When lonely employees are productive: an intervention study on workplace mindfulness and job autonomy.

Loneliness is becoming an increasingly prevalent emotional experience in workplaces. While there is a growing body of research concentrating on the adverse effects of workplace loneliness on both individuals and organizations, strategies for effective intervention remain largely unexplored. Through the lens of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study examines how employees' encounters with workplace loneliness as resource depletion can lead to a decrease in work productivity. It also assesses whether and how workplace mindfulness and job autonomy may buffer this harmful dynamic. A thorough three-wave survey involving 443 IT professionals was conducted to evaluate our theoretical model. The findings reveal that (1) workplace loneliness significantly erodes work productivity and (2) workplace mindfulness and job autonomy act as buffers, and in tandem, they synergistically transform the negative impact of workplace loneliness into a catalyst for enhancing work productivity. This is likely because, in contexts of high workplace mindfulness and autonomy, employees are able to effectively transform the negative emotions associated with involuntary solitude, capitalizing on the benefits of solitude. This research introduces an innovative framework for interventions to address the widespread problem of workplace loneliness and offers valuable practical implications for managing employees' loneliness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]