Corporate loneliness: understand what it is and how it can affect mental health and career Geovanna Santos, aged 28, has a decade of experience in the administrative area. Despite always finding it easy to make friends in the workplace and maintain ties with former colleagues, last year she experienced a completely different situation and discovered, in practice, what experts call corporate loneliness. After leaving a national company to work in a family business, Geovanna imagined just finding a new routine. Instead, she found herself in an environment where she felt completely isolated. ?? Do you have any reporting suggestions? Send it to g1 "I was literally looking at the wall", he recalls. His desk was isolated in a room, while the manager, the only colleague in the room, spent a good part of the day outside. Meanwhile, the other three employees on the team worked together in another environment. Geovanna tried to get closer, but the conversations didn't progress. At lunch time, the groups went out to restaurants together, leaving her behind. '"I went alone. They didn't even call me to eat", recalls the worker. The situation began to affect his mental health. She began to wake up without wanting to go to work, accumulated delays and developed anxiety attacks, panic syndrome and physical symptoms related to stress. The company also did not offer a structured onboarding process. The lack of support increased the feeling of isolation and hindered their professional development. “I felt invisible. There was no one to look at and recognize my efforts”, he says. After three months of emotional exhaustion, Geovanna thought about resigning. Before that, however, she was dismissed from the company shortly after presenting a medical certificate. “It was terrible,” he summarizes. Geovanna Santos found friendships at work that transformed her routine, but, after changing jobs, she began to face loneliness and the difficulty of creating new bonds in the professional environment. Personal Archive According to a Pluxee survey of more than 2 thousand Brazilians, 47% say they feel alone at work, either frequently or sometimes. Another fact stands out: 78% consider it essential to have true friendships in the professional environment, indicating that the quality of relationships directly influences the employment experience. Connections help talent retention. On a scale of 1 to 5, respondents gave an average score of 3.39 to the impact of friendships on the decision to stay or leave a company. A second study, carried out by Vittude in partnership with Opinion Box, reinforces this scenario. Although full remote work is desired by many professionals, the survey indicates that this model can intensify social isolation and make it difficult to build support networks. Among workers who work 100% from home, 11.4% have critical levels of mental suffering. For 30.8% of respondents, the sense of teamwork and social interaction are the main reasons for preferring fully in-person work. Loneliness at work affects almost half of Brazilians Arte g1 Almost half of Brazilians feel alone at work Arte g1 What is corporate loneliness? The concept of corporate loneliness does not necessarily mean working alone, but feeling isolated even among colleagues. It is characterized by the lack of meaningful bonds, trusting relationships and a sense of belonging in the work environment. "The problem is not being physically alone, but feeling disconnected, even surrounded by colleagues", explains Camilla Pádua, lead partner of the people management consultancy area at KPMG in Brazil. According to her, this feeling usually arises when professionals are unable to build relationships, work in excessively competitive environments or feel that they cannot be authentic. "Leaders have a central role in building environments in which human connection is not seen as something secondary, but as part of the business strategy. Marcela Zaidem, founder of the consultancy Culture in Practice, states that the phenomenon gained visibility on social networks, but had already been identified by international research for many years. "We are not talking about people 'in need of an office'. We are talking about an environment in which many people are surrounded by meetings, goals, channels, calls and collections, but still feel alone", he explains. Muller Gomes, manager of the recruitment consultancy Robert Half, highlights that isolation can also compromise one's career. "The human being is biopsychosocial. We need each other. Having someone to talk to, share and even vent to helps you deal better with problems", he explains. According to him, the lack of interaction affects productivity, mental health and even professional development, as networking is essential for new career opportunities. "Human beings were not made to live in isolation", he says. Home office has increased the challenge. Experts say that the expansion of remote work has reduced spontaneous moments of coexistence between colleagues. "We've lost that conversation in the hallway, the coffee after lunch or the comment about the weather. It's these small moments that generate closeness", says Lucimara Costa, director of Human Resources at Nexti. For Bruno Gonçalves, specialist in employee experience and corporate happiness, the problem is not the home office itself, but the lack of adaptation by companies. "In remote work, these moments need to be designed intentionally. Productivity depends on people being truly connected, and not just being monitored." Despite this, Geovanna Santos believes that the work format alone does not explain the feeling of isolation. During the pandemic, she says she worked from home for a year and never felt alone. "Even in the home office I had a great connection with the team. We talked all the time,"