Why we need to start over. With real people. In real places.
The New Way of Working was never the solution.
It was a symptom treatment that ignored the root cause.
And that cause? A fundamentally flawed view of what it means to be human at work.
We stripped work of its context, its humanness, its heartbeat — and now we’re surprised people are crashing?
What was once sold as liberation (“work where you want, when you want”) has morphed into a system that quietly sucked the social oxygen out of our work lives.
The numbers don’t lie:
According to a large-scale meta-analysis by Twenge et al. (2019), since 2012 we’ve seen a marked decline in mental well-being — especially among young people — closely correlated with the mass adoption of smartphones and social platforms.³
Depression. Loneliness. Isolation. The timing is no coincidence.
Burnout is now the number one cause of long-term absence, costing the country over €3 billion annually.⁴
Yes, the pandemic pulled the trigger. But the gun was already loaded.
1. The Human Engine Doesn’t Run Without Spark
Humans are not lone predators with a Wi-Fi signal. We are social mammals.
We’re wired for proximity, collaboration, physical presence. That’s not nostalgia. That’s biology.⁵
Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) identifies three core psychological needs:
The New Way of Working delivered on autonomy.
But it obliterated relatedness.
We became islands. Asynchronous. Frictionless. Efficient. Alone.
And then came the virus — not COVID, but something slower, sneakier: digital isolation.
2. In Isolation, People Reach for the Only Thing Left: Scrolling
When humans lose real-world social contact, we search for scraps of it wherever we can.
We crave randomness. Encounters. Unscripted validation. So we scroll. We swipe. We refresh.
What was once a tool for communication is now a replacement for connection.
Social media isn’t a channel anymore — it’s the new office. The new coffee break. The new social mirror.
But this is a hall of mirrors.
3. Burnout Is a Virus. And Every Case Infects Others.
Burnout has a social dimension.⁶
It’s not just an individual failing — it’s a system disease.
Research by Schaufeli and Maslach has long shown how burnout spreads within teams through emotional contagion.⁷
People working remotely and feeling empty go online looking for recognition.
And they find it. In abundance.
On TikTok. Reddit. Instagram. #quietquitting. #workisbroken.
What looks like a community becomes mass psychological reinforcement.
What feels like support becomes a fortress of shared exhaustion.
And so we reach the paradox:
People seek connection out of loneliness — and the only connection left, digital connection, makes them sicker.
4. The Illusion of Focus
Enter the gurus.
“You just need focus,” they say. “Learn to concentrate.”
Books are sold. Apps are launched. Digital detox retreats marketed like green juice cleanses.
Focus is the new mindfulness. The keto diet of work.
Reality check:
Nobody with burnout lacks focus.
They lack safety. Rhythm. Humanity.
Brain scans show structural changes in people with burnout.⁸
Working memory declines. Prefrontal cortex function deteriorates.
Concentration isn’t a mindset. It’s a fragile neurochemical process wrecked by isolation, stress, and fatigue.
You don’t fix that with a Pomodoro app.
You fix that by restoring human structures.
5. The Office Was Never the Problem. Everything Around It Was.
The “ditch the office” reaction made sense:
Commutes. Soul-crushing real estate. Fluorescent lighting.
But we confused symptom with root cause.
The problem was never the office. It was:
Instead of fixing any of that, we tossed the whole thing — and replaced it with a Slack channel.
6. What We Need Is Social Correction, Not Digital Autonomy
To tackle burnout, we need to restore the social contract of work.
Yes, that includes the untrendy words: social control. And yes: peer pressure.
Not in the micromanagement sense.
In the “I see you” sense.
That doesn’t happen in pixels. That happens in place.
Studies confirm that teams with strong physical cohesion report:
We don’t need more dashboards. We need mirrors.
7. Time to Start Over. With Real People. In Real Places.
This isn’t about forcing everyone back to the office five days a week.
It’s about remembering why we work together at all.
Remember:
That’s real collaboration. Not planned. Not perfect. Just human.
We don’t need the offices of yesterday.
But we do need a society where work blends into life, location, and rhythm:
8. We Don’t Need a New Model. We Need a New Fabric.
Burnout isn’t a glitch.
It’s a symptom of a system that forgot what humans are.
But there is immunity.
And it starts with reclaiming what we’ve lost:
Focus isn’t the answer.
Digital detox isn’t a cure.
Self-help is not policy.
Togetherness is prevention.
And the best vaccine is each other.
Rik Vera is a futurology speaker, author of “The Guide to the Ecosystem Economy” and “The Net Curiosity Score”, and lecturer in digital strategy at London Business School.
