This month, Nathalie Arteel interviewed Kees Klomp, meaning economist and program creator at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in Zwolle, the Netherlands. What he shares turns the world as we know it upside down.
“Symptoms rest on systems, and systems rest on stories,” begins Kees, quoting American thinker Charles Eisenstein.“It’s human nature to focus most of our attention on symptoms — because that’s what we can see: climate change, loss of biodiversity, polarization, inequality, depression, burnout. But these symptoms arise from a system. And every system is a conditioning of the social agreements we’ve made together. What Eisenstein adds, is that systems themselves are born from underlying stories. The stories we tell shape our worldview — and therefore our self-image. It’s a process of projection and perception: as within, so without.”
According to Kees, our outer world no longer matches our inner world — and that’s why we find ourselves in a deep existential crisis:
“We’ve been conditioned to believe that growth is always good, that economic expansion is the ultimate goal, and that humanity can control and master every risk. Yet, we’re now witnessing that this narrative no longer holds true. This disconnect exposes a profound layer of existential uncertainty. That’s the core of how I look at economics — and at business and HR. Many people in corporate life struggle to confront that uncertainty within themselves. They stay in the safe zone of symptoms, where people are reduced to roles, and reality exists mostly inside a spreadsheet. We’ve materialized human beings — it feels safe, because numbers can be managed.”
The Five Existential Tensions
“My economic theory is that people are driven by five existential tensions, the five V’s,” Kees explains.
- Impermanence (Vergankelijkheid): the awareness that we are born to die.
- Self-Realization (Verwerkelijking): our need for meaning — feeling purposeless creates deep existential pain.
- Safety (Veiligheid): we live in total uncertainty but create illusions of control through false safety.
- Freedom (Vrijheid): we crave self-determination.
- Connection (Verbinding): we cannot live without others — loneliness is the deepest human pain.
“Inclusion, being seen, loved, and valued — these are existential needs,” he says.
The Paradox of Modern HR
Kees sees a striking paradox:
“Organizations try to attract and retain people by pampering them with compensation and benefits, while long-term absenteeism has never been higher.”
What’s going wrong?
“After centuries of capitalism and decades of neoliberalism, HR has become a technocratic discipline. People have become numbers, salaries, roles, resources. HR is trapped in a system that operates purely on the material level.
HR professionals often have no choice but to work within that reality — yet they lack the tools to address the deeper needs of younger generations.”
But there’s hope.
“I see that HR is starting to wake up. Younger generations are rewriting the story. Many students today refuse to apply to companies like Shell, Vopak, Unilever or ABN AMRO — names that used to guarantee a golden career. Today, those jobs are seen as meaningless. Anthropologist David Graeber called them bullshit jobs — roles that destroy people through their lack of purpose. The good news? Students are starting to see through this. The tide is turning. Instead of negotiating for higher pay, young people are asking to work four days a week, because they value other things. It’s a moral shift — and HR needs a new way of thinking and acting to meet it.”
He smiles:
“The HR department of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences was the first to embrace the concept of the meaning economy, because teachers saw that more and more young people no longer seek an income career — but an impact career.”
A New Story for HR
What role can HR play in rewriting that story?
“It starts with the inner motivation of the people shaping HR policy. Because the only way the system can truly change is through the existential narrative layer within people. A better world doesn’t start with yourself — it starts in yourself. If you practice HR with a materialistic worldview, you can’t connect with people on an existential level.”
Kees explains that there are three universal ways humans create value — the 3 W’s:
- Wealth
- Well-being
- Well-becoming
“The business reality of a company revolves around three indicators: revenue, profit, and assets — sometimes a fourth, market value. That’s what drives every boardroom. But a company also has a personal layer — the well-being of its people, because work is a place of growth and human connection. And beyond that, a societal layer — well-being at the community level, because no company exists in isolation.”
“The problem,” Kees continues, “is that in the current dominant story, well-being and well-becoming are seen merely as byproducts of wealth. HR serves the business result. But the goal isn’t to reject wealth — wealth is valuable. The issue is that wealth now comes at the expense of well-being and well-becoming.”
“Truly caring for personal well-being often reduces financial profit — and that’s okay. Impact-driven companies accept smaller profits because they understand that contributing to a better world costs money.
Take Greyston Bakery in New York, founded in 1982 by Zen Buddhist Bernie Glassman. Their slogan says it all: We don’t hire people to bake brownies — we bake brownies to hire people. Every year, their financial report shows how the money they make is used to empower people — funding education, housing, and community projects. That’s what real HR looks like: helping people grow, instead of pushing them to work harder just to increase shareholder value.”
