Portland's lonely remote workers
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Here's a puzzle: Working from home appears to make people feel more alone, but forcing them back to the office full time doesn't necessarily make them feel better, according to new research published in the Harvard Business Review.
Why it matters: Loneliness is a huge societal issue with often devastating health and cultural fallout, as the U.S. surgeon general has warned — and in the workplace it can be particularly damaging.
- Lonely workers are less productive, rack up higher health care costs, and are more likely to quit their jobs, says Constance Noonan Hadley, a professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business, who co-authored the study.
By the numbers: The percentage of people who work from home in the Portland region is considerably higher than in most of the country (including our West Coast neighbors), according to 2023 census estimates analyzed by Coworking Mag.
- In a ranking of 109 U.S. metros, Portland came in sixth for its 21% share of remote workers.
- San Francisco and Seattle trailed behind, with roughly 20% each.
Flashback: More than 27% of people reportedly worked from home in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro area in 2021.
The big picture: In the study, researchers defined work loneliness as "the distressful experience of having a higher desire for social connection than what is subjectively experienced while working."
- They surveyed 1,000 full-time office workers, aged 22-50, working in "knowledge" fields like finance, software engineering and consulting.
- After taking an assessment (you can take it here), respondents were divided by levels of loneliness: high, medium and low. A smaller group was then asked more qualitative questions.
What they found: Lonely workers want to feel closer or more connected to colleagues.
- Yes, but: Surprisingly, the loneliest workers are getting a lot of face-to-face contact, but it doesn't seem to help: 47% of the loneliest respondents said they conducted nearly half of their prior month's work in person.
- There was no difference in loneliness between those in office full time and those working a hybrid schedule. While fully remote workers, on average, were slightly lonelier — other factors were more impactful.