Whenever we label different types of work as "good" or "bad," decent or non-decent, we adopt a specific lens on what work means, shaped by the discipline-specific and cultural socialisations of those who defined the categories. The stories of three diverse individuals working in South Africa show the value of Duffy et al.'s Psychology of Working Theory (PWT). They highlight the theory's value and conceptual concerns in South Africa. From this, the presentation (a) underlines why we have to think critically about what constitutes decent work, (b) advocate for the importance of considering individuals' stories about their experiences of and with work to generate more diverse views on work, its purpose and what it could be, (c) empirically underline some of the constraints of the PWT and (d) propose future areas of research to develop further thinking around the PWT.