings of inclusion drive what we call a 'virtuous loop' that energizes us to 'do for others' in that group," he says. "In a work context, that motivates us to work harder for our teams and for our organization (i.e., longer hours, increased workload, a desire to 'make an impact'). In contrast, feelings of exclusion actually cause changes in brain functionality, leading to diminished learning capacity, poor decision-making and an elevated threat response. Simply put, inclusion helps us to be at our best for ourselves and for the people in our lives."

Balancing Technology

In his best-selling book Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation (Da Capo Press, 2018), Dan Schawbel tackles the impact of loneliness and disconnection in the workplace. The author cites more people living alone and the overuse of technology as the main culprits for an increase in loneliness. Schawbel urges people to "use technology as a bridge" to further human interaction. He advises individuals not to let technology be a barrier between them and those they need to connect with most. He also encourages leaders to take the necessary time to get to know their teams. "By solving someone's human needs, you're also solving their work needs," he says.

Schawbel's latest research, in collaboration with Virgin Pulse, is aimed at determining the best ways to enable stronger human relationships. His survey of 2,000 managers and employees across different age groups and world geographies found that offsite meetings were a helpful strategy for enabling human relationships. Schawbel learned that by gathering in environments away from work, employees were better able to escape the office talk and engage in more personal conversations. Following the offsite events, participant data showed that productivity and engagement among the group increased, while feelings of isolation and loneliness decreased.

"Really, it's about trust," Schawbel says, "because if you have never seen someone's face, you don't trust them as much. The second you meet someone, everything changes, everything."

SHRM's Tony Lee is joined by Steve Browne, vice president of HR for LaRosa's Pizzeria to discuss workplace loneliness and the success of his new book HR On Purpose. Tony and Steve talk about how feeling isolated at work causes many people to look for a different job, why open offices are often the culprit of isolation, how it's easy to be isolated and have the perception that you're not, how social media can contribute to isolation and the overwhelmingly positive response to Steve's book.

You can watch Tony's interview with Steve at #SHRM19 in the SHRM Studio here.

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Katie Burke, chief people officer at HubSpot, a Cambridge, Mass.-based marketing software company, also sees the negative impacts of technology and the role it plays in human disconnection. She believes that "workplaces need to evolve to address the fact that ultimately employees want to feel like they belong and can thrive in the workplace." She described some of the ways that HubSpot is putting resources and investment toward that goal.

One is by equipping managers with more tools to foster psychological safety in their teams. This includes formal manager training and a virtual community where managers share best practices. The company also celebrates its commitment to mental health in public and visible ways. One of its employees wrote about how therapy has made him a better manager. In the Dublin office, company leaders host events that focus specifically on mental health. All of this is an effort to normalize the language of mental health and reduce the stigma surrounding these topics in the workplace.

HubSpot also strives to build connections among employees. The company has created a monthly automated introduction to one employee so staff can easily meet someone outside of their department. The company sponsors book clubs that celebrate diversity and holds quarterly ParentSpot breakfasts that encourages new parents to connect in person. Burke notes that the company also conducts direct interventions through its employee assistance program.

"At HubSpot, one of the most important things we do to help our employees feel like they belong is to normalize moments of vulnerability. Whether you're nervous because it's your first day, anxious because of a big presentation or lonely because it's your first day back as a new parent, one of the most important things we can do is to help people realize they're not alone."

There's little doubt that loneliness, particularly in the workplace, is a growing concern. But there's plenty of proof that just by showing empathy and compassion, business leaders can create a culture of support and safety.

Jennifer Moss is author of Unlocking Happiness at Work (Kogan Page, 2016) and co-founder of Plasticity Labs, a Waterloo, Ontario, Canada-based research and consulting company that focuses on organizational culture.

Is there a better way?

The answer is yes! There are many methods available that help decreases loneliness at work. Over the years, there have been many different kinds of communications tools being used around the world, especially at work. For instance, technology has been commonly used as a communication tool for decades. However, over the years, studies have shown that technology has caused an increase in loneliness, as it decreases human interaction.

It is important for employers and leaders to distinguish the different types of techniques that can enhance human interactions within a workplace, for instance, offsite events or HubSpot. Building a safe workspace for employees will not only increase their work performance but also their overall psychological health.