Background: Despite the widely recognised complexity of employee well-being (EW), the extant literature largely continues with a reductionist mapping of discrete variables. As such, our understanding of EW is at risk of becoming meaningless, reducing our capacity to design decent work. Driven by calls within the literature for a more comprehensive understanding, this study asked: How do employees conceptualise employee well-being?

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 corporate employees of a large hospitality organisation as they returned to work during the later stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. Participants were invited to review their transcripts prior to thematic analysis conducted within NVivo. Theme construction was inductive, utilising open, descriptive, and in vivo coding. Peer and member validation was used to improve authenticity and credibility of the findings.

Results: Four key themes emerged. Theme 1 presents employee conceptualisations of EW, which participants described as a state in which someone feels they are living a good life. This good life has both eudaimonic and hedonic influences and was informed by reflecting on the intersection of important dimensions (psychological, physical, social, and financial) and domains (home and work) of EW. Theme 2 explores the role of personality and reasons for working for an employee’s well-being potential. Theme 3 and 4 identified salient factors that inform EW at home and work respectively.

Conclusions: An authentic model of EW demonstrates the important dimensions of EW and the need to consider an employee’s life both at and away from work, where social relationships and work motivations are salient.