Home alone: Isolated workers may enjoy the silence but they’re harming their careers

Working from home has allowed many employees to remain in the shadows, doing their jobs but staying practically out of sight.

“Unless you actively meet with people or engage as a team, there’s a good chance you can stay out of sight,” says Rebecca Langford, a Minneapolis-based marketing coordinator who began working from home when the pandemic began. “But that’s a bad thing. The more isolated you are, the more detached you are from your group, your company and your industry.”

In addition to the social benefits of actively engaging with others, working in a virtual vacuum can harm your career. “I have team members who want to stay hidden and I tell them they’re making a mistake,” she says. “They’re avoiding contact because they feel like they have no social reason to reach out if they can do all their work via email or messaging, which seems strange. They put themselves out of the picture. When it comes time for promotions or new projects, they’re going to be at the bottom of the list.”

Langford says she speaks from experience. She distanced herself from her co-workers a few years ago when she felt like they engaged in more gossip than work. “I figured there was no harm done if the work got finished but that was incredibly short-sighted,” she says.

Workplace in flux

Donald Briton, an executive coach in San Francisco, says businesses have survived for decades with numerous workers who stay at least an arm’s length from their peers, but as remote work increases, that acceptance is changing. “In today’s workplace, communication is everything,” Briton says. “Projects have tight deadlines and short shelf-lives, so it’s important to get things done right the first time. And if we’re only online, there has to be some human contact.”

Briton says there are different types of workers who prefer taking the solo route, from the painfully shy introvert to the toobusy-to-talk taskmaster

And then there’s “that guy.”

You know him. You’ve worked with him at some point during your career or maybe you’re working with him now — the loner who is perceived as someone who thinks he’s better than everyone else. Don’t be that guy.

“Being a loner at work can be tricky; online it’s even tougher, even if you’re surrounded by people who like you and respect you,” says Briton.

Time and a place

Lauren Albert, a former career consultant in Chicago— and a current aspiring actress in Los Angeles— says it’s OK to enjoy working alone and taking responsibility for your own projects. But considering the workplace has many moving parts, these parts have a responsibility to work with others. “Workers who prefer doing projects on their own often find they run into brick walls when they go to show management their work,” she says. “You do so much but you do it in a vacuum. You’re not always sure what other people want because you don’t bother to talk to them, so you forge ahead and put out what you think is the best possible proposal or solution.”

Briton says the go-it-alone approach usually results in failure. “We really need to work with others to make sure that we are not only giving our supervisors the work they want but to ensure that we have all the facts and all our bases covered,” he says. “People who work on big projects all alone usually miss a few key things.”

— Marco Buscaglia, Careers