Swedish workers trial ‘friendship hour’ to combat loneliness

Staff at a major Swedish pharmacy chain are being given paid leave to spend with friends, as the Swedish government calls on businesses to play a role in tackling loneliness.

Yasmine Lindberg, 45, is one of 11 participants in the pilot “buddy care” program for pharmacy group Apotek Hjärtat.

He works shifts at the company’s outlet in a retail park in Kalmar, a small coastal city in southern Sweden.

“I get really tired when I get home. I don’t have the time or energy to meet my friends,” she explains, before stocking a shelf with paracetamol.

Yasmine spends most of her free time with her teenage children, who live with her every other week. But she admits she has felt “pretty lonely” since splitting from her partner four years ago, which has led to fewer social invitations from couples around them.

Now, thanks to the Apotek Hjärtat pilot program that started in April, he is given 15 minutes a week or an hour a month during work hours so he can focus on strengthening his friendships or making new connections.

He or she can use this allotted companionship time to chat on the phone, make plans via text, or meet someone in person.

“I wanted to make things better for myself… like kick myself in the back and do something,” says Yasmine.

“I feel happier. You can’t live online like most people do these days.”

Like all participants in the pilot project, he was awarded 1,000 kroner ($100; £80) by Apotek Hjärtat to help pay for friendship-based activities during the year-long trial period.

Volunteers also received online training on how to recognize and cope with loneliness, which the pharmacy chain offers to all its 4,000 employees across Sweden.

Monica Magnusson, CEO of Apotek Hjärtat, says the inspiration for the company’s companion care project came in part from a previous collaboration with mental health charity Mind. He says this helps demonstrate how short meaningful conversations between pharmacists and customers can help the latter group feel less alone.

The company wanted to test whether providing employees with brief periods of surrounded companionship would impact their well-being.

Volunteers can also sign up if they are not lonely but want to spend more time with isolated people in their network.

“We’re trying to see what the effects would be of having the opportunity to spend some time each week protecting your relationships,” Ms. Magnusson explains.

The project’s name in Swedish, friend care or “vänvård”, is also a pun on the word “friskvård”; This is a benefit already offered by many Swedish businesses, which give their employees a tax-free annual wellness allowance to spend on fitness activities or massages. Some Swedish companies also offer their staff a weekly wellness hour called “friskvårdstimme”.

“It’s a reflection of that, but instead it targets loneliness and relationships,” Ms. Magnusson explains.

Apotek Hjärtat’s project comes at a time when Sweden’s right-wing coalition government is drawing attention to loneliness. In July, the Swedish Public Health Agency published Sweden’s first government-commissioned national strategy aimed at minimizing loneliness.

A key part of the strategy is to increase cooperation between business, municipalities, researchers and civil society. Health Minister Jakob Forssmed stated that loneliness is a major public health problem, citing global studies that link the problem with increased risks of diseases such as coronary heart disease and stroke and an increased likelihood of premature death.

He argues that businesses should be concerned about this, as their employees and customers are at risk and public finances are affected by the health and sick leave costs associated with loneliness.

“We need to have more awareness that this is something that really impacts health. [the] so is the economy,” says Forssmed.

A national epidemic of loneliness? Research for the EU shows that around 14% of the Swedish population reports feeling lonely sometimes or always, slightly above the EU average.

A separate 2024 study for Statistics Sweden, the state’s statistical agency, found that 8% of adults in Sweden do not have a single close friend.

Daniel Ek, a Swedish psychologist and co-author of The Power of Friendship, a handbook on how to develop deeper relationships, argues that in Sweden, cultural factors as well as the country’s cold, dark winters deter people from socializing.

“The Swedish mentality is: You shouldn’t disturb others. We value personal space very much and have a hard time breaking the ice,” he says. Ek suggests that housing in Sweden may also play a role.

More than 40% of homes are occupied by just one person, and a July report from the Swedish Public Health Agency shows higher levels of loneliness among this group.

At Apotek Hjärtat’s headquarters in Stockholm, Ms Magnusson says it is too early to decide whether the companion care project will be rolled out more widely, but the results of self-assessment surveys so far have shown higher levels of life satisfaction among participants in the companion care program than before it started.

The Minister of Health is monitoring the efforts of the Forssmed pharmacy chain.

“I think it’s very interesting and I follow what they’re doing,” he says. “[But] “I’m not going to make any promises to you that the government is going to expand this business or cut taxes or anything like that.”

Apotek Hjärtat is also part of the business network ‘Together against reluctant loneliness’, which Forssmed launched in 2023.

It includes around 20 major Scandinavian brands such as Ikea, Strawberry, a hospitality chain, and HSB, Sweden’s largest cooperative housing federation, who have come together to share their experiences and strategies to combat loneliness.

Ms Magnusson says there has already been “a lot of interest” in the companion care project from other businesses in the network. In fact, representatives of other companies also participated in the pharmacy chain’s online loneliness training.

“It’s a very different approach to working together,” Ms. Magnusson says, “where competition is put aside and instead we ask ‘how can we overcome this common obstacle we face?’ “To collaborate as companies in an area where the question is asked.”

A separate project was launched in Pitea in northern Sweden earlier this month; 20 businesses are offering wellness grants to employees to attend group cultural experiences such as concerts and games to boost well-being and improve social inclusion.

Psychologist Mr Ek agrees that such initiatives can have a positive effect in helping to “lower the threshold” for increased social interaction, which can lead to deeper friendships and reduced levels of loneliness.

But it calls for more research and reflection on some potential structural issues that may also affect loneliness in the Scandinavian country.

“What is going on in society that requires us to have lower thresholds for meeting and connecting? I think that’s an important thing to consider,” he says. Mr. Ek points to Sweden’s high unemployment rate (8.7%), rising income inequality and the fact that young Swedes spend more time on digital devices than average across the 27-member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

“Income differences matter. Accessibility to events and places matters. How we build cities matters,” Mr. Ek says. “So it’s important to look at these structures in terms of planning for the future.”