FOMO vs. JOMO: Helping Employees Find Balance and Well-being
Key Takeaways
- Workplace FOMO is a distinct psychological pattern, different from personal or social-media FOMO, that can lead to higher employee burnout.
- JOMO, the joy of missing out is an intentional relationship with disconnecting.
- Employees are far more likely to set healthy boundaries when their organization visibly supports disconnecting, not just when a policy technically allows it.
- Employee Assistance Programs like Ulliance's give employees a confidential, practical resource for managing the anxiety and stress that FOMO creates, complementing the cultural work HR does around boundaries.
It is nine o'clock on a Tuesday evening, and an employee who left the office hours ago is scrolling through a project thread on their phone. Nothing in the thread requires a response tonight. Nothing in the thread is even directed at them. But they keep reading anyway, because stepping away feels riskier than staying tethered.
That instinct has a name. Fear of missing out, or FOMO, has settled into everyday work life, showing up in employees who check messages long after their shift ends and in the quiet worry that disconnecting means falling behind.
What makes this especially frustrating for HR professionals is that FOMO often persists even in workplaces that are genuinely trying to support their people. Generous PTO, flexible schedules, and wellness benefits do not automatically translate into employees who feel free to use them.
Workplace FOMO is associated with higher burnout and more frequent after-hours message-checking. JOMO, the joy of missing out, has emerged as something of a counterweight, treating disconnection as something worth choosing rather than something to fear.
For HR professionals and company leaders, the useful question is what actually helps an employee move toward something closer to JOMO, and whether that shift depends on individual willpower alone or on something the organization can support directly.
What Are FOMO and JOMO? Understanding the Wellness Trend
Fear of missing out is not new, but it is a relatively recent term for something people have experienced for as long as social groups have existed. Researchers define it as a pervasive worry that other people are having rewarding experiences you are absent from, whether that is a night out or a career opportunity moving forward without you.
What has changed is how constant that worry can now feel, thanks to how easily people can see what they're missing in real time.
On the other hand, JOMO treats missing out as a choice that can bring genuine relief, not a loss to fear. A Washington Post feature described it as the ability to be fully present in whatever you're doing, without glancing sideways to see what else might be happening. The idea has picked up real momentum as a wellness concept in recent years.
Neither term is simply a buzzword. Both describe real, identifiable patterns in how people relate to their time and attention, patterns that show up clearly in the workplace and that HR professionals are increasingly positioned to address.
How FOMO Can Affect Employee Mental Health
Workplace FOMO breaks down into two related but distinct worries:
-
Informational exclusion, the fear of missing an important update, decision, or piece of context that everyone else seems to have.
- Relational exclusion, the fear of missing a chance to build or strengthen a professional relationship, whether that's a hallway conversation, a networking opportunity, or simply being included when it counts.
Employees can experience either one on its own, though many experience both together.
Signs an Employee May Be Experiencing FOMO
The behavior is often easier to spot than the feeling behind it. An employee with high workplace FOMO tends to check messages far more frequently, including well outside of working hours, even when nothing urgent is waiting for them. They may also seem unusually anxious about being left off certain emails or excluded from meetings that don't actually require their attendance.
None of this looks dramatic day to day. It tends to look like someone who simply can't put their phone down, even on a weekend.
The Connection Between FOMO, Stress, and Burnout
The consequences are measurable, not just anecdotal. Research on workplace FOMO has linked it directly to higher rates of burnout and more frequent after-hours message-checking. A separate study out of the University of Nottingham found that FOMO combined with information overload is a meaningful risk factor for employee stress and burnout in digital-heavy workplaces.
How Social Media Can Fuel Workplace FOMO
Workplace FOMO doesn't require heavy personal social media use to take hold, but social media habits can still make it worse.
Employees who are used to constantly checking for updates outside of work often carry that same reflex into their professional communication tools. A notification is a notification, whether it comes from a friend's post or a coworker's message, and the anxious pull to check it can feel identical either way.
Why JOMO May Support Workplace Well-being
If FOMO keeps employees tethered to their phones or computers out of worry, JOMO offers a way to loosen that grip without guilt. The concept isn't about disengaging from work or coworkers altogether. It's about choosing, deliberately, what deserves attention right now and letting the rest wait.
Benefits of JOMO for Mental Health and Work-Life Balance
The underlying idea behind JOMO is straightforward. Choosing to disengage, rather than being pulled away by guilt or worry, changes the experience of that time.
For an employee managing a demanding workload, that shift can look like a lunch break that actually restores them rather than one spent scrolling through everything they might be missing. Likewise, leaving a phone in another room during dinner reflects a deliberate choice about where attention goes right now.
2 Ways HR Can Lead the Charge on Healthier Workplace Boundaries
Individual willpower can only go so far when the surrounding culture doesn't support it. Employees who want to disconnect but work somewhere that quietly expects constant availability will struggle to do so, no matter how much they understand the benefits of JOMO in theory. HR and leadership have real leverage here, primarily by changing what the organization actually rewards and models.
1. Encouraging Employees to Disconnect and Recharge
The gap between having time off and actually using it is wider than most organizations realize. A 2023 Eagle Hill Consulting survey found that more than a third of U.S. workers hadn't taken a vacation in the past year. Self-imposed pressure to stay on top of work was one of the most common reasons, only slightly behind the expense of taking time off.
That detail matters for HR professionals designing solutions. Self-imposed pressure isn't something a bigger PTO allowance alone will fix. What tends to help more is clear, repeated communication that stepping away is genuinely fine, paired with practical support like coverage plans that don't put the burden of staying reachable back on the person who's supposed to be off.
2. Encourage Managers to Model Healthy Workplace Boundaries
Employees take their cues from what leadership actually does, not just what company policy says. According to SHRM research, 75 percent of engaged employees feel encouraged to set healthy boundaries between work and personal life, compared with just 35 percent of disengaged employees.
This effect isn't just anecdotal. Research on workplace FOMO has found that employees who perceive their organization as genuinely supportive of work-home boundaries report less compulsive after-hours message-checking, even when their personal FOMO levels are high.
A manager who visibly disconnects, taking real time off and avoiding late-night messages, gives their team permission to do the same. A manager who does the opposite, however well-intentioned their stated policies are, sends a louder message than any handbook.
Building a Healthier Workplace Culture with EAP Support
Corporate culture change and individual support work best together. A workplace can encourage boundary-setting and still leave employees without anywhere to turn when the anxiety behind FOMO becomes harder to manage on their own.
That's where structured support like the Ulliance Employee Assistance Program fits in, complementing cultural change rather than substituting for it.
Using EAPs to Support Stress Management
The Ulliance Life Advisor Resolution EAP Model® gives employees a confidential, professional resource for the stress that FOMO tends to create. That stress often shows up as low-grade anxiety about falling behind and difficulty disengaging from work during personal time. Left unaddressed, it can build into burnout.
Counseling and coaching can help an employee work through what's actually driving their need to stay constantly connected, rather than just treating the symptom by asking them to check their phone less.
One HR leader who used the Ulliance EAP described exactly this kind of quick, practical access. After calling in, the staff member who answered connected them with another representative the same day, who in turn connected them with a local counselor within a week. That kind of responsiveness matters most in the moment an employee finally decides to ask for help when friction or delay can undo the willingness to reach out at all.
For employers, offering this kind of support sends its own signal. It tells employees that managing stress isn't something they're expected to figure out alone, which reinforces the same cultural message that boundary-setting and disconnecting are genuinely supported, not just tolerated.
Ulliance's broader offerings, including management consultation and training, also give HR teams tools to build that culture proactively, rather than only responding after burnout has already taken hold.
When you partner with Ulliance, our Life Advisor Consultants are always just a phone call away to teach ways to enhance your work/life balance and increase your happiness. The Ulliance Life Advisor Employee Assistance Program can help employees and employers come closer to a state of total well-being.
Investing in the right EAP or Wellness Program to support your employees will help them and help you. Visit https://ulliance.com/ or call 866-648-8326.
The Ulliance Employee Assistance Program can address the
following issues:
• Stress about work or job performance
• Crisis in the workplace
• Conflict resolution at work or in one’s personal life
• Marital or relationship problems
• Child or elder care concerns
• Financial worries
• Mental health problems
• Alcohol/substance abuse
• Grief
• Interpersonal conflicts
• AND MORE!
References:
Burnout Isn't Personal — It's Cultural. Here's How Leaders Can Intervene; SHRM; Aaron Teitelbaum
https://www.shrm.org/enterprise-solutions/insights/burnout-isnt-personal-its-cultural-leaders
The Fear of Missing Out at Work: Examining Costs and Benefits to Employee Health and Motivation; Computers in Human Behavior (Elsevier); Christopher J. Budnick, Arielle P. Rogers, & Larissa K. Barber
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563219303735
'FOMO' at Work May Be a Key Risk Factor for Burnout; HR Dive; Carolyn Crist
https://www.hrdive.com/news/fomo-at-work-plays-key-role-in-worker-mental-health-burnout/724455/
Forget FOMO. Embrace JOMO to Discover the Joy of Missing Out; The Washington Post; Richard Sima
https://www.postguam.com/entertainment/lifestyle/forget-fomo-embrace-jomo-to-discover-the-joy-of-missing-out/article_21a89fe6-ab55-11ee-8d8a-2b145b56cd04.html
Large Portion of U.S. Workforce Not Taking Vacation, New Eagle Hill Consulting Research Finds; Eagle Hill Consulting
https://www.eaglehillconsulting.com/news/us-workers-not-taking-vacation/