Overcoming the Loneliness Epidemic in Public Relations

How does executive isolation impact PR agencies?

Remote and hybrid work models have aggressively accelerated a loneliness epidemic across the public relations industry, leading to massive increases in executive burnout and absenteeism. To combat this isolation and protect employee mental health, agency leaders must mandate intentional social rituals, actively listen for emotional distress, and foster hyper-local, small-group community connections.

Our public relations profession requires us to work with upwards of thousands of people annually, influencing billions of people worldwide.

We place thousands of phone calls, send tens of thousands of emails, texts and DMs, and host what feels like an infinite number of meetings and events, all to do what we love.

We put the “public” and “relations” in public relations, and yet many of us have felt lonely in doing so.

According to the World Health Organization, “loneliness is ‘the pain we feel when our social connections do not meet our needs,’ while social isolation is ‘the state of having a smaller number of social contacts, which may contribute to loneliness’.”

Recent data from Cigna says, “52% of U.S. workers report feeling lonely at work at least once a week,” and Buffer’s 2023 State of Remote Work reports, “Fully remote workers are 67% more likely to report frequent loneliness compared to in-office peers.”

It’s time for us, as a profession, to have an open dialogue and tackle this issue head-on.

First, we must acknowledge that we are experiencing a loneliness epidemic.

If you are feeling lonely, please remember that you are not alone. As an agency executive turned work-from-home entrepreneur, it took me a few years to acclimate to a new environment. Whether you work 100 percent from home, in a hybrid environment, or 100 percent in the office, life can be isolating.

How to address: Create rituals that emphasize connection and foster a sense of belonging. For every 10 prompts you send to ChatGPT, make yourself pick up the phone and ask someone for their help (people love to help!). Before taking your next work trip, schedule a coffee meeting or two for yourself with friends or former colleagues to have when you return (people love to meet and catch up!). Challenge yourself to take part in one local community event every month (it feels good for your well-being to support your local area).

If you are feeling lonely or isolated and believe it is impacting your mental health, please seek the advice of a professional.

Even if we don’t feel lonely, our colleagues and clients might.

Beyond its personal health impact, loneliness also has a tangible business impact. According to Harvard Business Review, “Employees who feel lonely are 2x more likely to miss work due to illness and 5x more likely to miss work due to stress.”

Even if you don’t feel lonely, ensure you are aware of how your colleagues and internal and external clients are feeling. There’s a reason people say, “It’s lonely at the top.”

How to address: Listen for clues to sense others are seeking connection. Perhaps they are sharing more about their personal life. What might feel like “oversharing” could simply be someone aching to connect with someone else. As easy as it might be to want to drop off the call, taking a few extra minutes is a positive for building a relationship and can help someone feel better, as long as, of course, the conversation doesn’t violate social norms and policies.

Get intentional with small group time.

Every time I speak at a conference, I witness the benefits of connection. Typically, I’m a stranger amongst friends who have known one another for years and decades, but from afar, I can see the smiles in the room amongst long-time friends in the industry. Conferences are an important time for attendees to connect and recharge before returning to their daily routines.

Unfortunately, these large-scale chapter, section, and regional conferences require a significant amount of work to organize by volunteers, leaving little time for engagement at scale throughout the year.

How to address: If you don’t see an event in your area that meets your needs, create one! When I served as president of the PRSA Oregon chapter, we hosted monthly no-host coffee meetings every first Saturday morning. We typically had between 8 and 20 people join us for a couple of hours to connect and share. It was one of my favorite aspects of serving as president.

The good news is that, with more than 20,000 PRSA members, there is an immediate group of people available to connect with at your fingertips. The PRSA member directory is a great way to connect with like-minded individuals who share similar experiences and backgrounds.

Together, we can work to reduce isolation and loneliness, allowing our profession to continue thriving.