“Parents today are facing different challenges compared to previous generations in the form of things like social media, an increasing youth mental health crisis and the ‘epidemic of loneliness’ impacting younger Americans and their parents.”
~U.S. Surgeon General’s Office, August 28, 2024
VIM Executive Coaching has always maintained a separation between business coaching and the world of psychology. We still believe in that separation, however the pandemic and subsequent decisions to create hybrid work situations has strained at the underpinnings of the separation. The areas “spill over” on one another.
While the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy, was talking about parenting in his quotation, if we read between the lines, it is easy to realize a firm truth. The truth is that the people seen under stress, the younger Americans and their parents, are the very same who work in our hybrid workplaces.
Dr. Murthy, a very bright man, chose the word “epidemic” with intention. America, and its workplaces, hybrid or full-time or this and that, are staffed with many employees who are in-crisis. Their families are often in crisis, they are in crisis, they are stressed, they don’t know what to do.
Culprits abound
In studying the root causes of the epidemic of which Dr. Murthy speaks, experts point to social media, incessant comparisons people are forced to make to others, the anger of cable news, and the pervasive loneliness so many feel in their daily lives.
It is not up to VIM Coaching to judge whether hybrid workplaces are a good or bad idea. Certainly, proponents of stay-at-home work have loudly proclaimed its virtues. However, there has also been a great deal of push-back. Like or hate working at home arrangements, there was a sense of social interaction in our workplaces that has largely gone away.
The epidemic of loneliness has clearly affected executive leadership models. If people feel alienated and lonely in their often, judged and digitized social lives, it is a virtual assurance, they are bringing it into the part-time or full-time workplace.
In short, if the epidemic of loneliness is affecting the way in which people are relating to their families and often, their friendships, why would it magically disappear in the workplace? Turns out, it doesn’t.
According to Forbes magazine (August 2024), “The American Psychological Association's 2024 Work in America survey reveals a striking statistic: 45% of workers aged 18-25 report feeling lonely at work.”
While the above study didn’t include older Millennials or Gen-Xers, in our personal conversations and business coaching practice, we have seen and heard similar comments all the way up to Boomers. People in the work place are feeling lonely and don’t know what to do about it.
What has been lost?
The workplace has become lonelier, and that is tragic. It has become lonelier for mostly the same reasons it is occurring in personal lives. Society has lost whole portions of its empathy and authenticity. Society, and by extension our places of business, have lost their sense of mindfulness.
If workers, younger and older, are feeling disconnected and lonely, it is not “just society’s fault,” it is also a failure of executive leadership that has not allowed itself to be more mindful. Mindfulness training, and better learning to relate to all levels of an organization, can only help to mitigate the epidemic of loneliness and disconnection.
Of course, work places can ignore concerns – doing nothing is always an option – however, the consequences that result from a lack of executive leadership authenticity and mindfulness will continue to lead to high turnover, a lack of loyalty and resentment.
The modern workplace desperately needs to regain connection. Mindfulness training will help in its restoration.