Employee groups that provide support and resources for specific subsets of workers, like women, veterans, or minorities, have become a mainstay of corporate culture over the past several years. Now, a growing number of companies are adding a new type of coterie, men's groups, Bloomberg reports.
At the offices of British broadcaster Channel 4, more than 50 male employees log on to a video call every other Thursday. They spend an hour discussing topics like masculine identity and the difficulties of raising sons in the manosphere, and exchange tips on how to manage stress and toxic masculinity in the workplace.
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"The biggest surprise I had was how desperate men were to talk and learn," Tafadzwa Muchenje, a senior marketing executive at Channel 4 and co-founder of the group, told Bloomberg. "There was so much desire and appetite."
In the men's group at London-based defense company BAE Systems, participants provide a network of support for colleagues who are facing challenges, whether that be a difficult medical diagnosis or more personal problems.
"We don't judge, we don't offer any diagnosis," Glyn, a BAE employee and co-founder of the group, told Bloomberg. "We are there just for people to talk to like-minded people."
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The Decline Of Male Friendships
There has been growing concern over men's social lives, or lack thereof, in recent years. Men, it seems, are having a difficult time developing meaningful connections.
Men between the ages of 18 and 30 spent an average of 6.6 hours of their non-working daytime hours alone each day in 2023, according to a report by the Aspen Economic Strategy Group. Another study, done in 2021 by the Survey Center on American Life, found that 15% of men said they had no close friends. That's up from just 3% in 1990, and compared to just 10% of women.
This lack of support can be linked to an increase in mental health issues for men.
In the men's group at the U.K.-based telecommunications company Virgin Media O2, for example, a handful of men revealed that they had contemplated suicide within the last year. The group was then able to connect them with professional support services.
"The key thing for us is that we're not afraid to show vulnerabilities," Jit Thaker, a senior project manager who helps run the group, told Bloomberg. "And that gives other people that courage to speak up."
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Men's Groups Face Opposition
Of course, these men's groups have their critics. Many detractors feel that there's no need for this type of gender-specific group, as most companies are dominated by men. Men held 61% of all managerial positions and 71% of all C-Suite positions in 2024, according to the Lean In leadership program.
The sentiment is that men "don't necessarily need to commiserate, because they're the ones getting promoted, they're the ones holding all the cards," Chris McCormick, an independent corporate human resources advisor, told Bloomberg.
To help counteract that feeling, many men's groups allow women to join their meetings and intentionally steer clear of anything that could be considered controversial. Instead, they focus on more general topics like men's physical health, fatherhood, and the emotional toll of things like divorce or spousal miscarriage.
Participants told Bloomberg that ultimately, they think these groups benefit the workplace just as much as the individual workers, as they help create healthier staff, decrease long-term absences for mental health reasons, and foster greater engagement between colleagues of all gender identities.
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