Workplace friendships have a deep impact on our wellbeing. (Luis Alvarez/ Getty Images)

While some are quick to blame remote and flexible work, the sad reality is that social connection in general has been declining for more than a decade, with workplace connections hitting rock bottom in 2013. But workplace friendships have a deep impact on our wellbeing, and employers can help them thrive, says Linda Trim.

The
workplace is one of the most important social resources in a typical adult’s
life, but more meetings, faceless chats and fewer work friends are fuelling an
epidemic of loneliness.

Right now,
people are experiencing a surge in loneliness so profound that the American
Surgeon General has characterised it as an epidemic. 

Some believe
remote and flexible work is at fault, fraying our social ties by removing
incidental interactions from our daily lives.

However, the data tells a different
story. Social
connection, in general, has been declining for more than a decade. 

Downward spiral

Since 2003,
the time we spend weekly with friends is down 20 hours per month, while time
spent socially isolated has spiked by 24 hours per month. These patterns hold
in the workplace, with research from BetterUp, an American company that helps
employees develop their careers, finding that only 68% of workers in 2024 say
they know their colleagues personally, down from 79% in 2019.

The decline
in workplace friendships has a deep impact on us. More than 50% of people make
a close friend at work and we are more likely to make friends at work as an
adult than through friends, schools, and our neighbourhoods. 

Since 2007,
Gallup’s quarterly employee engagement survey has measured the strength of
workplace friendships. According to this data, the low point for office
friendship — the year that the fewest Americans reported having a best friend
at work — was 2013.

That report
notes that returning to the office will unlikely solve the problem.

Remote
workers often prefer to work from home for specific reasons.

Forcing them back
to the office sends their engagement plummeting, which drives up loneliness and
all the associated health and productivity implications.

Tough at the top

What are the
workplace factors that drive loneliness?  

The key
factors driving loneliness at work are not location but gender, seniority, and
time spent in meetings. Men were far more lonely than women, and senior leaders
were far more lonely than other workers.

Counterintuitively, people who spent
the most time in meetings were more than twice as likely to say they were very
lonely than those with fewer meetings.

Strategies to
foster connection

• Create space for non-work topics:
  the top predictors of connection between colleagues focus on getting to
  know people personally through casual, fun conversation. Conversations
  about work are not strongly associated with better relationships. Create
  opportunities for chit-chat within the flow of existing work conversations
  — people don’t tend to attend optional workplace social time — and make
  sure leaders participate too.

• In-person time, but not all the
  time: just one high-quality in-person interaction with coworkers boosts
  productivity and engagement that lasts for 3-4 months. Similarly, you need
  just one in-office interaction per month to provide 90% of the social
  benefits of in-person work.

• Eliminate the junk meetings:
  Meetings without purpose or agenda are hurting teams. A handy tip for
  eliminating low-impact meetings and boosting the outcomes of the remaining
  ones. When you do meet, be sure to carve out time for socialising.

• Focus on trust and psychological
  safety: Small talk boosts weak ties, which are important at work, but
  vulnerability is the key to true connection and friendship. Workplaces
  that create a culture of trust and psychological safety not only enjoy
  better business outcomes but also create more fertile ground for strong
  social networks to flourish.

Building a
happier and more connected workforce

Worker
loneliness is not a simple problem. 

The good news
is that the workplace is predisposed to alleviate worker loneliness.

People may
be lonely at work, but they’re significantly lonelier without it. 

Linda Trim is director at South African workplace design consultancy Giant Leap.

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