Isolation when working alone
Working alone can remove the routine conversation, encouragement and shared effort that colleagues provide. Isolation can affect freelance and employed home workers, and responses include deliberate social commitments, peer contact and participation in a community with a common purpose.
Experiences of isolation
Isolation can emerge after an initially welcome period of solitude: one freelancer in 2014 had anticipated nine uninterrupted working hours without office chatter, lengthy meetings or politics, and did not initially consider loneliness a challenge. After more than a year, she noticed herself adding unrelated holiday conversation to client emails and deleting it before sending, which prompted her to recognise that isolation was affecting her.
A homeworking survey reported in 2021 included 759 medical communicators, predominantly UK-based (76.8%) and female (71.4%); 28.1% reported feeling lonely or isolated. Isolation from colleagues was the most frequent free-text problem, mentioned by 140 respondents, with comments describing paranoia, withdrawal and loneliness. Among established homeworkers, 23.5% reported loneliness and isolation, compared with 28.1% of office workers working from home during lockdown. The authors noted that continuous homeworking could harm mental health and that wider societal lockdown might account for some established homeworkers’ experiences.
The absence of colleagues can be felt even when the working environment is otherwise congenial: a 2012 freelance comparison contrasted employees’ occasional exasperation with colleagues with freelancers’ sometimes missing them. One writer who left homeworking after seven years attributed the change to boredom and loneliness and recommended office-based work where possible because she found it more fun. In a related account, she described wanting colleagues for tea breaks once her children were at school full-time, while wanting to retain the independence of freelancing; this contributed to considering employing a junior writer. A 2023 comparison credited hybrid freelancing alongside employment with addressing freelance loneliness through colleagues and team spirit, while noting that freelancers could feel isolated even when they sometimes regarded clients as colleagues.
Confidentiality adds a particular constraint in pharmaceutical writing: freelancers lose the team with whom they could discuss projects and let off steam, while remaining bound not to discuss confidential work outside it.
Social commitments and shared effort
A home-based employee’s response to isolation was to keep a busy social life outside working hours. Scheduled social events also helped her leave the ever-present computer rather than work all day and night, while she still valued being able to use late-night bursts of energy.
Local contact need not be professional to restore a sense of community: the freelancer who noticed herself becoming chatty in client emails already had European professional-association contacts and a regional freelance network, but wanted more local connections. Café and pub visits were enjoyable but led her to eat more than she wanted, and she did not find cafés easy places to meet like-minded people; finding no local writers’ group through Meetup, she planned to start one. Joining her daughter’s parent–teacher association instead gave her stimulating meetings and practical work at a school fair, including a challenge to improve the following year’s ticket system after stressful queues. She concluded that her loneliness concerned missing team effort rather than knowing too few people: a common goal and regular face-to-face teamwork restored a sense of working community even while her paid projects remained solitary.
Local business-owner forums and meetings with other freelancers can help counter loneliness; where no freelance group exists, starting one is an option. Volunteering through a professional association, interacting with members and committing to activities take time but can be rewarding ways to broaden relationships. For time spent alone, suggested ways to reconnect with oneself include meditation, walking in nature, sitting outdoors with a computer if the light permits, spending time with a pet, making art, listening to music and cooking.
A homeworker’s self-care checklist published in 2011 recommended the following.
- Learn something new each day, about work, software, equipment or another interest, to help keep the mind sharp.
- Leave the office every couple of days, perhaps meeting friends or other freelancers for lunch.
- Stay active in professional associations and attend chapter and national meetings, both to develop the business network and to counter homeworking isolation.
- Identify people to exchange ideas with or who can provide an accountability anchor.
- Avoid overworking; cultivate the arts or participate in sports, hobbies or volunteering.
- Keep healthy snacks handy rather than relying on leftover desserts.
- Keep physically fit.
Contact with colleagues and peers
Interaction with fellow writers can reduce isolation and improve morale, providing freelancers with a social outlet even through email. Encouraging messages, praise for good work and thanks for meeting deadlines are suggested ways to build positive team interaction.
In the pandemic survey, most free-text respondents welcomed regular contact, company updates, video meetings and individual sessions with managers, and regarded social meetings or company huddles as helpful to morale. A few experienced frequent interactions as interruptions, mistrust or micromanagement, so more contact was not universally welcome.
A peer network can include freelance and in-house writers, former colleagues, virtual or in-person freelance meet-ups and LinkedIn groups. Discussing projects in general terms with client-related details redacted can offer support, information about trends and opportunities, and reciprocal peer mentoring. A long-running UK freelance-group organiser described comfort in knowing that other writers faced similar business and writing problems; participants often expressed relief that their experience was shared. A UK-and-Ireland LinkedIn group co-founder likewise described friendly freelancers’ questions and shared experiences as helping break isolation. When work becomes overwhelming, community contact can provide a sympathetic listener who understands the challenges and helps consider solutions.
Online communities
A 2018 survey of remote workers identified loneliness as jointly the biggest struggle with remote work, and a Chinese study cited in the same account found that over half of remote workers chose to return to the office at least part-time when offered the option. The account interpreted that return as a possible trade-off against isolation, despite productivity advantages.
Online communities can supply contact when office work is unavailable: social networks offer ways to share ideas and work, ask and offer advice, and meet colleagues, while messaging and collaborative tools allow conversations alongside work. Active, thoughtful interaction is suggested rather than browsing alone, which is unlikely to create a sense of connection; the aim is purpose and belonging.
A 2018 account described eleven tools for online contact and collaboration.
| Tool | Uses described in 2018 |
|---|---|
| Business connections, collaborators, job prospects and industry news. | |
| Short messages, real-time industry news and hashtag-based conversations. | |
| Market research, brand awareness, relationship building, customer service and business-profile networking through updates, videos and photographs. | |
| Slack | Organised conversation channels, file sharing and real-time messaging. |
| Telegram | Free messaging, synchronised messages and files across devices, and internet calls. |
| Free Facebook-owned messaging, photo, video and file sharing, internet calls and business profiles. | |
| I Done This | Web- and email-based logged activity converted into reports, shared task tracking and project management. |
| Pivotal Tracker | Shared task lists, real-time collaboration and cross-project tracking through a customisable dashboard for small or large projects. |
| Workfront | Task and productivity tracking, document management, workflows and project visibility for medium or large businesses. |
| Engage | AMWA members’ networking, collaboration and exchange of news and work experience. |
| Microsoft Teams | Group chat, notes, meetings and attachments within Office 365, with membership through a URL or administrator invitation and support for collaborative learning communities. |