Are office workers lonelier than they were during Covid WFH?
A third of Brits feel lonelier at work than they did during the pandemic, with almost a fifth regularly going a full day without speaking to anyone.
And while businesses around the UK push to get employees back into the office, more than half of workers admit to messaging colleagues on platforms like Slack and Teams even if they are in the same room.
That’s according to the workforce engagement platform Kahoot, which has surveyed workers on their attitudes to human connection in the office.
Trends to streamline working processes, for instance cutting down on meetings, appear to be having the collateral effect of cutting away opportunities for human connection in the office.
In fact, nearly half of those who responded to the survey said that the meetings they do have are some of the only moments in a work week when they meaningfully connect with colleagues.
Office workers message colleagues in the same room
According to official government guidance on loneliness at work, published in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, “the reliance on virtual connection, reduced opportunities for networking and shared activities has had an impact on social connections”.
And it appears from this latest data release that this heavy emphasis on remote working extends even into the office.
Of those surveyed, a striking number report having only superficial relationships with people at work, with 37 per cent saying that they have no friends at work.
Meanwhile, 49 per cent said they speak to their manager one-on-one for less than an hour a week, with 14 per cent saying they don’t have these interactions at all.
And at the same time those managers look to be feeling the strain, with two in five saying that they suffer from “imposter syndrome” in their role.
The return to office motors on
There has been a deepening consensus in recent years that the pandemic-era shift to remote working was a blip rather than a new normal.
Though rolling summer heatwaves have thrown up some roadblocks to a full return to office, a number of big firms in the City are pushing hard to revert to pre-2020 working practices.
The FTSE 100 listed property developer British Land recently declared that “across London the return to the office debate is over”.
And major new skyscraper developments in the Square Mile, for instance 50 Fenchurch Street, are testament to the sky-high demand for central London office space.