After over a year of remote work, nearly 60 percent of British workers and 44 percent of US workers don’t want to go back to working full-time in the office. These numbers are concerning with regard to office loneliness, an issue that existed before the pandemic. Constance Hadley, Lecturer in Management & Organizations, and her co-author’s recent research was featured in a Financial Times article from Pilita Clark.
The pandemic has obviously fueled a lack of camaraderie, but this research suggests putting everyone back in the office again won’t entirely fix the problem.
The first thing to do is assess whether loneliness exists. If it does, think about creating core teams with a common mission that last years, not weeks. Also, make sure team leaders understand workplace loneliness can be structural, not personal, so people won’t solve it on their own.
CONSTANCE HADLEY
LECTURER in MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONS