Home working could spark rise in loneliness

Around a third of home workers regularly feel lonely thanks to a lack of social interaction, according to research on national working trends by Landmark Space.

The flexible workspace provider analysed figures from the Office for National Statistics on office location and home working, predicting that 1.6 million people could be at risk from loneliness by 2025.

Self-employed workers unsurprisingly make up the bulk of those who work from home for all or most of the week, and 30% of these workers report feeling lonely either often or always.

Because the proportion of self-employed workers will rise to more than 15% of the working population next year, or 5 million people, this means many more workers will be missing out on social interaction.

Only 14% of employees work from home full time with no office days at all, it found.

The sector with the highest proportion of fully remote workers is the information and communications sector, where the number of only home workers has gone up 269% in the last decade.

Technology is another sector with an increasing work-from-home profile, with many companies in this sector reducing physical office footprints. There has been a 222% increase in remote working only across the professional, scientific and technical sectors, according to Landmark Space.

Transport and storage, public administration and defence, and education were the sectors least likely to work from home full time.

Pivoting to home working during the pandemic is known to have accelerated a number of mental health issues for some workers, including loneliness or feelings of anxiety.

However, many hybrid working models suggest workers come into the office on a more regular basis to ensure teams can collaborate as well as socialise.

Ed Cowell, CEO of Landmark Space, said commercial property data pointed towards this shift to hybrid office attendance.

“This has meant that over the past three years around 10-20 million square feet of traditional leased office space has declined, driven by seismic shifts to remote working models.

“With the shift acutely pronounced in major cities like London, other working models need to be looked at as options to mitigate the rising risk to work isolation, disengagement, and loneliness,” he said.

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