Loneliness on the job: An epidemic
What most people don’t understand about loneliness on the job is that it is not the same as being alone. You can feel lonely even when you’re with people, or if you’re at work. It can drive you insane and cause great damage to your mental health as well. And once mental health is hampered with, your job performance can make a fall too.
What everyone needs to make a note of is the fact that with the growing times, there is an increase in loneliness in employees. The workplace can induce a lot of feelings in an employee—this is the place where they spend 8-9 hours daily, which is basically more than the time they stay at home. The way the workplace functions decides the way the employee feels and caters to their mental health as well. This is a primary factor for job productivity.
First of all, what is loneliness at the workplace?
It’s not necessarily true when people say that if you’re lonely at work, then you’re lonely everywhere else. Loneliness on the job depends on the company and the way you are perceived—there are cliques at your workplace that can tend to make a person, who doesn’t belong in the group, feel left out. Feeling left out is a common feeling, and sometimes, this feeling can escalate into loneliness.
Feeling lonely on the job is a growing epidemic these days because not many people focus on improving the nature or status of their work-life. Addressing the nature of these cliques at the workplace can bring in an idea to understand why a person is feeling left out. A little effort in bringing them along or including them in conversation can give people a reason to look forward to work than just work itself.
Salaries are a prime motivator for people to work, however, loneliness hampers this motive and can decay the mind of the employee considerably. Therefore, observing and identifying employees at your workplace who may feel left out becomes a responsibility for managers, and to other employees. Spreading goodwill not only reduces employee loneliness but boosts a feeling of positivity at the workplace, invariably increasing productivity.
Loneliness — A prison?
Why loneliness on the job can be compared to prison is simple: when a person entraps their mind within the confines of their thoughts, it becomes close to impossible to loosen up. Loneliness is one of the prime reasons for people falling into depression. It can be a major reason for a lack of motivation and productivity at work.
Managers have to take in an extra effort to identify these signs in their employees. They have to manage the atmosphere of the workplace. By noticing these signs, managers not only have to delve in to have a conversation with said employees but must try to positively affect them as well. They should not be put down on for feeling lonely and must be encouraged in a positive manner.
What are some signs?
When a person feels loneliness on the job, they become unresponsive. They do not engage in conversation unless it is about work; they tend to become unapproachable, and not listen to others. Being lonely doesn't just affect the person who feels lonely, but the others around them as well.
People at the workplace tend to believe that those who are lonely are just unapproachable by nature. This causes rifts in the workplace, and can invariably affect productivity. Managers need to be careful and learn to defuse these situations before they get on the rise.
If you’ve just joined a new company, you’re a newcomer. You feel lonely and it’s absolutely common to feel this way. This is because it involves quite a bit of a hassle and risk to reach out to your new colleagues, who probably know each other really well. However, if you’re feeling this way for quite some time, and you’re being affected mentally by these thoughts, you’ve basically entered a prison.
How can this improve?
People do not just work for their monthly salaries. They want to feel belonged, and taken care of. Feeling left out does the opposite.
Nowadays, organizations are making sure and providing newer areas for employees. This is a good thing. Because it can challenge a formal working situation, which follows draconian rules and ideologies behind its functioning. People now are not just acting out their roles, they are trying to work together. Therefore, it is important for people to take into account a person’s needs to connect and change cultures that can induce this in their employees.