The workplace can be a curious environment. Dozens or even hundreds of employees can labor side by side for hours, spending more time with each other than with anyone else, yet they don’t feel connected. New research shows that loneliness isn’t just damaging to mental health; it can also lower job performance. Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade and Hakan Ozcelik, management professor at California State University, Sacramento, joined the Knowledge@Wharton show on SiriusXM channel 111 to talk about their study of loneliness in the workplace and what managers can do to help. Their new paper, which was published in the Academy of Management Journal, is titled, “No Employee an Island: Workplace Loneliness and Job Performance.”
