11th September 2025
Loneliness at Work: How Leaders Can Rebuild Connection
Loneliness is reshaping today’s workplaces, silently eroding trust, collaboration, and performance. As societal disconnection spills into team dynamics, leaders must act intentionally to embed connection into everyday work. Through trust-based practices, shared identity, and genuine relationships, organizations can build cultures of belonging that strengthen resilience, innovation, and overall team cohesion.
This article was written by Kristin Gleitsman and Luis Velasquez and published in HBR.
As a seasoned senior vice president at a global tech firm, Sharon wasn’t expecting to feel emotional while listening to a keynote. But as former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy spoke, describing how loneliness has become a public health crisis, something clicked. “It wasn’t that the information was new,” she told us. “It was that I suddenly saw the evidence everywhere—in my team, in our culture, even in myself.”
She started describing what had been quietly gnawing at her: fewer spontaneous chats, quieter Slack channels, new hires struggling to find their footing, virtual meetings where people kept their cameras off and barely interacted. One line from a recent culture survey stuck with her: “I actually look forward to IT check-ins because it’s the only time someone asks how I’m doing. That’s supposed to be the most boring meeting of the month, and it’s the one place I feel like a person.”
That line hit a nerve. And it’s not just Sharon. Across industries, we’ve heard that leaders are noticing the same thing: “People are quieter.” “Collaboration feels more transactional.” “New employees aren’t taking initiative.” These shifts are easy to dismiss as cultural friction or post-pandemic fatigue, but they point to something deeper.
If loneliness is reshaping society, then it’s already reshaping the teams we lead, whether we see it clearly or not. Loneliness silently dismantles trust and team cohesion, foundational elements that drive performance, innovation, and resilience. By attending to connection as a strategic responsibility, leaders have an opportunity to unlock a huge strategic advantage—and become architects of healthier, more human workplaces.
How Modern Work Inherits a Crisis of Disconnection
The data is clear: Loneliness is rising, driven by broad societal and technological shifts. A hallway chat or post-meeting walk once offered easy connection, but hybrid and remote work have stripped those moments away. These ostensibly low-stakes interactions—once the connective tissue of life—don’t translate easily to digital platforms.
On top of this, meaningful interaction is being displaced by shallow, technology-mediated exchange, making the problem more acute. Someone might “react” to dozens of messages and still feel profoundly isolated. Algorithm-driven platforms like LinkedIn inflate expectations of how socially connected, accomplished, or fulfilled we should feel. The growing gap between perceived and lived connection creates a kind of emotional dissonance—one that makes people less willing to share authentically, reinforcing the very isolation they’re experiencing.
These societal dynamics inevitably shape the workplace. They seep into team culture, performance expectations, and everyday interactions. Work doesn’t exist apart from society—it absorbs its pressures, amplifies its gaps, and remains one of the last places where people hope to feel like they matter.
The Silent Threat to Team Performance
Loneliness has been linked to increased burnout, declining productivity, and rising attrition—costing U.S. companies up to $154 billion a year. Beyond measurable financial impact, leaders sense something has shifted but struggle to name it. After all, goals are still being met, people are still showing up to meetings, and Slack channels are in use. Yet the energy feels lower, collaboration more transactional, and initiative harder to sustain.
Creating a less-lonely workplace starts with recognizing that loneliness isn’t just a personal issue—it’s an invisible systemic force quietly eroding trust, creativity, and performance, driven by a broader breakdown of connection. (…)
Read the full article here: Loneliness Is Reshaping Your Workplace
