Beyond physical distance: how workplace loneliness links telecommuting to cyberloafing.

Abstract

Telecommuting offers flexibility, but it may also be accompanied by fewer opportunities for everyday social connection in the workplace. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory, this study examines how such social disconnection is associated with cyberloafing and why this process varies across employees. Using two-wave survey data from 350 employees in China with recent telecommuting experience, we found a significant indirect association between telecommuting and cyberloafing through workplace loneliness. This indirect association was weaker when employees reported higher-quality leader-member exchange or greater task interdependence. These two conditions reflect different forms of workplace resources: leader-member exchange provides relational support, whereas task interdependence sustains interaction through the organization of work itself. These findings shift attention away from whether telecommuting is inherently beneficial or harmful and toward the social resource conditions that shape employees' responses to working apart. They also offer a more nuanced view of cyberloafing as a possible short-term withdrawal-based digital response that is consistent with coping interpretations under conditions of diminished workplace connection.