‘Managers are human too’: leaders left lonely by hybrid working
Three years since the first Covid lockdown, the UK’s managers are finding the office a lonelier place, despite relishing the better work-life balance that comes with more flexible arrangements, a new survey finds.
Many previously office-based roles now allow for remote working, after the approach was proven to work during the pandemic, when the government was urging the public to stay at home.
In a survey of more than 1,000 line managers, carried out by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) last month, 52% said the prevalence of working from home means workplaces have now become more lonely.
More than half of respondents, 58%, said their work-life balance had improved since Covid; but 44% also suggested their job had become more stressful – against 24% who said it had not.
Anthony Painter, the CMI’s director of policy, said the findings underlined the challenge of ensuring teams can form human connections.
“There’s a gathering awareness that there is a cost to an entirely remote workforce, and it’s the social trust and social bond element,” he said. “That probably explains some of the elements of stress and loneliness that are coming across in that survey – managers are humans too, at the end of the day.”
A clear majority of the managers surveyed – 70% – also said that with fewer people in the office, they had seen a decline in socialising with work colleagues.
Painter conceded that not everyone enjoys after-work drinks; but suggested such events can sometimes perform an important role. “You’ve got to know and like the people you work with; people need to feel a sense of connection and loyalty and a bond. So anything that helps with that is important,” he said.
Alice Arkwright, policy officer at the TUC, said despite the
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