The Hidden Cost of Remote FlexibilityThe Hidden Cost of Remote Flexibility

“I Haven’t Spoken to Anyone All Day” The Hidden Cost of Remote Flexibility

“Balance is key.”

BY STEPHNIE @the Brimly Test Kitchen

April 14, 2025

Image Source/The Organic Crave

20 minute Read

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FEATURE ARTICLE

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“Loneliness isn’t about being alone—it’s about feeling unseen. And in a world where work has gone digital, too many of us are fading into the background.”
— Dr. Constance Noonan Hadley, Organizational Psychologist, Boston University

The clock reads 5 p.m. on a Tuesday, and Jamie, a marketing manager in Denver, realizes an unsettling truth: aside from a few Slack pings and emails, she hasn’t uttered a single word to another human being since she woke up. “I lift my head up from work only to realize I haven’t spoken to anyone all day,” she says, describing a routine familiar to many remote workers. The flexibility of working from home — once a coveted perk — has a hidden cost that’s only now coming into focus: profound loneliness.

Over the past three years, remote work in the U.S. has transformed from a temporary pandemic experiment into a lasting fixture of modern employment. Roughly 14% of U.S. employed adults (about 22 million people) now work from home full-time, enjoying benefits like no commute, extra sleep, and freedom to live where they choose. Yet, for all its upsides, this great workplace shift has a human downside. Many remote workers confess to feeling isolated, emotionally drained, and disconnected from the “office family” they once had. As one remote employee put it bluntly after months at home: “I worked remotely for 4 years and felt isolated, without any real connections with my coworkers. I decided to quit.”

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“It’s 5 p.m., and I haven’t spoken to a single person.” The hidden emotional cost of remote work is finally catching up."— Image courtesy of Getty Images

The Silent Struggle Behind the Screen

For extroverts and introverts alike, a day of back-to-back virtual meetings can paradoxically leave one feeling more alone. Jamie Bradley, who shared her story in Business Insider, recalls how lively her tech startup’s office used to be before 2020 – impromptu lunch outings, after-work pub nights, shared jokes in the hallways. “I felt incredibly connected to my coworkers,” she wrote, reminiscing about the “unmistakable office buzz” and friendships that made even tough days bearable. But once the company went fully remote during COVID, those connections began to fray. Even with creative attempts to socialize online – virtual happy hours, “just because” video chats to commiserate – something was missing.

As layoffs hit and new employees joined whom she never met in person, Jamie’s sense of belonging eroded. The informal chats in the break room, the little moments of laughter between meetings – all replaced by perfunctory two-minute check-ins on Zoom. “Once we went remote, and after several layoffs, I felt isolated and had no real connections at work,” she admitted. Instead of camaraderie, there was silence. Eventually, her emotional disengagement grew so intense that she left the job, swearing off fully remote roles.

Jamie’s experience is echoed by others. Richard Campbell, founder of a travel startup, noticed two of his employees resigning not for better pay or promotions elsewhere, but to escape the emotional solitude of their remote routine. They “couldn’t stand the isolation of being in their apartment all day, completely alone, without social connection,” Campbell said. These were talented staff members who “just couldn’t stand the isolation” of an all-remote setup. And in Seattle, tech worker Rachel Carlsen found herself utterly depressed sitting by her bed for ten hours a day during lockdown, speaking only to people on screens. It wasn’t until she teamed up to co-work in person with a friend that she felt a “glimmer of hope” return to her workdays.

““Loneliness is a huge societal issue with often devastating health and cultural fallout,” warns Dr. Constance Noonan Hadley, an organizational psychologist at Boston University. “Lonely workers are less productive, rack up higher health care costs, and are more likely to quit their jobs. … It’s a quiet crisis, often invisible on a Zoom call’s mosaic of smiling faces, but it’s taking a toll on America’s workforce.””

— —Dr. Constance Noonan Hadley

The Psychology of Remote Loneliness

Why does remote work breed loneliness for so many? Psychologists say it’s not just the lack of water-cooler banter – it’s the loss of meaningful connection. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has described loneliness as an epidemic, defining it as “a subjective distressing experience that results from perceived isolation or inadequate meaningful connections.” You can have coworkers on the other end of a Teams meeting, but still feel “invisible” or disconnected if those interactions lack warmth and depth.

Before the pandemic, Gallup famously found that having a close friend at work boosts engagement and well-being. Yet as of last year only 2 in 10 U.S. employees said they have a ‘best friend’ at work. For remote workers, forging office friendships is notoriously difficult. A Harvard Business Review study of 1,000 knowledge workers (finance, tech, consulting) found that lonely employees desperately want closer connections to colleagues, yet even those who spent nearly half their work time in person felt just as lonely. Surprisingly, the loneliest respondents in that study had 47% of their work hours in-person, suggesting that simply corralling people back under one roof is not a magical cure. In fact, the study found no difference in loneliness between full-time office workers and those on hybrid schedules – indicating the issue runs deeper than physical proximity alone.

Age and career stage also play a role. Young professionals who started their careers in pandemic-era remote jobs report striking levels of isolation. In one survey, 79% of Gen Z (age 18–26) employees said they feel lonely sometimes or often, a higher rate than both Millennials and Gen X. The American Psychological Association’s Work in America poll similarly found that 45% of workers aged 18–25 struggle with loneliness on the job. One reason may be that early-career employees crave mentorship and social learning, which is harder to come by through a screen. As Campbell observed, older remote workers who live with family may get their social needs met outside work, but “for [younger staff], all of us currently have partners or families… so we get our social connection outside of work” – something recent grads living solo might lack.

The mental health stakes are high. “We all are here to connect and have community and if we don’t have that it can cause depression, anxiety, panic attacks,” says therapist Constance Nelson, who counsels clients dealing with workplace isolation. Human beings are social creatures; take away genuine interaction, and psychological well-being suffers. Over time, chronic loneliness can even harm physical health. Dr. Murthy cautions that the health impact of long-term social disconnection is akin to “smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day”, with links to higher risks of heart disease, dementia, and early mortality. No wonder loneliness at work has grabbed the attention of public health experts and employers alike.

Video courtesy of TED WorkLife with Adam Grant & Image courtesy of Martino Pietropoli

We Don’t Have to Fight Loneliness Alone – A podcast episode from WorkLife with Adam Grant featuring U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on the emotional and physical toll of workplace loneliness, and how small changes — from 5-minute photo shares to meaningful questions — can foster real connection.

SA Crisis by the Numbers: Surveys and Studies

Loneliness isn’t just a fuzzy feeling – it’s showing up in hard data on U.S. workers:

One in five employees worldwide report feeling significant loneliness at work. Gallup’s massive 2024 State of the Global Workplace survey revealed that 20% of employees experience loneliness on a daily basis, and it’s worse for certain groups. In the U.S., fully remote workers were more likely to say they felt lonely “a lot yesterday” than those in offices.
In the U.S., 25% of fully remote employees report higher levels of loneliness, versus 16% of people who go into the office daily. This comparison, drawn from Gallup and Cigna data, underscores that all-remote arrangements carry a greater risk of isolation than in-office work. (Notably, even among office-bound staff, a sizeable minority – about one in six – felt lonely, showing loneliness is not exclusive to remote setups.)
A Cigna health survey found Americans feel more isolated now (58% in 2023) than in 2018 (46%). That’s a 12-point jump in five years. The rise of remote work during the pandemic coincided with this surge in loneliness. And with remote work tripling the time spent in meetings for many people since 2020, there’s less time for the casual hallway chats that once fostered camaraderie. Incredibly, even when people do go back to offices now, only 8% of their meetings are face-to-face – the rest remain virtual, so the office doesn’t feel as social as it used to.
A survey by coaching firm BetterUp found 69% of employees are not satisfied with the social connections in their workplace, and 43% don’t feel a sense of connection with colleagues. Disconnectedness, it seems, is rampant in both remote and co-located teams, but remote conditions can exacerbate it. Another study cited by Great Place to Work noted that full-time remote work increased loneliness by 67% compared to in-office work in pre-pandemic research.

These numbers paint a stark picture: even as workers adapt to Zoom and Slack, something is missing. The informal interactions – a smile in the hallway, a joke before a meeting, grabbing coffee together – are harder to replicate digitally. And for many, those small moments made a big difference in feeling connected to a team or mission. Without them, engagement and morale can plummet. Gallup finds that when workers feel engaged and have friends at work, loneliness and even burnout drop significantly. Conversely, when connection is low, work can feel meaningless. Jamie Bradley described how being cut off from colleagues made her feel “less valued professionally and less connected to the company’s mission and goals”. Isolation wasn’t just sad – it was sapping her sense of purpose at work.

“79% of Gen Z workers say they feel lonely on the job. For many, a screen is no substitute for community.” — Image courtesy of Getty Images

Finding Connection in a Remote World

As the corporate world grapples with this trade-off, a consensus is emerging: balance is key. A fully remote setup may maximize flexibility, but a hybrid model – mixing remote and in-office days – can offer the best of both worlds. “Coming into the office, even if just on a hybrid basis, leads to a 20–30% boost in connections,” one workplace analytics study found. Interestingly, the data showed that coming in once a month provided a significant jump in social ties, and two or three times a month added even more – but working together four or five days a week yielded almost no additional benefit over those few monthly meetups. In short, a little face-to-face time goes a long way. Occasional team off-sites, monthly coworking days, or quarterly retreats might be enough to strengthen bonds without sacrificing flexibility.

Companies are also experimenting with creative solutions to combat remote loneliness:

Virtual “water coolers” and break rooms
Encouraging personal connections
Pulse checks on well-being
Coworking and collaboration days

Even with these efforts, loneliness remains an elusive opponent. It’s partly an individual challenge – some personalities feel isolated more acutely – and partly a structural one as our modes of working evolve faster than our social norms. As Dr. Hadley points out, forcing everyone back to headquarters isn’t a guaranteed fix. Instead, a cultural shift is needed: one that recognizes loneliness as a real workplace issue, and that trains managers to nurture social well-being just as they do productivity. “People don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses,” says Constance Nelson. “As bosses we… must make sure that our people are connecting.”

"Sometimes, all it takes is one real conversation over coffee to bring connection back into the workday." — Image courtesy of Ivana Cajina

The Bottom Line:

Ultimately, the goal is to retain the freedom of remote work without letting workers drift into all-day silence. It might be through hybrid schedules, regular meet-ups, better virtual engagement, or simply more openness about the issue. Many employees still love the flexibility – they just don’t want to feel forgotten. The next time you find yourself working from home and realize “I haven’t spoken to anyone all day,” remember: you’re not alone in feeling alone, and there are ways to reach out and reconnect. The modern workplace is still finding its footing, but one thing is clear – we need each other, even if our offices are now in the cloud.