As a career coach with 28 years of experience, I’ve observed an unsettling trend:
Most of the people I meet are in the wrong job, disengaged from their work, or simply enduring their day-to-day roles. This realization has haunted me for years, but a recent encounter brought it into sharper focus.
Over the weekend, a young retail assistant impressed me with her attentiveness and product knowledge. Yet, behind her charm and professionalism was an undeniable void – like a tropical fish in a cold fish-tank, she seemed out of her comfort-zone. The ache of her apparent lack of autonomy, creative freedom, and connection to her work. She wasn’t shaping her day; she was enduring it. Surrounded by endless shelves of paint and tools, her role offered no outlet for self-expression, no opportunity to influence her world meaningfully. Let alone any recognisable, coherent pathway that might one day lead her to a self-actualised life.
Amid my travels into the World of Work, as an experienced executive coach and human capital consultant, this isn’t an isolated example. During my time as a labour market expert, working hard to hone ‘fit’ between workers and their work, such a dilemma has becoming increasingly symptomatic of a growing scourge: jobs stripped of content and meaning.
For younger generations especially, the question looms large:
How can we build purposeful lives in a world where so many roles lack the ingredients for growth, self-expression, meaning, fulfilment and contribution?
At our core, humans are hard-wired to navigate adversity, in so doing, to grow, to contribute, to ascend. To build our legacy for the generations that follow We thrive in environments where every mistake becomes a lesson, every challenge a steppingstone toward eventual success. To know growth and what it is to grow. Work, at its best, has historically been a platform for this growth—a means of becoming more, giving more, contributing good, and leaving the world a better version of itself than when we found it.
But what happens when this platform of ascent erodes? What happens when access to opportunities to attain growth evaporate and are taken away from us? And what happens when AI accelerates this erosion, devouring millions of jobs at a pace we simply do not possess the coping mechanisms to compete with? How will we define success in a work-less world? How will we measure self-actualization when livelihoods are no longer tied to labour?
The rise of AI is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to spell doom. Instead, it challenges us to reimagine the role of work in our lives. What if:
• Self-actualization transcends employment? Purpose could be found in creativity, lifelong learning, and community contribution.
• Work becomes contribution? We might shift from valuing economic output to celebrating personal growth and societal betterment.
• Education focuses on resilience? By teaching critical thinking, adaptability, and emotional intelligence, we prepare individuals for a dynamic future.
The world is changing (and fast), but the human need for purpose remains constant. As we navigate this transition, we must ask ourselves: What kind of society do we want to build? One that leaves us adrift in meaninglessness? Or one that frees us to become our fullest selves?
The challenge - and opportunity - is to create systems where AI doesn’t displace purpose but amplifies it. Systems where we redefine work not as labour but as contribution. Systems that value the unique, creative, and aspirational essence of being human.
What are your thoughts? How can we collectively ensure that the future of work becomes a future of purpose? Let’s start the conversation.
© Duncan Bolam 2025
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