Ask an HR leader in Sydney what keeps them up at night, and you’ll hear about psychosocial safety regulations and the right to disconnect. Ask someone in Chicago, and it’s workplace loneliness and political tension. In London? Burnout and plummeting engagement.
Different regions, different headlines. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find the same underlying problem: a workplace connection crisis.
So what do we mean by that? We’re talking about the systemic breakdown of meaningful human relationships at work: the slow erosion of trust, belonging, and genuine connection between colleagues. It’s happening everywhere, and the data suggests it’s reached a tipping point.
Here’s the thing: we’ve always believed that the right connection can change someone’s life. That the best personal and professional growth happens through human connection, knowledge exchange, and shared experiences. And right now? Those connections are harder to come by than ever.
Let’s look at what’s happening around the world.
APAC: When "Switching Off" Isn't Enough
Australia’s Right to Disconnect laws, which came into effect in August 2024, were designed to protect employees from the always-on culture that accelerated during the pandemic. And the intent is good! Boundaries absolutely matter.
But here’s what legislation can’t do: it can’t create connection.
Mental health claims in Australian workplaces have increased by 161% over the past decade, with a median cost of $67,400 per claim. Psychosocial safety regulations are now in effect across every Australian state, putting pressure on employers to address not just physical hazards, but psychological ones too.
The challenge? You can’t regulate your way to a psychologically safe workplace. Real safety comes from culture. It comes from employees feeling supported, valued, and genuinely connected to the people around them. And that’s precisely what’s been eroding.
USA: Divided and Disconnected
In the United States, the workplace connection crisis has a sharper edge.
More than half of American workers say they feel lonely at work. Let that sink in for a moment. One in four have no friends among their colleagues. For Gen Z, the numbers are even starker: 27% say a lack of meaningful relationships is actively harming their motivation.
And then there’s the division.
Nearly 60% of HR professionals report that political tensions have strained workplace relationships. More than a quarter have witnessed political arguments at work. The instinct for many employees? Avoidance. 71% say they steer clear of difficult conversations entirely.
The result is a workforce that’s not just disengaged, but actively fragmented. Gallup’s latest data shows global employee engagement has fallen to just 21%, costing the economy an estimated $438 billion in lost productivity.
When people don’t feel safe to connect, they retreat. And when they retreat, engagement collapses.
Europe: The Burnout Paradox
European workplaces have long been celebrated for their emphasis on work-life balance. Generous leave policies, shorter working weeks, stronger labour protections—on paper, Europe should be leading the world in employee wellbeing.
And yet.
Employee engagement across Europe has dropped to 64%, down from 88% the previous year. More than half of workers now say burnout is dragging down their engagement—up from just 34% in 2025.
Perhaps most concerning: manager engagement has fallen to 27%. Given that managers account for roughly 70% of team engagement, this isn’t just a people problem—it’s a multiplier effect waiting to cascade through entire organisations.
European HR teams are also navigating incoming regulatory complexity, with the EU Pay Transparency Directive and AI Act both taking effect in 2026. The administrative burden is growing at exactly the moment when teams are already stretched thin.
The Common Thread: We've Stopped Connecting
Strip away the regional context, and the pattern becomes clear.
In APAC, employees are burning out and checking out despite new protections. In the US, they’re lonely and divided. In Europe, they’re exhausted and their managers are struggling right alongside them.
The common denominator? A lack of meaningful workplace connection.
We’ve optimised for productivity, efficiency, flexibility, and compliance. But somewhere along the way, we’ve under-invested in the relationships that make people want to show up, contribute, and stay. We’ve forgotten that people do their best work when they feel connected to their colleagues, to their managers, to the organisation’s mission.
So What Actually Works?
Look, you can’t mandate workplace connection. No policy, platform, or team-building exercise is going to fix this on its own. (Trust us, we’ve seen a lot of well-intentioned initiatives fall flat.)
But you can design for it.
The organisations we see getting real results are the ones creating structured opportunities for meaningful one-on-one relationships. Not forced fun, but genuine connection with purpose.
That’s where mentoring comes in.
A well-designed mentoring program creates the conditions for real relationships to form. It gives employees a reason to connect across teams, levels, and locations. It equips managers with support and development at a time when they desperately need it. And—this is the part that gets leadership on board—it delivers measurable outcomes without adding to HR’s already-full plate.
Samantha Hilker, the award-winning program coordinator from the American Ambulance Association, shares her number one piece of advice for you if you’re thinking of launching a mentoring program at your organization.
We’ve seen it work time and again: when you give people the structure and permission to connect meaningfully, they do. And the ripple effects on engagement, retention, psychological safety, and performance are significant.
Done well, mentoring addresses the root cause of the workplace connection crisis. Not by adding another initiative to the pile, but by creating a system that makes genuine human connection scalable.
Ready to Build Connection Into Your Organisation?
If you’re recognising the signs of disconnection in your own workplace, you’re definitely not alone. And the good news is that workplace connection can absolutely be rebuilt. It just takes intention.
We’ve put together a free webinar that walks through exactly how to design a mentoring program that actually works: the program architecture, the matching strategies, and real examples from organisations that have done it well.
Sign up for a session in your time zone!
