<p>This conceptual paper develops an employee-centred framework for understanding meaninglessness at work and its implications for employment relations. Drawing primarily on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the paper conceptualises meaninglessness as a distinct evaluative stance in which employees judge their work as not worth doing because core psychological needs are chronically frustrated. The manuscript argues that chronic frustration of autonomy, competence, relatedness, and beneficence gives rise to four manifestations of meaninglessness: powerlessness, estrangement, social disconnection, and pointlessness. A typology combining appraisal orientation (self- versus other-oriented) and perceived agency is then developed as a dynamic explanatory model showing how employees enter, remain in, and move between meaninglessness profiles over time, and why these profiles predict different patterns of voice, withdrawal, and exit. The paper contributes to research on meaningful work and employment relations by clarifying conceptual boundaries, specifying a temporally sensitive mechanism linking episodic threats to chronic meaninglessness, and identifying actionable levers for job design, leadership, and employee voice.</p>