There are plenty of reasons to envy the younger generation. Most of these reasons fall under the umbrella of "they have their entire lives ahead of them," and all the joys and heartbreaks, the ups and downs, that comes along with having your entire life ahead of you. (Others fall under the umbrella of fewer aches and pains to deal with.)
There are, of course, countervailing reasons to feel bad what the young folks are dealing with. Factors like the existential threat of climate change. The uncertainty about what AI is going to do to wreak havoc with the job market. The crushing educational debt so many carry. The affordable housing shortage in so many cities. (Looking at you, Boston.) Political divisiveness.
Every generation has its challenges, but the younger generations have them in spades.
And then when you add on the plague of loneliness.
...thanks to a longstanding decline in social connection, and a pandemic that forced much of the world into isolation, employees today are lonelier than ever. Earlier this year, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy published a report that described “an epidemic of loneliness” that has taken root in America over the last several decades. Making matters more complicated is hybrid work, which has workers spending less time in the office than they did before the pandemic. While many employees enjoy more flexibility — and fewer days commuting — it also means that forming social connections with colleagues is more challenging than ever. (Source: Boston Globe)And this difficulty forming social connections is worse when you're new to the workplace. You may have moved to a new city for work. You may have gone to college somewhere else, and your college buds are scattered all over the place. You may be living at home with dear old mom and dad.
Many of us meet lifelong friends, our significant others, at work. I know I did.
Work is where people connect in the kitchen making coffee, over an after-work beer, pre-meeting when we find commonality bitching about our boss, working together on a project team, sitting in the airport when our business trip flight's delayed.
I feel bad for the young people who don't have all the easy opportunities to socialize that my generation enjoyed.
There's some good news:
Now employers are stepping in to do something about it, creating new initiatives that encourage workers to interact with each other outside of typical work meetings. One of the more common programs among Boston-area companies is a system that sets up randomized coffee chats for employees to get to know each other.More or less good news, I suppose. A necessity given that normal social interactions no long come as naturally as once they did.
Coffee chats aren't always in person at Blueprint. Some of them are over Zoom, which takes a little away from it - at least to me.
Blueprint, for example, has a program that pairs employees together for a coffee once a month. Workers can meet up in person, or sip coffee together over Zoom, and talk about life, hobbies, even work, if they so choose. “It’s been a game changer for me,” Durkin says. “I’ve met people at the company that I never would’ve met otherwise.”
The idea, says Debbie Durso-Bumpus, Blueprint’s chief people officer, is to more often stimulate the kind of water cooler discussions that once happened naturally. Those interactions, she says, can start friendships and help workers engage with the company at a deeper level. “We want people to feel connected to this company,” Durso-Bumpus says. “And we know people work better when they have relationships they look forward to at work.”
There isn’t one well-defined reason why Americans today are feeling lonelier than before, but office interactions are increasingly important. Constance Hadley, an organizational psychologist at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, says Americans simply aren’t as social as in decades past, are less involved in civic groups, and don’t attend religious services at the same rate. That puts additional pressure on interactions at work to fulfill our social needs, Hadley says. While it may seem unnecessary, that water cooler talk is key for office workers to have adequate social lives. So, hybrid work may be leaving something of a void for workers.
Recent studies have indicated that some 60 percent of US adults reported feelings of loneliness. That should be alarming to companies, Hadley says, because there is a direct link between loneliness and productivity — it’s in an employer’s best interest for employees to have their social needs met. “We really can’t understate how pervasive of an issue loneliness is for workers,” Hadley says. “It impacts every part of their lives, and that comes back to harm the companies they work for. It’s a bad cycle.”
Programs such as Blueprint’s coffee chats are trying to break that cycle.
Entrada Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotech, has a similar program called “Coffee Roulette” that follows the same idea, with employees getting paired together every two weeks to meet up and have a discussion. Entrada started the program back in 2020 as a means of connecting employees when the office was fully remote, and it has stuck around because of its popularity.
“One of our company’s core values is humanity,” says Kerry Robert, Entrada’s senior vice president of people. “We think quite often about how to cultivate a culture that makes people feel included and part of a team. Coffee Roulette is just one small way that we do that.”
Triverus Consulting, a Woburn-based IT consulting firm, which is still mostly remote, has taken a different approach, giving workers the option to participate in virtual events such as a baking class with a chef from Flour Bakery + Cafe, meditation sessions, or company-wide games.
“It is particularly challenging to get employees feeling connected when we’re still remote,” says Kim Kuzmeskas, the company’s vice president of marketing. “We get great participation in our programs, and I think that speaks to the fact that people really do want to feel connected with their co-workers.”
While these programs are a great start, there’s still some work to be done. Laura Putnam, a workplace well-being expert, said that with loneliness on such a stark rise, employers need to establish a broader culture that makes their workers feel comfortable. Wellness programs can be a part of that, but it also means workers shouldn’t have to hesitate to speak openly about mental health, and there should be abundant resources for struggling employees.
“Loneliness is pretty tricky, and it can be difficult to talk about,” Putnam says. “These wellness programs are great, but they’re designed outside of how the work gets done.” The next step is making sure they’re incorporated into the regular work routine, to keep the connections coming.
Blueprint, for example, has a program that pairs employees together for a coffee once a month. Workers can meet up in person, or sip coffee together over Zoom, and talk about life, hobbies, even work, if they so choose. “It’s been a game changer for me,” Durkin says. “I’ve met people at the company that I never would’ve met otherwise.”
The idea, says Debbie Durso-Bumpus, Blueprint’s chief people officer, is to more often stimulate the kind of water cooler discussions that once happened naturally. Those interactions, she says, can start friendships and help workers engage with the company at a deeper level. “We want people to feel connected to this company,” Durso-Bumpus says. “And we know people work better when they have relationships they look forward to at work.”
There isn’t one well-defined reason why Americans today are feeling lonelier than before, but office interactions are increasingly important. Constance Hadley, an organizational psychologist at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, says Americans simply aren’t as social as in decades past, are less involved in civic groups, and don’t attend religious services at the same rate. That puts additional pressure on interactions at work to fulfill our social needs, Hadley says. While it may seem unnecessary, that water cooler talk is key for office workers to have adequate social lives. So, hybrid work may be leaving something of a void for workers.
Recent studies have indicated that some 60 percent of US adults reported feelings of loneliness. That should be alarming to companies, Hadley says, because there is a direct link between loneliness and productivity — it’s in an employer’s best interest for employees to have their social needs met. “We really can’t understate how pervasive of an issue loneliness is for workers,” Hadley says. “It impacts every part of their lives, and that comes back to harm the companies they work for. It’s a bad cycle.”
Programs such as Blueprint’s coffee chats are trying to break that cycle.
Entrada Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotech, has a similar program called “Coffee Roulette” that follows the same idea, with employees getting paired together every two weeks to meet up and have a discussion. Entrada started the program back in 2020 as a means of connecting employees when the office was fully remote, and it has stuck around because of its popularity.
“One of our company’s core values is humanity,” says Kerry Robert, Entrada’s senior vice president of people. “We think quite often about how to cultivate a culture that makes people feel included and part of a team. Coffee Roulette is just one small way that we do that.”
Triverus Consulting, a Woburn-based IT consulting firm, which is still mostly remote, has taken a different approach, giving workers the option to participate in virtual events such as a baking class with a chef from Flour Bakery + Cafe, meditation sessions, or company-wide games.
“It is particularly challenging to get employees feeling connected when we’re still remote,” says Kim Kuzmeskas, the company’s vice president of marketing. “We get great participation in our programs, and I think that speaks to the fact that people really do want to feel connected with their co-workers.”
While these programs are a great start, there’s still some work to be done. Laura Putnam, a workplace well-being expert, said that with loneliness on such a stark rise, employers need to establish a broader culture that makes their workers feel comfortable. Wellness programs can be a part of that, but it also means workers shouldn’t have to hesitate to speak openly about mental health, and there should be abundant resources for struggling employees.
“Loneliness is pretty tricky, and it can be difficult to talk about,” Putnam says. “These wellness programs are great, but they’re designed outside of how the work gets done.” The next step is making sure they’re incorporated into the regular work routine, to keep the connections coming.
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