Across industries, there is a growing sense of misalignment. Roles that once offered stability and direction now often feel rigid, uncertain, or disconnected from how people think, function, and contribute. As a result, more people are not only questioning what they do, but why they do it.

This shift is often interpreted as disengagement or reduced resilience. In practice, it may reflect something more fundamental. For many people, the difficulty lies not in their ability to work, but in how work is organised around them. The result is not a lack of capability, but a mismatch.

That distinction is important.

This question sits at the heart of research I co-authored on the experience of meaningful work among self-employed individuals, published in the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology (Geldenhuys & Johnson, 2021). What emerged from that research was not simply that meaningful work matters but that, for many people, it is shaped by purpose, fit, and the ability to organise work in ways that reflect who they are and how they function.

What Meaningful Work Actually Means

Meaningful work is closely associated with psychological wellbeing, mental health, engagement, and sustained performance (Allan et al., 2018; Lysova et al., 2019). Despite this, it is often treated as an aspirational concept rather than a practical consideration.

At its core, meaningful work is not simply about enjoyment or general job satisfaction. It reflects the degree of alignment between the person and their work, including how they think, what they value, how they operate, and the nature of the contribution they can make (Bailey et al., 2019; Lysova et al., 2019).

When that alignment is present, work can remain demanding without becoming depleting. When it is absent, even well-structured or stable roles can become difficult to sustain over time (Allan et al., 2018; Steger et al., 2012).

Research in this area has consistently shown that meaningful work emerges through the interaction between the person and their working environment, rather than from the job alone (Bailey et al., 2019). In this sense, meaning is not something inherent in a role but something that is shaped through fit.

How Meaningful Work Is Built

In qualitative research, exploring the experience of meaningful work among self-employed individuals, a clear and consistent pattern emerged across participants. Participants did not describe meaningful work as something waiting to be found. They described purpose as coming first, as something inherent, value-laden, and already present, from which meaningful work could then be built (Geldenhuys & Johnson, 2021).

From this starting point, other elements followed. Stimulation, creativity, and cooperation contributed to the experience of meaningful work, enabled by purpose rather than acting as primary drivers. Fulfilment, in turn, was not treated as something to pursue directly. It emerged as an outcome when work was shaped around what people valued and experienced as purposeful.

Importantly, these individuals were not waiting for meaningful work to be offered within existing structures. They were actively constructing it (Geldenhuys & Johnson, 2021).

Self-Employment as a Different Way of Structuring Work

People are not only moving toward self-employment because they must. Many are moving toward it because it allows them to work in a way that aligns more closely with who they are.

Self-employment is frequently discussed in terms of flexibility or autonomy. However, its significance may lie more in how it allows work to be organised in relation to the person.

Traditional employment structures tend to assume a relatively standardised model of the worker. Expectations around time, pace, communication, and output are often fixed, with limited scope for variation. While this approach provides consistency, it can create difficulty for people whose way of functioning does not align with these assumptions.

Self-employment offers a different way of organising work. It allows people to structure their work in ways that reflect how they function and what they value (Geldenhuys & Johnson, 2021), rather than relying solely on predefined structures.

For some, this may involve working in cycles rather than fixed hours. For others, it may mean reducing unnecessary cognitive or social demands or adjusting workload in response to fluctuating capacity.

Self-employment does not remove constraints but enables  people to work with them in a more sustainable way (Geldenhuys & Johnson, 2021; Geldenhuys, Łaba, & Venter, 2014).

In this sense, self-employment may not just be a career choice. It may be a mechanism through which meaningful work becomes accessible.

How AI Is Expanding Access to Work

The increasing integration of artificial intelligence into work is often framed in terms of efficiency or job displacement. There is, however, a parallel development that is less frequently considered.

AI is changing the conditions under which people can participate in work.

Tasks that previously required sustained cognitive effort, high levels of organisation, or specific technical skills can now be supported. Writing, structuring information, planning, and problem-solving can be augmented in ways that reduce friction and increase consistency. For someone who struggles in rigid environments, this is not just convenient. It can be transformative.

For people who experience fluctuating energy, cognitive load, or processing demands, this has practical implications. It can enable a more stable engagement with work, while allowing greater focus on aspects of work that feel meaningful and manageable.

In combination with more flexible working models, AI is contributing to a broader shift in how work is structured and accessed, in line with wider labour-market changes identified in the Future of Jobs Report 2025 (World Economic Forum, 2025).

Implications for Occupational Health (OH) Practice

If meaningful work is shaped through alignment, and if people differ in how they function, then OH practice needs to look beyond whether someone is working at all. It also needs to consider the quality of that work and how well it fits.

Returning someone to work is not necessarily equivalent to supporting their wellbeing. The nature of the work, and how well it aligns with the individual, are central to whether that work is sustainable.

This places greater emphasis on understanding the individual in context. Their values, strengths, constraints, and preferred ways of working are not peripheral considerations. They are directly relevant to the outcome of any intervention.

It also broadens the range of viable pathways. For some individuals, self-employment or alternative forms of work organisation may not represent increased risk. In certain cases, they may offer a more sustainable route to continued participation in work.

Meaningful work, in this sense, becomes part of clinical and practical decision-making, rather than a secondary or abstract concept. Its relationship with wellbeing and functioning is well established (Geldenhuys & Johnson, 2021; Geldenhuys et al., 2014), and it warrants corresponding attention in practice.

Moving Beyond a Single Model of Work

Work was never meant to be one-size-fits-all. Significant progress has been made in understanding how work affects health, but the next step is to examine how work itself is structured.

If people vary in how they function, and if meaningful work plays a central role in sustaining engagement and wellbeing, then a single model of work will not work for everyone.

This does not require a complete rejection of existing systems. However, it does call for greater flexibility in how work is conceptualised and organised.

The issue is no longer only whether meaningful work matters, but whether people are realistically able to access work that aligns with how they function.

People are increasingly seeking work that reflects who they are, not just what they can do.

For occupational health, this shifts the challenge. It is not only about supporting people in returning to work, but about recognising that meaningful work is not always something people find within existing structures.

As this research suggests, meaningful work is often not simply found but built. And the role of OH may be to help make that possible