Eat Sleep Work Repeat - better workplace culture We need to tackle workplace loneliness
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Oct 14, 2025 Join NHS psychiatrist Simon Gilbody, a mental health expert from the University of York, as he delves into the pressing issue of workplace loneliness. He reveals how chronic loneliness differs from solitude and its wide-ranging effects on physical and mental health. Discover the surprising impact of workplace culture on social connections, the role of rumination, and practical strategies to rebuild community at work. Simon emphasizes the importance of creating supportive environments and offers insights on how leaders can maintain connections.
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Loneliness Is A Mismatch, Not Mere Solitude
- Loneliness is a subjective mismatch between desired and actual quality or quantity of social relationships.
- You can be alone and content or surrounded and lonely; chronic mismatch causes harm.
Loneliness As An Evolutionary Drive
- Evolution framed loneliness as a basic drive that kept humans in groups for survival and reproduction.
- The problem arises when that drive becomes chronic and unresolved, producing health damage.
Loneliness Has Measurable Physical Harms
- Chronic loneliness links to inflammation, higher heart disease, stroke, obesity, dementia risk and worse cognitive aging.
- It doubles risk of depression and harms both physical and mental health across the lifespan.