Loneliness Archives - CareerBeeps

Unlocking Connection: Proven Strategies For Tackling Remote Work Loneliness

February 2, 2024

As we navigate the evolving landscape of remote work, shifting from traditional office settings to decentralized home-based work has brought advantages and challenges. In the wake of the global pandemic, employees across industries adapted to a new normal, juggling professional responsibilities amid the chaos of family life and virtual schooling.

Four years into this transformative journey, the flexibility of remote work has become a lasting aspect of our professional lives. While the benefits include increased productivity, reduced commutes, and enhanced work-life balance, there’s a lingering challenge that demands attentionâremote work loneliness.

As employees continue to strike a balance between solitude for focused productivity and the need for social connection, this article explores proven strategies to address remote work loneliness and foster meaningful connections in a decentralized work environment. Whether you’re a seasoned remote worker or navigating the new normal, the insights shared here aim to enhance the quality of both professional and personal well-being.

Sharon Grace

It’s 2024, four years past the “two-week shutdown and quarantine” at the onset of the pandemic. Many employees were quickly forced to transition to working from home with the rest of their family members, including kids trying to do virtual school. It was a crazy time!

I think companies have accepted the employees’ desire to have flexibility and not have to work in the office every day if they do not want to. Like most things, there are pluses and minuses, and working remotely has both. We have learned more during these past few years about the effects of working remotely. For some, quiet thinking time is beneficial to productivity. Most remote workers feel they are less distracted at home and are accomplishing more. Not having a long commute or being stuck in traffic is a plus and adds time to their day to work out or cook dinner more often.

I mentioned that quiet time is thinking time and helps some of us focus. However, for others, it can bring a sense of isolation and loneliness. Some struggled coming out of the pandemic being accustomed to staying at home with little or no reason to leave. Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy warned of an ‘epidemic of loneliness and isolation’ (2023 advisory).

Today, most employees work in the office an average of three days a week. Most people I speak with want to get out of the house and connect with their colleagues in person again if they live close to the office. Many people have moved away from their employer’s offices and can only work remotely.

How do we identify the need for quiet, thinking time for productivity versus feeling removed from social interactions? People who are extroverts and introverts can experience both.

Get to know yourself better and analyze your thoughts, actions, and how they relate to your social interactions and productivity.
Measure your workflow, productivity, and quality of work in your quiet, thinking time. Did it take longer to complete, and was the quality below your regular standards? Were you completing work to complete it, or were you fully engaged and lost track of time in it?
How is your mood during the day? Have you taken a break and stepped outside?

Try to tailor your workday around interacting with colleagues. Send instant messages or schedule a phone chat or a short video call to connect. Consider a morning meeting to discuss the day’s projects, a lunchtime chat for a quick break to disconnect from work, or even an end-of-day happy hour to discuss the plan for the next day. If possible, planning offsites to meet in person is a great idea to bond and get together to collaborate or to socialize without discussing work.

If you are interviewing for remote positions, consider asking questions about how the teams communicate, bond, and frequency. Try to meet as many people as you can. Remote and hybrid work is here to stay and remember the value of human connection. We need it for professional and personal well-being.

Sharon Grace is a veteran search executive at Duffy Group who helps hiring leaders hire great people because of her proven track record as a strategic partner and advisor to recruit, identify, and assess talent.

Kristin Pozen

As organizations adapt to flexible work arrangements, employers must now prioritize addressing their remote workforce’s social and mental well-being. By understanding the unique challenges associated with remote work, employers can play a pivotal role in creating a supportive and connected virtual work environment.

Understanding and prioritizing combatting remote work loneliness is essential for maintaining mental well-being and productivity in the workplace. Employers must ensure that everyone has the opportunity to connect, regardless of where they are located. Be intentional about connecting employees outside of their teams. Make it a once-a-week event for casual connection and a once-a-quarter or annual event for more formal L&D or strategy planning.

Here are some employer strategies to tackle remote work loneliness:

Establish Regular Virtual Meetings: Encourage teams to schedule regular video calls with each other. This helps maintain social connections and provides a sense of belonging.

Provide Automated Collaboration: Tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or others allow for employees to stay connected throughout the day. Instant messaging can simulate the casual conversations that happen in an office setting.

Schedule Virtual Coffee Breaks: Informal meetings where you can discuss non-work topics that mimic the casual interactions that occur in an office environment.

Set Up Virtual Social Events: Organize virtual social events, such as virtual happy hours, game nights, or team-building activities. This helps maintain a sense of camaraderie.

Work From Co-Working Spaces: If possible, consider offering to work from co-working spaces occasionally. This allows for face-to-face interactions with others and a change of environment.

Offer Online Communities: Provide access to online forums or communities related to your company’s industry. This can provide a sense of community and facilitate networking.

Evaluate Your Employee Mental Health Benefits: Are they being utilized? If not, ensure your employees know they are available and confidential. Do they need to be enhanced to provide more coverage or more access?

Make Onboarding More Experiential: Onboarding is a critical first opportunity to facilitate friendships at work. Since the pandemic, millions of employees have started new jobs and have never met one of their colleagues in person. Especially for early career employees, this can be incredibly challenging.

Make Recharging a Reality: We must take employee health seriously for human connection and friendship to thrive. We can start by supporting more generous family leave policies, child care, and elder care. Also, ensure that when taking time off, employees recharge by not answering emails and phone calls. They can truly check out for a week at a time.

Kristin Pozen is a research recruitment recruiter at Duffy Group and a former HR recruiter.

Colleen Neese

In a world increasingly adapting to remote work, Duffy Group, a global recruitment firm based in Phoenix, Arizona, stands out with its 33-year history of successfully operating as a remote workforce. As pioneers in the field, company leaders have valuable insights on fostering employee success in the virtual realm, beyond the conventional steps of establishing a dedicated workspace and managing distractions. Duffy Group emphasizes the importance of meaningful connections and combating loneliness in the evolving landscape of remote work. The company showcases a holistic approach to maintaining a strong sense of community among its widely dispersed team, providing inspiration for other organizations seeking innovative ways to keep their remote employees connected.

Duffy Group is a national recruitment firm headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona; however, our recruiters live all over the country and work from home. We have been a remote workforce for 33 years, way before the pandemic and the recent trend that has led to many workers working from home either full time or part of the time.

Since we’ve been doing this so long, we feel like we’ve learned a thing or two that may assist other companies set their employees up for success when it comes to working remotely.

We all know the obvious first steps to creating a positive experience working from home such as:

Have a dedicated workspace
Clear distractions
Take breaks
Make plans after work
Take advantage of not being in the office
Consider getting a pet

But how do you ensure that your employees are connecting on a meaningful level and combating loneliness? We are in the people business, after all! Here are some of the things Duffy Group does to ensure our employees are staying connected:

Utilize technology! We meet regularly via video with each other, with our clients, and with our candidates. We have many company meetings via video that allow us to connect and share information. We also utilize technology to stay connected on various messenger apps. We have one that’s ‘Just for Fun’ where we share silly memes or other fun things going on in our lives, we have one ‘Just for Pets’ where we love to share photos and stories about our furry family members, we have one for our healthy habits and fitness competition, and we have the ability to message as groups or one to one.
Recruiter Huddles â These are small groups of employees who have scheduled informal meetings on the calendars that allow for connecting on all topics.
We’ve created small groups to connect for those who want to connect on things that are not work-relatedâfor example, a Book Club and one where we share recipes and food prep tips.
Celebrate often! We have virtual meet-ups to celebrate all sorts of occasions, from winning awards to weddings and baby showers. My favorite was when we all celebrated our 30th anniversary and received a surprise box at our homes with food and drinks to enjoy as we celebrated virtually.
Provide a leadership coach who will work with all employees virtually and with those who want one-on-one coaching.
Strive to have in-person connections if possible. Once a year, we fly all of our employees to our headquarters in Phoenix, where we all stay at the same resort for three days of training, bonding, and community service. It’s one of my favorite events, and the karaoke night has been a hit year after year!

There are many ways to stay connected as a remote workforce. Hopefully, some of the things Duffy Group has been doing for years will inspire you to implement new and creative ways for your employees to stay connected!

Colleen Neese is a practice leader at Duffy Group. She specializes in recruiting executives in non-profit and healthcare.

Need help recruiting talent for your organization? Check out Duffy Group today.

The Negative Business Impact Of CEO Isolation

September 7, 2023

As CEOs ascend to the top of their organizations, many find themselves grappling with a paradoxical challenge: isolation. Despite being surrounded by teams and board members, a CEO can often feel remarkably alone in their decision-making process. This solitude, while not always apparent on the surface, carries significant risks that extend beyond the individual to the entire company.

In this article, Work It Daily experts from Vistage delve into the risks and negative business impact of CEO isolation. Read on to discover how CEOs can avoid isolation and implement practical strategies for fostering greater engagement, communication, and inclusivity within their organization.

Mike Thorne

âMike, the team just doesnât get it. They cannot see the big picture. I just need them to be accountable.â

How many times do you hear this or say it if you are a CEO? It’s worth asking yourself, “What role am I playing in this story?” You may not like the answer but I am confident it will unlock you, your organization, and, ultimately, your happiness at home, work, and in your community.

So often business owners and CEOs self-isolate themselves without even realizing it. Their heavy workload and ultimate belief that they are wholly responsible for everything is too much burden for one person. There is no doubt they feel without them the stability and overall sustainability of the business wonât work.

This leads to two main outcomes: (1) lack of time to truly reflect, invest time in connecting with peers, and socialize, and (2) fear of delegation. The common issue as a CEO/business owner (fear of delegation) gets overwhelming the longer they fail to ask for help. Employees end up complying but are not committed because they wait for the âbossâ to decide. It is a vicious cycle.

A few quick ideas to help:

1. Set boundaries at work. Allocate time for relaxation, exercise, or a hobby. Try one hour a week and grow from there. CEOs need to pay ATTENTION to where their time is spent.

2. Outsource non-core functions. Start to look at your leadership team as competent vs. only you can do it. Find a few things you would love to get off your plate and test a key leader with the work. You will build confidence and it will expand your capacity AND the organization’s when you do.

3. Join peer groups. It is crucial to have people who are not involved directly with the business. They can provide a perspective you donât have but they also âunderstandâ what you are up against.

We often think we need to revolutionize how we operate when a few quick wins will give us the courage and confidence to take action.

Remember reality always wins, always.

Mike Thorne is a former CEO and current Vistage Chair. He leads and facilitates a group of trusted advisor entrepreneurs and a CEO peer group in New Hampshire and Maine.

Kirsten Yurich

To be a leader is to be isolated.

Leaders are constantly surrounded by peopleâyet donât âBELONGâ anywhere, truly.

Yet, an isolated leader is a dangerous leader.

Leaders can be isolated in many different ways. Each way has unique and negative consequences both for the leader and for the business and its employees.

For example, a leader could be isolated from their employees. In this case, they are unaware of the real issues and experiences happening within their company. These leaders think the company culture is great and struggle to understand why they have such a big turnover issue! Or perhaps they are so out of touch with employee needs and preferences that they are making decisions that actually hurt productivity and morale.

A leader could be isolated from reality. They could spend so much time IN the business (working on minutia or micromanaging their team) that they are not looking around corners for the business or paying attention to the market shifts and trends. The business becomes outdated and irrelevant.

A leader could be isolated socially. They are lonely. Leaders donât have a true group to belong to at the office. Relationships are always clouded by the authority imbalance. You may have to fire a “friend.” That will always put a damper on a relationship. This can create some moderate if not extreme depression.

A leader could be isolated intellectually. The pressure to perform and to be “always on” often results in leaders placing their own professional development needs last. This can isolate them from growing in areas both inside their industries as well as professionals and leaders in general. Leaders with limited learning are stunting their effectiveness. They MUST find peers outside their company to learn from. Peer advisory groups are a place to validate their thinking, have their decisions and actions questioned in safe ways (without risking their job, reputation, etc.), and gain the perspective and collective wisdom of other leaders outside their industry.

Will it always be this way?

How can leaders overcome the inevitability of isolation? Itâs possible. But it starts in your head.

Clarifying the vision or version of the leader YOU want to be is the place to start. What do you value, specifically? List it out! Your mindset and beliefs about what a leader IS (what she/he creates) will always drive your behaviors and choices.

If you believe a leader never shows weakness or vulnerability, then me suggesting a strategy of creating psychological safety through shared vulnerability with your team will fail because deep down inside you donât believe thatâs how leaders should behave. You wonât be able to do it. So donât even try.

The strategies you select must align with the leadership values you hold (or those you aspire to hold).

Be present with your employees in organic and authentic ways. Show up at events, meetings, and celebrations just to see and be seen.
Spend time doing the work that only YOU can do. Evaluate your current contributions to the companyârealign as necessary. Delegate those that can be accomplished by others. For top leaders, spend 50% of your time outside the company building relationships.
Build a strong social network with people who do not work at the company. Have a hobby, creative if possible.
Be active. Exercise and sleep for executives are extremely important. The more cognitively challenging the job, the more important these disciplines are for your performance.
Regularly be part of peer-to-peer experiences where you are able to have your thinking challenged and wrestle with important issues with other leaders. Exposure to other ways of thinking enhances your analytical and problem-solving skills.

Isolation is inevitable in leadership. But its negative effects can be mitigated and managed with a proactive approach across the several domains listed above.

Kirsten Yurich is a former CEO and current Vistage Chair. As a clinician, professor, author, and executive, she leverages this unique blend and creates learning environments for executives to become better leaders, spouses, and parents.

Mark Fackler

For me, the problem of isolation started in an instant.

One day I was an employee, the next I was an isolated CEO. I quit a job to voluntarily go down a path all alone and was not sure what was in front of me. My personality, like most founders, has curiosity and risk-taking. There was probably a bit of courage, but naivetÃ© can alleviate the need for courage. Whatâs the worst that can happen, I lose my house? Who cares.

But as you go down this founderâs path, isolation builds. Alongside the growing isolation are growing problems. The funny, or not-so-funny, thing about the problems is that they grow in number and grow in consequence. The always impending failure has a larger and larger impact not on just your life, but the lives of your employees, clients, and vendors. What goes from “Whatâs the worst that can happen, I lose my house?” becomes the same problem for others who count on you. The isolation builds and hampers CEO productivity.

Solving the isolation problem for those of us willing to admit that isolation is real was actually quite simple for me. I joined a Vistage CEO peer group. After attending a few monthly meetings, I learned how to be open, honest, and vulnerable. I donât want to trivialize the act of becoming open, honest, and vulnerable, but when I did, the isolation relief came bit by bit. Yes, it is just a bit of relief, but doing so month after month, for me 12 years, provided enough cumulative relief to ride that scary wave, that isolating scary wave, that felt like it was going to crash down on me at any moment.

With that sense of relief and with the peer group, I learned what was necessary to grow the company and to take care of everyone that was counting on me.

Mark Fackler is a retired CEO and currently leads the Vistage CEO group that he was a member of from 1991 to 2002. He is passionate about creating great ROI for his member CEOs.

What’s your experience with CEO isolation and its negative business impact? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily’s Executive Program.

How To Deal With Loneliness In Your Career

March 9, 2022March 12, 2022

Feeling lonely at work? Feeling like you don’t belong at your company, in your job, or in your career at all? Loneliness can creep up on us at any stage in our professional lives. When it does, we often don’t know how to handle the feeling. Is it normal to feel lonely at work? Is it normal to walk into the office or log on for the day and instantly feel alone?

Yes, it is. You’re not alone in feeling lonely.

The good news is, you can do something about it! You can become empowered in your career and feel a sense of connection again.

Loneliness is often caused by a lack of connection–to people, to yourself, or to the work that you do. Without connection, you won’t feel happy or satisfied in your career.

Here are some ways to deal with loneliness in your career so you can finally find happiness and satisfaction in your professional life.

Learn How To Network

Connection is essential in our lives. We need to connect with others every day, or at least feel connected to them. If we don’t, loneliness can set in. And that’s when our mental health (and performance at work) can really start to suffer.

In your career, you might not be friends with your boss or co-workers. That’s okay. But you should have a network of people, a support system, that you can fall back on. These people know your professional strengths, weaknesses, and accomplishments. They know your skills, the type of work you like to do, and the causes you’re passionate about. This is not your family. This is your professional network.

Having a strong professional network is not only important for career success. It also gives you a sense of connection to others in your professional life. For this reason, it’s important to learn how to network, even if you hate it. The more you network, the easier it will become. Reach out to people you admire. Find people who can help you succeed. After connecting on LinkedIn, make sure to add value to your network. If you help others, they will return the favor.

Discover Your Career Purpose

One of the biggest reasons why you might feel lonely and unfulfilled in your career is because you feel disconnected from yourself and the work that you do. That loneliness could be amplified if you’re working with people who aren’t passionate about the same things as you are. This is why it’s essential to discover your career purpose.

Finding your career purpose is a relatively simple process. First, you need to discover your professional strengths (take our Career Decoder Quiz to figure this out!). Then, you need to determine how you want to prioritize the eight key areas of life, and how you have been prioritizing them (there’s probably a disconnect, and that could be the primary cause of your loneliness and career dissatisfaction). Finally, once you’ve figured out your professional strengths and how you want to prioritize the eight key areas of life, you need to create your interview bucket list.

An interview bucket list is a list of 10-20 companies you’d love to work for. Are you passionate about a company’s product or service? Do you feel connected to their mission? Can you relate to their values and beliefs as an organization? Think about these questions as you make your list. You’ll probably notice a pattern, and that’ll help you identify your intrinsic motivation and the type of job/career that would make you feel unfulfilled and satisfied, where you would feel connected to and passionate about the work, overcoming loneliness in your career once and for all.

Find Your Community

In addition to building your professional network and discovering your career purpose, you should also find your community.

A community is different from a professional network. A community is close-knit. It’s a safe space, a fortress. Inside, there’s a sense of solidarity and togetherness. It’s hard to be lonely when you feel supported by and connected to a group of like-minded individuals who all have the same goal, whatever that goal may be. Essentially, everyone in your community is a part of your professional network, but not everyone in your professional network is a part of your community.

Join organizations or groups, volunteer, or do something you’ve always wanted to do (especially if it’s outside your comfort zone). Follow your passion, your career purpose, and you’ll find your community along the way.

The best community for professionals, though, is located inside Work It Daily.

We’d love it if you joined our FREE community. It’s a private, online platform where workers, just like you, are coming together to learn and grow into powerful Workplace Renegades. We like to see ourselves as the leader of the Workplace Revolution. And we want YOU to be a part of it.

It’s time to find work that makes you feel happy, satisfied, and fulfilled. It’s time to overcome that crippling loneliness in your career. Join our FREE community today to finally become an empowered business-of-one!