This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme from the Mental Health Foundation was Belonging Matters.
When we think about belonging at work, we usually picture a team: a warehouse crew, a depot, an office. But a lot of New Zealand workers spend most of their day on their own.
The truck driver heading between cities before most people are up. The cleaner working through an empty office building at night. The courier on their fortieth stop. The service technician driving from one job to the next.
They’re all part of a business, but their day-to-day sense of belonging can look very different. So how do you make sure people feel connected, supported and included when the work takes them away from everyone else?
Working alone isn’t the same as feeling alone
Plenty of people enjoy working on their own. They like the independence, the quiet and getting on with the job. Working alone isn’t a problem in itself.
The risk comes when independence turns into isolation: little contact with colleagues, no say in decisions, not much supervision or support, and a sense of being cut off from the rest of the business.
It isn’t only lone workers, either. Someone can be surrounded by people all day and still feel left out.
Remote and isolated work is recognised as a psychosocial hazard in ISO 45003, the international standard on psychological health at work, and in research WorkSafe has published on mentally healthy work.
Connection matters for psychological health at work generally, too. The Umbrella and Geneva Wellbeing Annual Report 2026, drawing on data from more than 11,000 working New Zealanders, found that poor peer support was associated with more than three times the odds of high psychological distress and low flourishing. It also found 56% of organisations struggle to manage wellbeing and psychosocial risk.
The four walls of the house
Te Whare Tapa Whā, the Māori model of health developed by Sir Mason Durie, describes wellbeing as a house with four walls:
Taha tinana: physical wellbeing
Taha hinengaro: mental and emotional wellbeing
Taha wairua: spiritual wellbeing
Taha whānau: family and social connection
If one wall is weak, the whole house is less stable.
Whenua, our connection to the land and the place where we stand, forms the foundation. Taha whānau is about who makes you feel you belong.
In operational work, physical risks such as fatigue, manual handling and machinery get a lot of attention. The connections that support taha whānau can be less visible, particularly for people who spend most of their working day alone.
Contact isn’t the same as connection
Think of a driver who leaves early, spends the day on the road, stays away overnight and comes home the next day. They’ll talk to dispatch, customers and other drivers. Most of that contact is about the job: delivery times, freight, getting it done.
Being in contact with people isn’t the same as feeling connected to them. Add fatigue, irregular hours and time away from family, and isolation can add to the load. That doesn’t mean every driver feels lonely. It means the way the work is set up can create psychosocial risk, and it’s worth looking at.
The workers who arrive after everyone’s gone home
Cleaners, security staff and other after-hours workers often work in empty buildings. They may see little of their own colleagues and rarely meet their manager in person.
A lone-worker check-in can confirm that someone has responded and reported they’re okay. It doesn’t necessarily tell you whether they feel supported, whether they can raise a concern, or whether they know their work is valued.
The people most at risk can also be the hardest to reach. Owner-drivers, contractors and casual staff often face time and money pressures that keep them away from wellbeing sessions and safety meetings, so the ones who would benefit most can end up taking part least.
What leaders can do
This isn’t about morning teas, posters or a wellbeing newsletter. It’s about how the work is run:
Make contact count: conversations that go beyond the next job or the day’s numbers.
Bring everyone in: include remote, mobile and after-hours workers in safety discussions and decisions, at times they can make.
Back your supervisors: make sure they keep regular, supportive contact with the people they don’t often see.
Design the work with it in mind: consider isolation, fatigue, rosters and access to support when you assess psychosocial risk.
Show people their work matters, even when they’re not in the room.
Belonging is more than being on the payroll
A worker doesn’t need to be surrounded by colleagues to feel part of a team. They do need to know they’re supported, listened to and valued.
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, health covers mental health as well as physical health. That doesn’t make working alone unsafe, or loneliness a breach. It does mean that how work is organised, supervised and supported belongs in your health, safety and wellbeing approach.
For businesses with people who work alone, remotely or outside normal hours, belonging is part of how the work is organised, not only something to talk about once a year.
How connected are the people in your business? The free Wellbeing Checkup gives you a practical first look at connection, support and psychosocial risk, including for people who work alone.
Your details are only used to send you the checkup. No mailing list.
Sources and further reading
Mental Health Awareness Week 2026 (12–18 October, Belonging Matters), Business Canterbury
Te Whare Tapa Whā, Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand
Umbrella and Geneva Wellbeing Annual Report 2026
Psychosocial factors: Pathways to harm and wellbeing (Massey University Healthy Work Group, published by WorkSafe)
Health and Safety at Work Act 2015