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Lonely workers don't need more events. They need a boss who shows up

Corporate events have done nothing to ease the loneliness inside offices. The real remedy rests with bosses whose quiet outreach wins little credit

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Plenty of executives have decided that a disconnected workforce is a problem they can solve by getting everyone back in the office. People who share a floor can grab lunch together, run into each other at the coffee machine, and notice when a colleague is having a rough day. All of that is impossible to do over video. So the pull to close the distance is understandable. When Constance Noonan Hadley and Sarah L. Wright studied 1,000 U.S. knowledge workers for Harvard Business Review , though, the people who felt loneliest were already spending about half their working time in person.

Whether someone came into the office five days a week or two made no difference to how lonely they felt, Hadley and Wright found. While fully remote workers still felt more isolated than the rest, trips to the office only benefitted them if and when their employer offered lunches, social events, and time to talk. A floor full of people doesn't, by itself, make anyone feel less........

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