Is working from home leaving us isolated?
Newly opened Long Buckby co-working space The Hive Studio hivestudiolb.co.uk is offering home workers and self-employed people a place to work alongside others, as national figures show homeworkers feel less connected to colleagues.
On Long Buckby High Street, The Hive Studio has 11 bookable desks, a lounge corner and a meeting room, all open to anyone who wants somewhere to work other than home. It rents desks from £10 a day, and its meeting room costs £15 an hour.
It opens Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8am to 6pm, and tea and coffee are included.
Working from home is now routine
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that 28% of working adults in Great Britain worked in a hybrid pattern between January and March 2025, splitting their time between home and another workplace. Many freelancers, consultants and business owners have no employer's office to go to at all.
Most people who work from home like it. In February 2022 the ONS asked homeworkers about the advantages: 78% said their work-life balance had improved and 47% reported improved wellbeing. The same survey found that 48% had difficulty working with others.
Less connected, not necessarily lonelier
A poll of 2,296 UK workers for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tackling Loneliness, carried out in 2022, found no higher levels of loneliness among people working mainly from home. The difference was in how close people felt to colleagues. Of homeworkers, 44% said they felt close to colleagues, compared with 84% of those working on site. A further 36% of homeworkers wanted chances to socialise during working hours, against 22% of those on site.
The group recommended that employers give people a choice of where they work.
The mental health charity Mind says that working from home "can be isolating" and that it is easy to work longer hours and take fewer breaks. The Health and Safety Executive estimated that 964,000 workers in Great Britain had work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25. Those figures cover all workers, not only those who work at home.
A day at a time
Jake Wiid, who runs The Hive Studio, said:
"A lot of people who work for themselves spend most of the week on their own. A desk here puts other people in the room, and nobody has to commit to more than a day."
He added that people can book a single day online, with free cancellation up to 48 hours before.