Poems, Boundaries, and Being Seen at Work - Looks Like Work, Season 1, Ep 6
Burnout is not a badge of honor — but it took Gili Yuvall hitting a wall at 27 to really believe that.
Gili started her career in the always-on world of digital media, chasing deadlines across time zones until her body and mind told her it was unsustainable. What followed was a pivot, not just in job title but in rhythm: from journalism’s relentless sprint to the more deliberate pace of museums and fundraising. She moved to London for a master’s in curation, started over professionally, and eventually became Head of Development at the British Friends of the Art Museums of Israel.
Somewhere along the way, she also became a poet — capturing the absurd, poignant, and quietly revealing moments of working life. Her Hebrew poetry collection, This Time With Attachment, is filled with sharp, wry observations: the passive-aggressive email, the unmuted Zoom slip, the lunchbox that accidentally tells your colleagues everything about you. One short poem about office life went viral overnight, proof that we’re all living in some version of the same workplace sitcom.
In our conversation, we explore:
Burning out young — and the crash that forces a rethink
Leaving journalism for the slower rhythm of museums
Moving to London and navigating two cultures at once
The office dog as a parable for workplace politics
Turning micro-moments into poems that resonate across industries
Balancing a fulfilling 9-to-5 with a thriving creative side gig
The cultural choreography between chutzpah and politeness
Observing office life like a kindergarten class for adults
Why lunch is never just lunch — it’s social theater
Applying fundraising discipline to creative projects
Gili’s guiding question is deceptively simple:
👉 How do you want to be seen?
It’s an invitation to think about recognition beyond promotions and performance reviews — to ask yourself what kind of visibility matters most, and on whose terms.
Her story is a reminder that boundaries, humor, and self-awareness aren’t luxuries in the workplace; they’re the foundations for a sustainable career — whether you’re fundraising for art museums, writing poems in the evenings, or figuring out which version of yourself to bring to the office kitchen.
“My poems are childish truths dressed in high heels.”
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Resources & Mentions:
This Time With Attachment by Gili Yuvall (Hebrew)
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