Going Back to Work in Person Is Good for Society

A s Americans enter their third year of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is becoming clear that many companies may never fully return to pre-pandemic office-based work. Apple, which employs close to 150,000 people in dozens of states, has postponed its return-to-office date indefinitely, and countless other companies around the country have shelved their return-to-work plans due to the recent Omicron surge.

While the prospect of long-term remote work has sparked debate over everything from efficiency and corporate culture to the time saved and the environmental impact of less commuting, one thing is certain: Friendships will suffer when so many move out of more traditional office settings for the long haul. This change in daily routines and in-person points of contact will cause deep harm to the country as it exacerbates long-term trends involving declining friendships and social isolation.

With Americans trying to rebuild their lives and reconnect with others, recent survey data from the Survey Center on American Life reveal that friendships are most frequently formed not in one’s neighborhood or school, but rather at one’s workplace, and this critical social site is now under threat.

The survey found that 12 percent of Americans have no close friends, a fourfold increase over the past three decades. Eighty-six percent report having at least one or more close friends, with 38 percent having five or more close friends. Unsurprisingly, Americans who reported having no close friends were almost twice as likely to say they felt lonely or isolated a few times a week or more as those who had five or more close friends. (The margin was 37 percent to 20 percent.)

In terms of where Americans made these close friends, the data are very clear: The most common setting by far is one’s place of work. Fifty-four percent of Americans report that they have met at least one of their close friends through their or their spouse’s job. In contrast, only about a third (35 percent) report having met a close friend in their neighborhood, and about a fifth (21 percent) report making a close friendship through their place of worship. Nineteen percent of Americans have formed a close friendship through a club or organization and only 8 percent report having done so through online connections.

This pattern of friendship creation in the workplace is fairly constant from one group to another. Considering gender, over half of both women (55 percent) and men (53 percent) assert that they made close friendships at work. Generationally, significant majorities of Baby Boomers (61 percent) and Gen Xers (61 percent) report having made a close friend through work, far more than the percentages who say they have formed close friendships through their residential community, religious institution, or alma mater. About half of Silents (50 percent) and Millennials (51 percent) also report meeting their close friends at work, and this is, again, their largest site of friendship creation.

With work being one of the most important places where Americans form friendships, it is absolutely critical that, once it’s safe, people return to in-person work settings.

Friendships do not only help mitigate issues related to mental health but can also improve civil society itself. For instance, survey respondents of different partisan affiliations were asked to share information about the partisan views of their friends. About a third (32 percent) of Democrats and Democratic leaners have some or a lot of Republican friends. Republicans are more diverse, with over half (53 percent) of Republicans or Republican leaners stating that they have some or a lot of Democratic friends. Even with companies going “woke,” taking particular ideological stances, and making political statements, workplaces can serve as politically diverse spaces where ideological differences can thrive. And having friends of diverse backgrounds limits the echo chambers and extremism that have escalated during the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, large numbers of Americans spent significant amounts of time at their places of employment, and close friendships understandably developed in these environs. It should come as no surprise that so many television shows — from Super Store and The Office to Downton Abbey and The Chair — are set in workplace environments and focus on friendships formed in these places. The nation needs to get back to work in-person and soon; for Americans need their friendships, and need real spaces within to form them.