It is just about every day that I go from feeling disappointed that I will be having lunch by myself again, to feeling frustrated to think that I could have lunch with someone (but it would add 2 hours to my day if I drive up, time I don't have as a father of three small kids), ending with just being frustrated about being lonely. I'm grateful I don't have to commute, but being able to walk out the door of an office and find dozens of random people with which I could have lunch with is something I really miss.
I'm really glad there are numbers behind this important topic. Loneliness is real, its a big problem, and it is something most remote companies don't talk about.
The remote company I work with will buy you a desk in a local co-working space for anyone who wants it.
Would you agree most lonely remote workers also tend to be younger?
It's somewhat unfortunate that we don't have additional data on the respondents since it may provide interesting insight (e.g. confounders that immediately spring to mind are country of residence and marital status), but there's a natural tendency to drift towards "exploitation" of existing relationships as one gets older as opposed to "exploring" new ones.
For instance, Doist's founder [1] cites being able to spend time with his son every morning as a major advantage.
In any case an even greater push towards remote work seems inevitable, especially as the tech workforce grows older.
You should consider something similar and propose it to management if you think it would benefit the team.
But isn't that just masking the symptoms of deeper issues regarding self-imposed isolation?
I'm not surprised to see that 97% of people would recommend working remote to others. Almost everyone I speak with says they would never go back to working in an office. While I can see myself going back to an office at some point in my career, right now the flexibility in my day far outweighs working in an office.
I hear a lot of similar downsides as well. I'm a bit surprised that only 20% of people responded that they struggled with loneliness while working remote. In my experience this number seems to be higher. My coworkers and I work out of coffee shops quite a bit and almost everyone who goes to work in a coffee shop is doing so in order to break out of the loneliness of their home and be around other people (next time you're in a coffee shop, take note of how many people have laptops out). The problem though is that no one really interacts with people at coffee shops because everyone is at their own table on their laptops.
We heard this feedback so much that we started holding Work Clubs[0] at coffee shops where people can sit down with us at the same table and work together for a few hours. It's not networking but it's a way to meet other people during the workday while getting your work done. We've had people from many different industries, ages, and walks of life working together and forming business connections. It's beneficial to the coffee shops too because when we all sit at the same table, order food and drinks, and it frees up other tables for more customers.
Our communities are growing in Portland, San Diego, and the SF Bay Area right now, so come work with us if you're ever feeling lonely and need some IRL human interaction in your day! Mental health is an important factor for remote workers, and we're hoping to alleviate some of those struggles for the remote community.
[0]: https://outofoffice.app/