Keeping the “Human” in the Human Experience at Work
Ensuring Employee Connection in a Tech-driven World
In her outstanding book Generations, Jean Twenge notes that one of the most consistent differences across age groups is how comfortable each is with technology. She also observes that with every advancement in technology, especially for younger workers, comes an increased expectation for individualized experiences.
Once upon a time, families gathered around a single TV. Later, we moved to watching different shows in separate rooms. Now, we can sit together in a restaurant, but everyone is on their own device: watching videos, scrolling social media, and answering emails. This illustrates not just access but a deeper shift—technology has brought us freedom, flexibility, and subtle isolation.
From Face-to-Face to FaceTime: A Timeline of Work Interaction
Organizations have experimented with various formats of interaction over the years:
- Meeting face-to-face
- Sharing a communal work area
- Working in cubicles with minimal interaction
- Messaging instead of talking—email, chat, or text
- Flying across the country for meetings
- Shifting to video calls
- And now, more often, working remotely with minimal physical contact
Yes, the tools have improved, and flexibility has increased. But something human has been lost along the way. And we wonder why people feel lonely – why they don’t feel seen, heard, or understood?
The AI Factor: What’s Next for Human Work?
The future of work and AI is filled with promise—but it’s also filled with unknowns. Will AI handle all the mundane, repetitive tasks? Most likely. Will it reduce our workload? Temporarily, maybe. But as we’ve learned before, with every efficiency gain, expectations also rise. You’re now expected to do more faster and with fewer errors.
That’s the illusion of technology—it helps but also pushes. And we don’t stop moving.
Coming Back to (or Dealing with) Reality
Even with amazing technological and medical advances (artificial body parts, technology-aided functioning for the blind, deaf, and paralyzed), the reality remains that we are human. And a core component of being human is that we are social beings. Except in special circumstances, we are created by social interaction. We are raised in relationships with at least one other person. Our lives involve human interaction and communication in almost every area and stage of our lives. Most of us desire some amount of human interaction and relationships with other humans to comprise some proportion of our daily (or weekly) lives.
I believe, at a foundational level, that we will always have and need human interaction. But even if you disagree with that premise, the reality is that, for most of us, living and working totally separate from others is a slim probability (for quite a while, at least).
Keeping Our Balance: Technology vs. Connection
Yes, we’ll continue to evolve, and tools will improve. But emotional fatigue is real—Zoom fatigue, app burnout, social media overload. At some point, people pull back. They crave nature, art, music, and conversation.
That’s where employee well-being programs come into play—not just health insurance and gym memberships but intentional strategies to foster connection—because emotional and relational health matter more than ever.
A Leadership Imperative: Build the Bridge
One of the most important roles a leader or HR manager will have in the next decade is to build pathways for people to stay connected.
Let me be clear; connection won’t happen automatically. Left unattended, organizations will default to the least effort-required mode of interaction: digital, task-oriented, and emotionally flat. Eventually, your workplace turns into a room full of “heads on sticks”—functioning but not truly alive. That’s not sustainable. And it’s not healthy.
When we help people connect in person, meaningfully, and about real things, we start to rebuild what was lost. That’s the kind of workplace that not only survives but thrives.
One Solution: Virtual Appreciation Training
If your team is hybrid or remote, building trust and connection is not impossible. But you have to be intentional. One simple but powerful tool is strengthening team connection with virtual appreciation training. When colleagues learn how to communicate appreciation meaningfully across distances and roles, something shifts, and people feel seen, heard, and valued. While in-person training is ideal, it isn’t always possible, and our virtual training is a critical strategy for workplace health for remote and hybrid teams.
Why the Future Belongs to Leaders Who Prioritize People
In our work with workplace cultures, we have found that facilitating team members interacting in person, face to face, about their lives at a personal level is key to developing and maintaining a healthy workplace culture. Just “communicating” via electronic devices, at a distance, and only about work issues does NOT create a personal connection between colleagues.
The organizations that last will be the ones that understand this truth: people are not machines. You can’t manage them like code. You lead people by knowing what makes them tick, what wears them down, and how to recharge their human spirit. Connection isn’t optional. It’s foundational. And those who get that? They’ll outlast the rest.
BUILD A HEALTHIER, MORE VIBRANT TEAM
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Categories 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, Employee engagement, Managing By Appreciation, Relationships, Vibrant Workplace, Virtual teams, Workplace Culture
3 Comments
Powerful and insightful. Thank you, Dr. Paul.
Glad you found the thoughts to be helpful. Dr. Paul
A thoughtful reminder of how essential it is to maintain meaningful human interaction in the workplace. This piece effectively highlights why empathy and recognition still matter in today’s evolving professional environments.