"Not everyone who smiles is happy. Sometimes a smile is simply the most practiced skill in the workplace."
Not long ago, I read something that made me stop and think.
The Netherlands has once again been ranked among the happiest countries in the world. Fifth place in the World Happiness Report 2025. Outstanding infrastructure. Excellent healthcare. High incomes. Social security. A country millions of people dream of calling home. Then, just a few days later, I came across another study. According to The State of the Working Netherlands, conducted by the HR company Realise and reported by NL Times, one in three employees in the Netherlands considers their work meaningless. Workers between the ages of 30 and 45 are the least satisfied with their professional lives.
I closed the article. And I kept thinking.
How is it possible for one of the happiest countries in the world to have so many people who can no longer find meaning in what they devote most of their lives to?
Perhaps the problem lies in the question itself. We have learned how to measure economies, productivity, and happiness. Yet somehow, we still don't know how to measure a soul. Statistics can tell you how much you earn, but they cannot tell you whether you cry in your car before walking into the office. They can calculate life expectancy, but they cannot measure how much of that life has actually been lived.
I have been living in the Netherlands for several years now. I work here. There is so much I admire about this country: its order, its precision, its safety, its respect for the rule of law. But the longer I live here, the more I notice another side. A country where almost everything works... Except the people.
More and more people are no longer truly living. They are simply functioning. And there is a profound difference. You function when you wake up, go to work, pay your bills, and wait for your next holiday. You live when you know why you are doing it. That made me ask myself what is really missing. I don't think it's salary. I don't think it's permanent contracts or don’t even think it's the workload. I believe what is missing is meaning and respect. Above all, respect.
Because people can endure hard work.
They can stay late. They can carry responsibilities that were never theirs.
What they cannot endure forever is being diminished day after day. You can work long hours. But you cannot spend years working for someone who sees only your position and never the person behind it.
"People rarely burn out because of work itself. More often, they burn out because of the way they are treated."
And this brings me to an uncomfortable subject.
Managers.
Lately, I have begun to wonder whether we have created an entire generation of people with management titles and far too few genuine leaders. Managing a process does not mean you know how to lead people.
Being an Excel expert does not mean you understand human psychology. Leadership does not begin with a job title. It begins with character.
"A true leader doesn't make you afraid of making mistakes. A true leader makes you want to become better." The irony is that companies have never been more advanced.
Artificial intelligence. Automation. Digital transformation. ERP systems. Data. Analytics. Everything is becoming faster. Yet people are becoming more exhausted, quieter, and increasingly disconnected. We invest enormous resources in technologies that save time, yet we invest far too little in the people who are supposed to give that time meaning. When I was younger, I believed that Eastern Europe envied the West. Today, I'm no longer sure. The East still dreams of a higher standard of living. The West increasingly dreams of a deeper sense of purpose. One seeks security. The other is searching for itself. Perhaps this is where they meet. Because whether you live in Bulgaria or in the Netherlands, sooner or later we all arrive at the same question:
Why do I get up every morning?
If the only answer is, "To pay the bills," then something precious has already been lost.
I like the Netherlands. Perhaps that is exactly why I allow myself to be critical. Because I believe a society becomes stronger not by pretending its problems don't exist, but by having the courage to acknowledge them.
Maybe the next great revolution will not be technological.
Maybe it will be human.
A revolution where we choose managers not only for their results, but for the way they make people feel. A revolution where success is measured not only by profit, but by how many people remain whole along the way.
Because a country can rank fifth in happiness. A company can be number one in its market. And still, behind flawless reports and beautiful statistics, there can be people quietly falling apart. Perhaps the most important question of our time is not:
Which is the best country to live in?
Perhaps the real question is:
In which country have people not forgotten what it truly means to be human?
Mel Evens
Life Unfiltered
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