Introduction: The rising complexity of modern careers has, in recent decades, fuelled a significant growth in scholarly interest in sustainable careers. Sustainability of careers is particularly relevant for global workers, for whom the transition from working in their home country to working abroad often constitutes a major turning point in their lives.
Purpose: This paper examines the career sustainability of Chinese global workers employed abroad. We use De Vos et al.'s (2020) three key dimensions to analyse sustainable careers: person, context, and time. We also build on the Job Demands-Resources framework to disentangle the challenges and opportunities across both working life and private life that may shape career sustainability.
Method: The study draws on semi-structured interviews with a heterogeneous sample of thirty Chinese global workers currently working abroad.
Results: We examined how the interactions between the key indicators of a sustainable career (i.e., health, happiness, and productivity) change over time. The narratives of global workers highlight distinctions between short-term and long-term career sustainability. Furthermore, recovery from depletion is often perceived as a personal rather than a professional endeavour.
Conclusions: This study addresses a gap in the literature by shedding light on the underexplored area of global workers and career sustainability.