When work feels empty
How to remember why it matters
You can have the perfect org chart. Clear roles. Smart people. Solid plans. And still—nothing moves. Or worse: people quietly check out. Not in protest, but in silence. The energy fades. The work gets efficient, but flat. What’s missing: Meaning. Not just the reason you show up in the morning — but the sense that what we do here matters.
Engagement doesn’t start with structure. It starts with purpose.
People don’t engage because the system makes sense. They engage when the story does. When they see themselves in the mission. When they feel: I belong here. What I do adds value. To others, and to myself. You can’t fake that. It doesn’t come from posters or performance reviews. It comes from real conversations. About what matters. What’s no longer working. And what could be different.
Meaning is work. It’s not optional.
David Graeber said it plainly: Bullshit jobs. Jobs that look good on paper but feel empty in practice. He gave a name to what so many people feel: That somewhere along the way, we lost the thread. Even in high-performing organizations. And as long as we avoid that truth, we’ll keep managing the surface and lose the soul.
At Yolk, we believe meaning can be designed.
Not as a hack. Not as a one-off offsite. But through rhythms and rituals that reconnect people to what matters. We help teams and organizations develop what philosopher Jochanan Eynikel calls spiritual capital: The ability to meet each other beyond the metrics. To reconnect to the deeper ‘why’ under the work. Because that’s where real engagement lives. And that’s where collaboration comes alive.
What does it look like?
- Check-ins that go beyond ‘How are you?’
- Stories about moments that actually meant something
- Space for friction, doubt, and unfinished thoughts
- Dialogue that reconnects people to purpose. Together
Purpose isn’t a luxury. It’s fuel.
No direction? No engagement. No connection? No momentum. No story? No organization. We help you reclaim the story. With your people. In your language. So the work makes sense again.