Loneliness at Work in Germany: 2024 Study

About the study

The issue of loneliness in the workplace has been increasingly making headlines since the change in working practices prompted by COVID-19.

In this context, reports repeatedly mention that remote and hybrid work greatly increase the risk of loneliness at work. However, as there have been no studies on loneliness at work in Germany to date, Mystery Minds, in collaboration with YouGov, conducted a survey in June 2024. The study reviewed responses from 502 German employees aged between 18 and 65.

The study's goal was to determine the extent of loneliness in the working population and uncover employees' attitudes toward social contact and other factors that contribute to loneliness.

Download the study to learn more about the extent of loneliness in Germany, the factors that contribute to it, and what employees would like to see done to combat it.

Key findings

• 11% of employees reported feeling lonely or very lonely at work. This means that, on average, 110 employees are affected by loneliness in companies with 1,000 employees.
• Among managers, the figure is as high as 15%, compared to 10% among employees without managerial responsibilities.
• Employees who work exclusively remotely are particularly affected: Here, the rate of loneliness was 14%, although this group also expressed greater satisfaction with their work (72% vs. 60% within the overall group of office workers).*
• Older employees, those aged over 55, are the least affected by loneliness: only 8% of respondents in this age group described themselves as lonely or very lonely. According to the survey, they also enjoy the highest level of job satisfaction.
• Younger workers have a greater need to expand their network: 40% of 18 to 34-year-olds and 36% of 35 to 44-year-olds would like more social connections at work.
• Social connections at work are more important for women than for men: 74% of women consider them to be very or somewhat important, compared to 64% of men.
• 38% of those aged 18 - 34 would like to see initiatives to improve corporate culture, such as team-building events or training to improve cooperation and communication.

 

* The total number of remote workers polled was slightly under 100. Therefore, results relating to remote workers may be less statistically significant than those for other groups in the study.