The Human Desire for Purpose and Value

At the core of every business, beyond the processes, technology, and financial targets, are people. And people, fundamentally, want to do a good job. They want to be valued. They want to be part of something larger than themselves—a team, a business, a product. They want their clients to appreciate what they’ve built. They want to feel that their work has meaning, that it contributes to the world, to themselves, and to others.

People seek purpose. They want to wake up and know that what they are spending their time on matters. They want to be well-paid—not just for financial security, but to support their families, to create a life with balance, to have the freedom to enjoy the fruits of their labor. And the truth is, all of this is possible.

This isn’t a utopian ideal—it’s within our control. It is within the ability of corporate systems to create an environment where employees feel valued, where they are trusted, trained, supported, and rewarded. A workplace where the expectation of excellence is matched by the resources, leadership, and compensation to achieve it.

But change starts with the individual. It starts with whoever is reading this, choosing to be the change. It starts with letting go of the fear-based mentality that permeates so many corporate environments—the fear of mistakes, the fear of inefficiency, the fear of loss. Instead, it requires embracing trust. Trust that people, when given the right tools, mentorship, and expectations, will rise to the occasion.

People can be trusted.

People can be trained.

People can be valued.

People can be rewarded.

And when they are, they will work diligently. They will do great things. They will build businesses, products, and relationships that stand the test of time—not because they are forced to, but because they want to. Because they believe in what they are doing. Because they feel part of something greater.

This is how we transform corporate culture. Not through another policy, another regulation, or another layer of oversight. But through genuine investment in people. Through leadership that sees beyond numbers and understands that the greatest asset of any company is its people, and the greatest power any individual has is to choose to make a difference.

The Two Sides of Corporate Reality

In the corporate world, two distinct realities exist. On one side, there is the structured business environment, where management, clients, and executives dictate demands without fully understanding the intricacies involved. On the other side, there are the employees—developers, product managers, and operations teams—who work tirelessly to meet these demands despite being understaffed, overburdened, and often undervalued.

The Disconnect Between Business and Execution

A common scenario in corporate settings is when upper management or a client issues a request with a predefined deadline and an assumption about its complexity. The directive often sounds simple: “This is an easy fix; it should take 30 minutes.” However, the reality is far different. That “quick fix” frequently requires hours of development, testing, approvals, documentation, and integration checks.

What was initially expected to take less than an hour turns into a multi-hour effort involving several stakeholders—developers, testers, managers, and product owners. This disconnect stems from a lack of understanding of system complexities, integrations, regulatory constraints, and workflow dependencies.

The Understaffing Crisis

One of the biggest challenges in corporate environments is chronic understaffing. Companies run on bare-minimum teams, expecting employees to stretch beyond reasonable workloads. The people who truly want to do an excellent job—the ones passionate about their work—often find themselves working 80 to 100 hours a week just to compensate for the time lost in meetings and bureaucracy.

For many professionals, their workweek consists of 40 to 50 hours of meetings, leaving them only nights, weekends, or holidays to accomplish actual tasks. This imbalance leads to burnout, dissatisfaction, and ultimately, high turnover.

The Corporate Facade: Automation and Broken Infrastructure

Corporations celebrate technological advancements and automation, yet many of these innovations are held together by fragile infrastructure. On the surface, companies boast sleek user interfaces and cutting-edge technology, but behind the scenes, the systems are barely functioning.

Developers and engineers who built these systems often leave due to mistreatment and undervaluation, taking critical knowledge with them. New hires, without proper documentation or mentorship, struggle to maintain and improve these systems. The result? Companies run on outdated, inefficient, and increasingly vulnerable technology.

The Burden of Bureaucracy and Regulation

Excessive regulation is another significant barrier to efficiency. Many corporate processes are designed not for optimization, but as reactive measures to past failures. Regulatory requirements often create redundant steps, unnecessary paperwork, and additional compliance layers that do little to prevent future problems but significantly slow down operations.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and insurance, corporations are drowning in regulatory complexity. Instead of pushing back against excessive oversight, many companies accept it as the cost of doing business—despite its inefficiency and detrimental impact on both employees and customers.

The Path to Change: Rebuilding Corporate Culture

Despite these challenges, transformation is possible. Companies must move toward a model that values employees, fosters innovation, and prioritizes long-term sustainability over short-term cost-cutting.

1. Invest in People and Training

• Provide employees with the necessary training and mentorship to succeed in their roles.

• Move beyond academic credentials and focus on real-world skills and hands-on experience.

• Develop mentorship programs to pass down institutional knowledge and expertise.

2. Adequately Staff Teams

• Ensure teams are staffed at levels that allow for sustainable workloads.

• Recognize that overworked employees are not productive employees.

• Prioritize work-life balance to retain top talent.

3. Challenge Bureaucracy and Regulation

• Advocate for legal and regulatory reform that reduces unnecessary oversight.

• Streamline processes by eliminating redundant steps driven by fear-based policies.

• Empower teams to focus on meaningful work rather than compliance-driven busywork.

4. Respect and Retain Developers and Product Teams (and all employees)

• Treat technology teams with the respect and recognition they deserve.

• Document processes and create knowledge-sharing initiatives to prevent institutional knowledge loss.

• Offer competitive compensation and career growth opportunities to retain top talent.

5. Empower Employees to Drive Change

• Encourage employees at all levels to provide feedback and contribute to process improvements.

• Bridge the gap between frontline workers and leadership to ensure decision-making reflects reality.

• Foster a culture of trust, transparency, and collaboration.

6. Share Financial Success with Employees and Customers

• Adopt a profit-sharing model where a portion of earnings is redistributed to employees and customers.

• Align corporate success with stakeholder prosperity, ensuring that growth benefits everyone involved.

• Build long-term customer loyalty by integrating them into the success of the business.

A Vision for the Future

The corporate world is at a crossroads. It can continue down the path of inefficiency, bureaucracy, and disconnection, or it can embrace a new paradigm—one where employees are empowered, systems are built to last, and businesses operate with integrity and sustainability.

By prioritizing trust, training, and fair compensation, corporations can create workplaces where people want to work, innovation thrives, and long-term success is achievable. The future of business isn’t about squeezing every ounce of productivity out of employees—it’s about creating an ecosystem where people and companies grow together.

Will corporations rise to the challenge? The choice is theirs.

Cheers,

Gage