More people are staying single—and workplaces need to adjust

The frustrations that single people encounter in a largely coupled-up world are well established. Less well-known—but just as pervasive—are the challenges faced by single people at the office.

The expectation that single people clock longer hours than their paired-up counterparts is one common complaint. “Lots of people I interviewed complained that their managers presumed they had extra time to stay at the office or take on extra projects because they don’t have family at home,” Eric Klinenberg, author of the 2013 book Going Solo, told The Atlantic last month.

And in some cases, being single can affect a person’s job prospects. A recent Swiss study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, found that employers were more likely to offer job interviews to married men than to single men, even when their qualifications were otherwise the same. (It’s common to include marital status on resumes in Switzerland.)

Other singles simply feel marginalized in work cultures that assume their employees will be coupled up. “We’re going to have a team holiday party this year,” says communications executive Aimee Colton, “and it’s annoying because everyone brings their partner or spouse, and then I feel like I’m the 15th wheel.”

Why more people are staying single

These kinds of cultural expectations lag reality. Data show that singles make up an increasingly large portion of the adult population in the US. Four in 10 adults between the ages of 25 and 54 are single, up from 29% in 1990, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. (The survey defines single as being neither married nor living with a partner.)

In England and Wales, the share of the population that’s never been married or in a domestic partnership is now at 35%, compared with 30% in 2002, according to the Office of National Statistics. There, singledom has become more common across all age groups.

The numbers are growing in Asia, too. Among South Koreans in their 30s, 43% are unmarried, up from 36% in 2015. Among Japanese people between the ages of 18 and 39, the share of single women grew from 27% in 1992 to 41% in 2015. The share of single men increased from 40% in 1992 to 51% in 2015.

The reasons for the uptick are manifold. The age at which people get married is steadily increasing in many countries as people try to gain financial security and establish themselves in their careers. And economic instability, as well as educational disparities between men and women, may be making it harder for some people to find partners.

Bella DePaulo, the author of the book Singled Out, argues “more people than ever before want to be single.” She points to a 2020 survey from Pew Research Center that found half of single Americans said they weren’t looking to date or be in a relationship. The most common reasons they cited: They were prioritizing other parts of their lives at the moment, or were simply enjoying the single life.

As staying single becomes less stigmatized, even more people may wind up choosing that path in the years ahead. These changes mean it’s high time for workplaces to adjust to the new reality. Here’s how:

Recognize that single people still have loved ones

Even in 2021, companies often default to the nuclear family when considering their employees’ lives outside of work. “In workshops and training sessions, leaders sometimes ask questions based on the assumption that everyone has a romantic partner and/or kids—of course, some single workers do have kids,” says DePaulo.

But managers should be sensitive to the fact that employees’ relationships and responsibilities are not limited to just partners and children. That awareness will also make employers more attuned to the realities of people from marginalized groups, who may be less likely to live in traditional nuclear households.

Immigrants and people of color, for example, are more likely to live with members of their extended family. Black women in the US have lower rates of marriage compared with women of other races, meaning that they may be more likely to be single. Members of the LGBTQ+ community may choose to surround themselves with a chosen family, particularly if they’ve experienced rejection and estrangement from biological relatives. Recognizing the legitimacy of the family you choose, rather than strictly the one you’re born or adopted into, is a far more inclusive and relevant approach for the contemporary workplace.

Treating the nuclear family as the default also has a negative impact on the growing constituency of single parents. A 2019 Pew report found that a quarter of children in the US live in single-parent households, more than any other country.

In both formal sessions and casual conversations, workplace leaders should seize the opportunity to communicate their respect for all kinds of families and relationships. If a manager wants to talk to their team about work-life balance, for example, it’s more productive to ask open-ended questions about what kinds of struggles employees are experiencing than to center the conversation around working parents’ circumstances specifically. When catching up with a single employee over coffee, it’s considerate to ask after the people in their life, just as one might inquire about a married colleague’s spouse.