The Isolation Effect: Research Links Loneliness to Poorer Job Performance

Throughout the past four years, Gallup researchers have studied the role that workplace friendships play in helping employees maintain their mental health.

Overall, Gallup has determined that finding friends at the office is more important than ever, as more organizations opt to stick with the remote and hybrid work models they transitioned to during the pandemic.

“For many employees, the pandemic caused traumatic experiences and other profound difficulties, particularly for healthcare and other frontline workers and educators,” Gallup’s Alok Patel and Stephanie Plowman wrote in January 2024.

“These employees found the social and emotional support from their best friends at work to be more critical than ever to get them through these challenging times.”

Gallup’s recent research has also found that employees who don’t have at least one colleague with whom they are close became more isolated working from home in the COVID era.

Just this month, Integrated Benefit Institute (IBI) shared data that highlight the impact this type of isolation has on the workforce, finding a connection between feelings of loneliness and poorer work performance, lower work satisfaction and increased turnover risk.

In a three-part series focused on employee mental health, IBI found 13% of the workforce said they “always” or “usually” experience loneliness, with clinically relevant anxiety reported in 27% of the workforce. Clinically relevant depression was reported in 20% of workers, according to IBI.

Frequent loneliness was associated with 6.4 times higher odds of anxiety or depression, according to IBI, which noted that employees with social support have 91% lower odds of experiencing loneliness.

Not surprisingly, feelings of anxiety and/or depression were also linked to increased absenteeism. IBI found that employees with clinically relevant anxiety and/or depression averaged 4.6 more sick days annually than those without either of these conditions. Workers dealing with anxiety or depression also experienced higher rates of other chronic health conditions, such as musculoskeletal conditions, obesity and acute COVID-19, according to IBI researchers.

“IBI’s research revealed that individuals experiencing frequent loneliness were more than seven times more likely to suffer from anxiety or depression,” said Carole Bonner, IBI researcher and lead author of the report. “This remarkably strong association highlights loneliness as a critical public health concern that we can no longer afford to ignore.”