Workplace Loneliness Has Broad Implications for Mental Health

Abstract

Feeling lonely at your job? Others have been, too, even before the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of remote work. However, the "pandemic of loneliness" appears to have peaked in 2020, according to new SHRM research. That doesn't mean the problem has disappeared, though. More than one-third—38 percent—of all workers surveyed say they are lonely on the job at least monthly, according to the SHRM report released June 13 at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2023. Loneliness is a problem that should still be addressed, particularly among certain age groups. Slightly more than half of working Americans said the loneliness they feel at work was about the same in 2022 as it was in 2019; 22 percent said they feel lonely less often now. "Importantly, there are no significant differences in reports of loneliness between onsite versus remote workforces," according to the authors of the SHRM Research report, Loneliness and the Power of Casual Collisions.