Loneliness at Work in the UAE: 5 Myths HR Should Drop

Your office is full. The calendar is packed with meetings, the team chat never goes quiet, and the last engagement survey looked healthy. So nobody on your team is lonely, right?

The data says otherwise. According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report, one in five employees worldwide said they felt lonely for much of the previous day. In the UAE, the figure reported by The National from the same study was 26%, above both the global average (20%) and the Middle East and North Africa average (23%). That is roughly one colleague in four, in a country whose workplaces Gallup also ranked as the most engaged in the region.

Loneliness at work is rarely discussed in leadership meetings because it is easy to misread. It doesn't look like absence or conflict. It looks like someone doing their job quietly. Here are five myths worth dropping, and what the evidence suggests instead.

Myth 1: "Loneliness is a private matter, not a workplace issue"

The World Health Organization disagrees. In June 2025, its Commission on Social Connection published a global report estimating that loneliness affects about one in six people worldwide and is linked to more than 871,000 deaths a year, or around 100 every hour. The WHO associates loneliness and social isolation with a higher risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cognitive decline, anxiety and depression, and notes that lonely adults can find it harder to get or keep a job.

Connection at work is often built in the small, unplanned moments.

The WHO also draws a distinction that matters for HR. Social isolation is objective: a person simply has too few connections. Loneliness is subjective: the painful gap between the relationships someone wants and the ones they have. That is why an employee can be surrounded by people all day and still feel alone.

For UAE employers, the stakes are specific. Much of the workforce has built a life far from family and long-standing friends, which means the workplace often carries more of the weight of daily human contact than it would elsewhere. Work is not the cause of loneliness, but it is one of the few places where a company can actually do something about it.

Myth 2: "Bringing everyone back to the office fixes it"

Location does matter. In Gallup's data, 25% of fully remote employees reported loneliness, compared with 21% of hybrid workers and 16% of those working fully on site.

But read that last number again: one in six people working entirely on site still felt lonely. Presence reduces the risk; it doesn't remove it.

A second data point explains why. Gensler's 2026 Global Workplace Survey, reported by People Matters, found that UAE office workers spend about 53% of their working week in the office, and that once there, 36.5% prefer to work alone, a larger share than those who prefer in-person collaboration (26.5%). There is nothing wrong with focused solo work. The point is that sharing a floor is not the same as sharing a relationship. An attendance policy puts people in the same building. It takes something more deliberate to connect them.

Myth 3: "It mostly affects older or more junior employees"

Loneliness is surprisingly democratic. Gallup found only a small gap by age, with 22% of employees under 35 reporting loneliness against 19% of those aged 35 and over. It found no meaningful difference between men and women, and little link with job level.

In other words, you cannot predict who is lonely from an org chart. It may be the new joiner who relocated three months ago, the senior manager whose peers are all in another country, or the long-serving specialist whose closest colleagues have moved on. Any approach that targets one group will miss most of the people concerned.

Myth 4: "An engaged team can't be a lonely team"

Engagement and connection are related, and Gallup's numbers show it clearly: 17% of engaged employees reported loneliness, against 31% of those who are actively disengaged. Having a job helps too. Gallup found that 20% of working adults felt lonely, compared with 32% of unemployed adults.

Shared experiences give colleagues something to talk about besides deadlines.

Still, 17% is not zero. Even in a highly engaged team, a meaningful minority feels alone. And the UAE illustrates the paradox well: in the same Gallup study, the country posted regional-leading engagement (29%, against 23% globally) alongside above-average loneliness. A strong engagement score is good news. It is not proof that people feel they belong.

Myth 5: "If someone were struggling, they would tell their manager"

Often they won't. A poll run by People Management with research firm Attest in the UK, published in January 2026, found that 28% of respondents would feel uncomfortable discussing loneliness with their manager. The same poll suggested the cost of silence is real: 42% said they had considered leaving, or had left, a job because of loneliness at work. This was a UK sample, so the numbers shouldn't be transposed directly to the UAE, but the pattern is one many HR teams will recognise.

Loneliness carries a stigma that workload or stress no longer does. Admitting "I have too much on my plate" sounds committed. Admitting "I don't really have anyone here" feels exposing. If you wait for employees to raise it, you will usually hear about it in the exit interview.

What companies can do

The encouraging part of the research is that the solutions are neither exotic nor expensive. In the People Management poll, 49% of respondents said a stronger team culture would make the biggest difference, and 82% said social events had helped ease their sense of isolation. Here is how to translate that into practice.

Measure it, gently

Add one or two questions on belonging and connection to your pulse survey, such as whether people have someone at work they could turn to on a hard day. Look at the results by team and tenure, not only as a company average.

Design the first 90 days around people, not paperwork

Newcomers to the UAE are building a professional and a personal network at the same time. Pair them with a buddy outside their reporting line, and schedule introductions as carefully as system access.

Replace the annual event with a rhythm

One team day a year creates a pleasant memory. A shared activity every month or two creates relationships. Hands-on formats work particularly well because they give people something to do together, which is easier for quieter colleagues than open-ended networking. Pottery, percussion, improv or Arabic calligraphy put everyone at the same beginner level, whatever their title.

Make room for real conversation

Structured formats such as World Café sessions or facilitated talking circles let people speak about more than tasks, in a setting where listening is the rule. Training in nonviolent communication gives teams a shared language for doing it well.

Equip managers to notice

Managers don't need to become counsellors. They need to spot withdrawal, ask a simple question and know where to point someone. Where an employee seems to be struggling with their mental health, encourage them to speak with a qualified professional.

Protect the small moments

Lunch away from desks, a few minutes of unstructured time at the start of meetings, mixed-team projects. Connection is mostly built in increments.

The takeaway

Loneliness at work is common, it is hard to see, and it does not respect seniority, age or engagement scores. It is also one of the more solvable workplace wellbeing challenges, provided it is treated as an ongoing part of culture and not a once-a-year fix. People who feel they belong stay longer, speak up more and look after one another. That is good for them, and it is good for the company.

At Safe to Grow, we design Team Culture Workshops that bring colleagues together around a shared experience, from pottery and percussion to improv and World Café, in packs of 3, 6 or 12 sessions spread freely across the year. If you would like to build a rhythm of connection for your teams in Dubai or anywhere in the UAE, get in touch.

Sources

• Gallup: 1 in 5 Employees Worldwide Feel Lonely
• The National: UAE workplaces still region's most engaged but loneliness now more common, study finds
• WHO: Social connection linked to improved health and reduced risk of early death
• People Matters: Office remains first choice for UAE and Saudi workers, yet over 35% prefer working alone (Gensler)
• People Management: Loneliness epidemic driving workplace disengagement and turnover, poll finds

Photos: cottonbro studio (cover), Liliana Drew and Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.