Sweden’s loneliness wake-up call – and a 15-minute fix

These are friends with benefits.

Loneliness has gotten so bad in Sweden that one company there has launched an on-the-job friendship program that pays $100 a year to support “social activities.”

Apotek Hjärtat, the largest pharmaceutical chain in Sweden, has started a “Friend Care” program in which employees get paid to chat with co-workers or make plans with a pal for 15 minutes each day. The initiative began after a government study revealed loneliness is causing a mental health crisis. hjartatcareer/instagram

Workers at Apotek Hjärtat, Sweden’s largest private drugstore chain, are given paid time during the workday to tend to their relationships. The company calls it “friendcare,” the BBC reported.

The chain’s 3,300 employees across 400 stores can step away from the register or the shelves for 15 minutes a day — or one hour per month — to make a phone call, plan a get-together or even just chat with a co-worker.

Apotek Hjärtat CEO Monica Magnusson told the outlet the program grew out of an earlier effort to train pharmacists to recognize loneliness among senior customers, those who stayed a little too long at the counter, just to talk.

Then came a realization: who was looking out for the employees themselves? If loneliness was affecting the people they served, it was almost certainly affecting the people doing the serving.

“So we took it one step further,” Magnusson told the outlet.

Some 8% of Swedish adults don’t have a single close friend, Statistic Sweden found in a 2024 study.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified loneliness as a priority global health issue — that means social disconnection isn’t just emotionally painful, but physically dangerous.

Doctors link it to heart disease, depression and even early death.

So far, results of the friendship campaign at Apotek Hjärtat are encouraging. Employees are reporting a higher degree of happiness — and other Nordic brands, including the global home furnishing retailer IKEA, have expressed interest in adopting similar programs.

“It’s quite a different way of working together,” Magnusson said. “Companies are setting competition aside and asking instead: how do we tackle this common obstacle we all face?”