Social isolation and loneliness

 Some people can socialise in a gathering of hundreds of people, whereas others find it challenging to have a conversation with even five people. These people often tend to isolate themselves in large crowds. A lack of social interaction is called social isolation and can cause loneliness. It is a state of social isolation that can be brought on by things like lack of mobility, unemployment, or health problems.

Additionally, a 2019 study conducted by public health researcher Kassandra Alcaraz from the American Cancer Society examined information from more than 580,000 adults and discovered that social isolation raises the risk of early mortality from all causes for people of all races. Working professionals in India have been severely impacted by protracted social isolation, a string of lockdowns and restrictions, ongoing uncertainty owing to the pandemic, and increased levels of mental stress. According to Bhattacharya and Sarkar (2021), 36% of people in India have poor mental health, 32% lack career desire, and 31% feel cut off from their own lives.

Social isolation in the workplace

Kacperczyk et al. (2011) mentioned that social ties at work have reportedly increased during the past 20 years, according to organisational theory and the sociology of work. The lack of casual interactions and relationships with coworkers and friends within the organisation is referred to as social isolation at work. Marshall et al. (2007) defined workplace isolation as a “lack of satisfying friendship relationships or a lack of access to social networks in the workplace” and a “lack of sufficient professional and social contact at work.” In a report by India Today Web Desk (2020), the number of employees who experience at least one form of stress in India is 46%. Self-doubt and uncertainty are brought on by loneliness. Sahai et al. (2021) identified five dimensions used to describe workplace isolation: Lack of social support, social interaction, learning chances, developmental opportunities, and physical isolation The perceived work environment also plays a huge role in social isolation. Workplace isolation and its effects have been linked, including but not limited to weakened affective bonds, emotional contagion for new tasks, loneliness, loss of social benchmarks for comparison, reduced confidence, burnout, and emotional tiredness (Sahai et al. 2021).

Impact of social isolation on employees performance

According to the Conservation of Resources (CoR) theory in the organisational context theory, when individuals encounter challenging work circumstances, such as being socially isolated, their energy is depleted and may become so distracting that it impairs their capacity to do job-related duties. Employees, for instance, are more motivated to complete their work obligations when they feel their coworkers are supportive and include them in regular interactions. Employees who feel ignored and without social support may worry about their standing in the company, which drains their energy and makes it difficult for them to put in enough effort to reach the performance standards set by their company.

Workplace isolation also means that staff workers are unable to seek out information from other team members while carrying out their duties, which further hinders their capacity to satisfy performance criteria. The ability of employees to rely on the knowledge bases of other organisational members is hampered when they feel excluded (Twenge et al., 2007), which in turn makes it harder for them to fulfil their own performance goals (Jones et al., 2009). Instead of getting sidetracked by unfavourable emotions of isolation from the rest of the organisation, employees are more likely to have access to pertinent peer knowledge when they are included in conversations and events, which they may use to fulfil their work commitments. When perceived organisational support is high, which in turn mediates the relationship between perceived support and job satisfaction and psychological strain, there is a likely reduction in workplace isolation.

Clerq et al. (2010) examined whether the negative relationship between high social isolation and low job performance can be neutralised by increasing personal factors like self-efficacy. For instance, a greater comprehension of the causes of organisational members’ isolation should lessen the difficulties brought on by other people’s exclusion. However, this only has advantages for highly effective workers who have difficulties at work and may also expend a lot of energy trying to reverse the negative effects, for example, by utilising their personal experience to convince others that isolation is bad for the company. Low-performing workers can still be caught in that cycle. Employees who are confident in their abilities are also more likely to seek out difficult work situations and make an effort to meet performance goals, even if they result in social isolation at work. Overcoming this challenge can heighten their sense of accomplishment. As a result, self-efficacy is a personal resource that may encourage employees’ capacity to deal with adverse effects.

Conclusion

The idea of workplace isolation has gained popularity as a result of the growing trend towards new work arrangements. Researchers have issued warnings about the detrimental effects of solitude at work. We argue that even though workplace isolation should be examined as a higher-order construct (comprising five dimensions), attention must be paid to all its sub-dimensions for a better understanding of the concept in various work settings (for example, teachers’ experiences with isolation would differ greatly from salespeople’s, those who work from home, and those who have been socially marginalised). Human beings are called social animals for a reason. To be able to understand that and work individually and collectively to enhance our relationships at work and outside of it would do all of us some real good.