Understanding the Silent Threat to Mental Health and Organizational Commitment
What happens when someone is surrounded by people all day yet feels profoundly lonely? This is one of the most concerning questions facing organizations today.
In a work world characterized by hyperconnectivity, hybrid teams, and digital collaboration, 22% of the global workforce reports experiencing workplace loneliness, according to the State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report. This isn’t about physical absence or lack of contact; it’s about emotional disconnection—a persistent feeling of not belonging, being overlooked, or lacking a real place in the company’s human network.
Workplace loneliness has moved beyond a marginal experience to become a silent threat to mental health, organizational commitment, and ultimately, business results. Often overlooked due to its disguise as professionalism, operational distance, or perceived autonomy, its effects—such as decreased performance levels, emotional isolation, deteriorating work climate, and increased turnover—are profound and growing.
A Silent Phenomenon, Yet Widespread
According to the State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report, a global study by international firm Gallup, the phenomenon of workplace loneliness is present worldwide but shows regional and demographic patterns that help understand its complexity.
In Latin America, 17% of collaborators report feeling lonely. This means one in six workers in our region experiences this emotional disconnection as part of their professional life. Although this figure is lower than the global average (22%), it remains alarming, especially when considering Mexico, where 10% of workers acknowledge experiencing this emotion regularly, ranking the country 16th in the regional ranking.
The report also highlights significant gaps by gender and age. Regionally, 18% of women feel alone compared to 16% of men. This difference is not minor, suggesting factors like double workloads, lack of support networks, or absence from leadership visibility may contribute to a more solitary professional experience among working women.
Age is also a determinant factor: 20% of those over 35 claim to feel lonely, significantly surpassing younger workers. This could be related to professional stages where work relationships become more functional than affective or a reevaluation of one’s purpose in work.
Especially concerning, 18% of managers report experiencing loneliness. This reveals a structural paradox: those leading teams, expected to foster cohesion and culture, often face deep internal disconnection. In corporate imagination, leaders are strong, decisive, and self-sufficient. However, this image can also become their emotional prison.
Why do we feel lonely at work?
- Lack of meaningful connections: functional work relationships devoid of authentic recognition or human touch.
- Distant or impersonal leadership styles: leaders operating more as supervisors than bond creators.
- High-performance culture without personal encounter spaces: environments prioritizing productivity over connection.
- Poorly managed hybrid or remote models: where physical distance also becomes emotional distance.
- Absence of a genuine organizational community: workspaces lacking a sense of belonging or shared identity.
What can HR do?
Facing this scenario, the HR function should position itself as an integrating force designing work experiences where human connection is a priority. Here are five strategic programs every organization can implement:
- Organizational connection mapping: develop diagnostics that allow visualizing how teams connect emotionally, identifying isolation zones, areas with higher disconnection, and individuals at risk. The goal is to identify loneliness patterns before they translate into turnover or burnout.
- Emotional and professional mentoring programs: beyond technical development, these programs promote significant bonds between generations, hierarchical levels, and functional areas. A mentor guides professional growth while offering support, listening, and a sense of belonging.
- Safe conversation spaces for human connection: implement dialogue circles, active listening sessions, or virtual coffee breaks where individuals can express emotions, share experiences, and feel part of a community. These spaces should be confidential, voluntary, and professionally facilitated.
- Empathetic leadership and relational intelligence training: equip leaders with technical or business skills alongside human capabilities: active listening, empathy, emotional recognition, and culture of belonging creation. An present, close, and emotionally available leader is the best antidote against their team’s loneliness.
- Design of internal community networks: foster communities based on affinity, interests, life stages, or projects. From affinity groups (like women in leadership, young professionals, or working parents) to internal volunteering or innovation networks. The key is for individuals to feel part of something greater than their job position.
Human Connection as a Strategic Advantage
Workplace loneliness is not an individual problem but an organizational expression. It speaks to leadership quality, cultural design, corporate priorities. In an environment where talent increasingly seeks meaningful experiences, companies investing in generating authentic human connection—empathetic and sustainable—will have a powerful competitive advantage. It’s not about making work a family, but ensuring it’s a community where no one feels invisible; where individual success isn’t achieved at the cost of isolation.
