Combat the ‘Great Gloom’ with Little Workplace Rituals

Workplace connection and morale are eroding, adding to the list of strategic talent challenges organizations now face. In fact, nearly half (48%) of workers around the world feel work is “chaotic and fragmented,” according to recent research from Microsoft. Ultimately, workplace connection can impact engagement and job satisfaction: Among U.S. workers with close friends at work, 86% say they are satisfied with their job, compared to 74% of workers without close friends at work, according to the 2023 SHRM Workplace Romance & Relationships Survey.

There is “a disconnection, a disengagement, and a disillusionment that so many people are feeling right now,” said Alain Hunkins, CEO of Hunkins Leadership Group, during his session at SHRM25. Hunkins emphasized the pandemic’s impact on workers, which started with survival and led to a “great gloom” caused by layoffs, restructuring, and a subsequent increase in risk aversion for some workers. 

While this phenomenon isn’t easily measured, its impact is real. When the workforce loses resilience as a result of external and internal pressures, it’s easy for employees to turn inward, become disillusioned, and wait for an opportunity to leave their organization. Hunkins said the signs of “great gloom” include significant corporate resignations, stale office energy, lower trust, and lower employee engagement. 

“The culture fairy is not coming to save us,” he warned. “It’s up to us to do something, and we can’t policy or perk our way out of the great gloom.” 

Instead, Hunkins advised adopting rituals to build resilience in teams. To do this, HR leaders need a renewed focus on the emotional and relational fabric of work.

The Case for Rituals

“A ritual is something done through intentional action,” Hunkins explained. It is the sum of shared meaning, repetition, and emotion. It can be as simple as gathering a team together to sing “Happy Birthday” each time a team member celebrates a birthday, or building in time during recurring meetings for emotional check-ins. When integrated into daily routines, rituals embed credibility, connection, and consistency into the culture, helping leaders build trust with teams. As a result, teams feel more anchored and supported.

Trust stands out as a key component of company culture because it impacts not only employees’ sense of psychological safety, but also their engagement, which together can fuel the productivity and innovation that pushes the organization forward. Trust can also improve retention, mitigating the costs associated with turnover. In fact, employees who rate their organizational culture as “good” or “excellent” are 90% less likely to think about leaving their employer, according to SHRM’s The Case for Employee Experience report. For HR leaders seeking low-cost ways to address a lack of trust, simple rituals offer an accessible, evidence-based solution.

HR Q&A: What is psychological safety at work?

What Makes a Ritual Work?

To be effective, a ritual should contain three core elements:

• Shared Meaning: The ritual reflects or reinforces something valued by the group.
• Repetition: It happens consistently enough to become familiar and reliable.
• Emotional Resonance: It creates a moment of feeling — whether reflection, celebration, or support.

Unlike one-off initiatives or annual events, rituals gain power from their regularity. Hunkins explained that over time, they help shape cultural norms and expectations.

Trust Starts with Micro-Moments

The beauty of regular rituals is their simpler, more scalable approach. Large-scale trust-building programs can seem daunting, but taking a moment as a team to acknowledge a team member’s birthday is straightforward and easy to plan. By embedding trust-building behaviors into small, repeatable moments, HR leaders can begin to shift the culture from the inside out.

Hunkins said that trust in the workplace often hinges on three dimensions: credibility (reliability and competence), connection (feeling seen and included), and care (knowing others have your best interests in mind). Rituals can support each of these dimensions by providing regular opportunities for transparency, empathy, and shared accountability.

To make this more concrete, Hunkins offered one ritual that HR leaders can encourage teams to adopt: a three-question check-in. At the start of team meetings, leaders can create space for brief personal reflection with these questions:

• How are you feeling today?
• What’s on your mind or what’s distracting you?
• How can we support you?

These questions carve out space for team members to voice their feelings about work, or in some cases, home. The second question in particular “allows you to get out of the sympathetic nervous system down into the parasympathetic nervous system,” explained Hunkins. It helps bring you into a state where you can “rest and digest” information, even if you can’t solve for the problem at hand.

Start Small and Stay Consistent

HR leaders don’t need to launch companywide initiatives to rebuild connection. The most effective cultural shifts often begin at the team level, with a single behavior adopted intentionally and repeated consistently. A one-minute check-in, done weekly, can yield more lasting impact than a quarterly town hall.

“Pick one thing, start ridiculously small, and then commit some time to actually embedding this,” Hunkins said. “Consistency beats intensity all the time, whether it’s habits and rituals at work, or trying to save for retirement.” 

He encouraged HR leaders to avoid prescribing practices from the top down, instead equipping managers with templates and suggestions while encouraging experimentation. Over time, successful rituals can scale organically.

Culture Is What We Repeat

As organizations navigate hybrid complexity and employee well-being challenges, rituals offer a human-centered approach to reconnecting people with each other — and with their purpose. They provide a framework for addressing the emotional needs that traditional management structures often overlook.

For HR professionals, the opportunity is clear: Embed meaningful practices into the rhythm of work and use them to restore trust, rebuild connection, and rehumanize culture. At a time when many employees are showing up physically but drifting emotionally, rituals can serve as a powerful re-entry point to engagement.

Ultimately, culture is not what’s written in policy documents — it’s what people do together, day in and day out. HR professionals shape culture not through big statements, but through small moments they choose to repeat.

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