A recent report from the World Health Organisation described loneliness as a public-health crisis that affects one in six people worldwide and contributes to 871,000 deaths annually.
While regular employment provides both social connection and a vital sense of purpose, remote employees suffer disproportionately than those based in offices.
Another report, Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace, found that 25 per cent of remote employees experience daily loneliness, compared to 16 per cent of fully on-site employees. Ringover’s 2024 Loneliness at Work survey, meanwhile, found that remote workers reported feeling lonely 98 per cent more often than their fully on-site counterparts, and 179 per cent more often than those in hybrid roles.
Isolation, less peer learning, missing out on information about career opportunities and trouble switching off from work are commonly cited difficulties for remote workers.
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Research consistently finds that loneliness doesn’t come from a lack of social contact. It comes from a lack of perceived social value to others. The opposite of loneliness isn’t having more people around you, but feeling that you matter to people around you, says Dr Zach Mercurio, researcher and author of The Power of Mattering (HBR Press).
“It’s not the quantity of interactions that matters when it comes to reducing loneliness, but the quality of interactions. Quality interactions are ones that make us feel seen, heard, valued, and needed. This has implications for managing remote workers for several reasons. First, remote work typically relies on technology used for efficient communication. That often means we get together virtually in real time for less time than we would if we were in person.
“We also have the option to click ‘leave’ after a meeting and not think about the person again until we see them next, or to use messaging apps to communicate in short bursts. The way many of us use technology for remote work makes it too easy for us not to follow up with someone who seemed frustrated on a call or check in on how someone is really doing. It makes it easier to have low-quality interactions.”
However, we can design for high-quality interactions in a virtual setting. For remote teams, Mercurio suggests using rare time together to discuss ways of working and being together, rather than as information exchanges.
“The saying, ‘That meeting could have been an email,’ resonates because most meetings are just a series of updates. Information exchange can be an email. What can’t be an email is checking in on how someone is doing after being sick, finding and resolving logjams getting in the way of getting projects done, or talking about how we can work better together.”
Mercurio suggests that managers normalise the regular check-in phone call, especially to complement virtual meetings.
“For example, if you notice someone is frustrated or quieter than usual in a virtual meeting, pick up the phone and check in: ‘I noticed you seemed frustrated in that meeting, is that right?’ Also, normalise checking in on ‘how’ people are doing, not on ‘what’ they are doing. Having just one trusted contact you feel that you matter to and who is there for you can make the difference between feeling lonely or not.”
Meg Dunphy of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) agrees and says remote working is not sustainable long-term for either employer or employee in the absence of purposefully designed connection.
“People are lonelier now than they have ever been despite the very high levels of digital connection, so leaders need to ensure that managers are trained around supporting remote workers. That means having regular check-ins, lots of feedback, clear goal setting and engagement tracking.”
It is vital to create time for more informal communication involving “intentional touch points” and “daily huddles”, where appropriate, between remote and office based workers, she adds. This could take the form of setting aside a little time at the start of a Teams meeting where colleagues can catch up with each other. Care should be taken, however, to avoid “intro fatigue”, which can cause irritation where busy meeting participants simply want to get on with the business agenda.
Employers should ensure that remote workers have the same access to information and professional opportunities that their office-based colleagues have.
“It’s important to avoid proximity bias, where people in the office are in a better position to hear about opportunities,” says Dunphy. “Any office-based communication should include people not in the building, and that extends to people on leave or maternity.”
