More Americans than ever say they are lonely, but a common office activity could help to reduce that. 

While many workers see workplace team building events as unnecessary, they could be an important part of reducing loneliness by teaching people social skills that help build friendships. 

Loneliness has reached such proportions that the U.S. surgeon general declared it an epidemic in 2023. It can also have serious implications for businesses. Emily Campion, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at the Tippie College of Business, said lonely people show decreased engagement with their jobs, reduced creativity, and loss of motivation, leading to overall diminished performance. Lonely people also tend to be more hostile, creating a toxic workplace and hindering trust-based relationships with co-workers. 

All of this can make it harder to run a business efficiently. But she said studies also show that more socially skilled people tend to experience lower levels of loneliness, suggesting that developing such skills can help mitigate the emotional and social dimensions of workplace loneliness. 

Campion says businesses can take several steps to help employees build social intelligence and reduce loneliness. Building workplace friendships, helping employees improve their social skills, and facilitating meaningful interactions with other people can all be achieved through team building exercises. 

Workplace activities or off-site volunteer opportunities help managers put employees in a position to build social skills and improve workplace relationships. These skills could also carry over and help build new friendships and be less lonely outside of work. 

Campion said businesses can also build a more compassionate workplace culture, provide social and psychological support to employees, and intervene with those who seem to be struggling. 

“All the Lonely People: An Integrated Review and Research Agenda on Work and Loneliness,” a recently published review of academic scholarship of workplace loneliness co-authored by Campion, is at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01492063241313320.

Media contact: 319-384-0010 (o); 319-541-8434 (c): tom-snee@uiowa.edu