The Loneliest Generation

I’m a Gen Z creative who works fully remotely, something I never thought I would say. Let’s talk about it.

As a former a small studio intern, I’d gotten a taste of full-time remote work through my 10-week stint here in the summer of 2023. I was living with my two younger siblings, my dogs, and my mom, who has worked from home as an architect and interior designer my entire life. Having both parents working from their garage-turned-home-studio was my everyday growing up, so for me, working from home was not new at all. In fact, it was expected.

What WAS new to me was sharing a workspace with my mom. Other than some differences in expectations around the acceptable level of office clutter, I absolutely thrived in a shared space with another creative. It was something I’d missed in college, since my senior year was almost entirely remote. I didn’t realize how much I craved this kind of daily connection: sharing tools and resources, getting another set of eyes on my work, casual conversations and brainstorm sessions all added a level of fun to my workflow I had been missing out on.

Fast forward a few years: I moved out, and I’m finally starting to make the shift towards spending more hours with the incredibly talented, fully remote team at a small studio. As I move through this transition, I’m learning a lot about myself, my needs, and how I work best. The biggest roadblock I’ve faced so far was, as an introvert, unexpected: I’ve been feeling incredibly lonely.

If you’re also feeling isolated at your remote job, good news! You’re not alone.

The US Career Network estimates that by the end of 2025, up to 14% of adults in the US will have fully remote WFH jobs, which is about five times more than the 7 million Americans who held those positions pre-Covid. With 70% of Gen Z prioritizing work-life balance, many choose to work from home in order to maintain that balance. That being said, Gen Z proves to be the loneliest out of all generations currently in the workforce, with 79% of remote workers aged 18-24 reporting they sometimes, or often, feel lonely at work. Many also say they feel disillusioned with work, especially those who joined the workforce during the pandemic.

Harvard Business Review points out that remote workers experience three different kinds of virtual distance that contribute to this feeling of isolation:

- Physical distance, which can be exacerbated by working from different time zones or drastically different locations from coworkers.
- Operational distance, including factors that make connection and collaboration more difficult than it needs to be (internet issues, miscommunication, or clunky and inefficient workflows)
- Affinity distance, which refers to the quality of connections created in the workplace.

So what do you do when you start working alone in your bedroom, and those quality conversations and connections become few and far between?

Lean into creative community, something I always took for granted.

I’ve always surrounded myself with people whose creative energy was infused into every interaction we had. These connections not only made my friendships and partnerships exciting and fulfilling, they were also essential for my growth and development as both a person and an artist and designer. Losing touch with these people and environments lead to a feeling of emptiness in my social interactions and lower satisfaction with my own work, even though I’m consistently contributing to meaningful and engaging projects within a small studio.

I’ve had to make a conscious effort to direct my energy into things that make me feel connected to and supported by others, which, in turn, boosts my own confidence and brings my artistic spark back. Some things that have helped me on my mission to fight remote work isolation:

Yap Time
Set up a consistent time to talk to someone who makes you feel inspired and excited. For me, that means two close friends from school who also work remotely in creative positions. We’re all able to get outside perspectives on our artistic endeavors, and support each other through our feelings of remote work isolation.
‍
Hobby Era
Finding a non-work related creative outlet, and sharing it with others. This could be anything! Fiber arts, illustration, collage, Pinterest boards, collaborative projects - anything that gets you excited to create. Having a buddy to check in with and hold you accountable for these hobbies also creates a little support network when you’re feeling uninspired, and it always sparks a moment of joy and fulfillment when you get to share or receive a part of someone else’s creative journey.
‍
Sharing is Caring
Exchanging resources, advice, tips and tricks, tools and supplies, or constructive critiques often helps to save time, money, energy, and stress for everyone involved. Sharing what you have, whether it’s a physical item or a new Illustrator shortcut you just learned, can help lower the barrier to entry in these often exclusive or expensive creative fields. It also reinforces the care and trust that are essential to supportive connections, and you might walk away with some new insights and perspectives you wouldn’t have access to otherwise.
‍
Touch Grass
Literally. Take a walk, go for a run, bike to a coffee shop, lay out in the sun for a few minutes. Any small amount of outside time is better than none, especially when you’re sitting and staring at a screen all day. Getting fresh air and moving my body is my favorite way to ground myself in the physical world, and remind myself that there’s much more to life than Instagram posts and Notion boards. Your friends don’t hate you and you’re not a bad designer, your back just hurts from sitting at your desk for 9 hours, and you should probably have a snack. While you’re at it, maybe drink some water too!
‍
Get Personal
Community looks different for everyone, so think about what this means for you. It could be a group chat, a club, a coffee meetup, a pen pal, anything that fosters connection with others. This could also include taking the time to get to know your coworkers beyond your 1-on-1s at work. Spending time contributing to these communities, whether it’s in person or virtually, can be an amazing way to encourage mutual support and shared creative energy.

Feeling comfortable putting yourself out into these spaces and relationships takes time, and can feel vulnerable. But sharing that vulnerability with others, and being open to supporting them through their raw moments as well, is what helps community grow.

Trusting these relationships to lean on in times of loneliness and creative block, as well as in moments of accomplishment and excitement, is not an easy thing. But, like most things, community and connection thrive when you choose to put in the work.

At the EOD (End of the Day), these communities and relationships are what you’ll remember, not your level of activity on the team Slack channels.

‍