Original Research

From worker to spender to survivor: Work identity disruption and reconstruction after sudden wealth

Esmarié P. van der Merwe, Lusanda Sekaja, Tshegofatso Mabitsela-Siwela

Received: 14 Dec. 2025; Accepted: 05 June 2026; Published: 31 July 2026

Copyright: © 2026. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Abstract

Orientation: We examine how financial windfalls transformed the work identities of South Africans who were featured on the television show I Blew It.

Research purpose: This study focused on how individuals conceived their work identities and performed work before and after receiving money and how they reconstructed their work identities once the money declined.

Motivation for the study: Little research has examined the psychological and occupational meaning of sudden affluence in South Africa. These shifts from worker identities to identities built around spending and social visibility help explain why people disengage from work after receiving windfalls and how some later rebuild their vocational identities.

Research approach/design and method: A qualitative, systematic research approach was followed. Ten episodes of I Blew It were purposively selected and analysed thematically using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase process. Reflexivity and investigator triangulation strengthened the rigour.

Main findings: Five themes captured the identity shifts of sudden wealth beneficaries, moving from the worker self before sudden wealth, through its dissolution and replacement with non-work identities, to later attempts at entrepreneurship and, eventually, a return to work following financial loss.

Practical/managerial implications: The findings show that financial coaching and career counselling could be useful when people receive large sums of money with no prior financial literacy.

Contribution/value-add: The study contributes to our understanding of work identity change during rapid socio-economic transitions. It also shows how media-based accounts can be used to examine narrated patterns linking financial shocks and occupational behaviour.

Keywords: work identity; work identity disruption; identity reconstruction; sudden wealth; hedonic adaptation; South Africa.

Introduction

Sudden wealth is often assumed to be unequivocally beneficial, yet research repeatedly shows it to be a paradoxical social and psychological experience, particularly for individuals who have long lived under economic constraints. While it is generally associated with prosperity and the promise of financial freedom, its consequences can be deeply destabilising, especially for individuals who have long faced economic hardship (Apouey & Clark, 2015; Hedenus, 2014; Mpofu et al., 2023). Sudden wealth often creates a rapid shift in lifestyle that disrupts the emotional equilibrium and behavioural patterns that previously sustained a person’s sense of stability (Sherman et al., 2020). International evidence furthermore shows that a large proportion of windfall recipients become financially unstable or bankrupt within a short period after receiving money (National Endowment for Financial Education, 2018).

In South Africa, work is intrinsically linked to dignity, belonging and self-worth. Disruptions to individuals’ work can extend to their sense of work identity or how they understand themselves through their occupations (Caza et al., 2018; Walsh & Gordon, 2008). The television series I Blew It has drawn national attention to this phenomenon by documenting the lives of ordinary citizens who unexpectedly came into large sums of money and then struggled to maintain financial, psychological and relational stability (Molokoane, 2024; Ngoepe-Ntsoane, 2022). The stories told in the programme demonstrate that the sudden attainment of wealth not only changes one’s financial conditions but also shapes how people see themselves through work and what they contribute to society. As depicted in I Blew It, sudden wealth also destabilises work as a primary source of identity and structure.

This study is motivated by a concern that is often overlooked in discussions of sudden wealth: What happens to work as a source of identity once its necessity is abruptly removed? Specifically, we investigated how financial windfalls reshape perceptions of work, purpose, self-definition and future direction in a society marked by structural inequality and limited financial literacy. We see this process as work identity disruption, that is, the temporary suspension of work as a meaningful basis for self-definition following sudden wealth. Existing international research demonstrates that rapid financial acquisition can lead to short-lived happiness followed by a decline in motivation and stability (Brickman et al., 1978; Hedenus, 2011; Raschke, 2019). However, to the authors’ knowledge, such knowledge cannot be found in the South African context, where collectivist cultural values and socio-economic constraints shape the meanings of both work and wealth (Czarnecka et al., 2020; Mpofu et al., 2023). Drawing on selected episodes of I Blew It as qualitative data and the individuals interviewed on the show as ‘participants’, we analysed the changes in each episode’s featured individual’s work identity through their descriptions of their lives before, during and after acquiring sudden wealth. This allowed us to trace patterns in how these transitions are represented.

Although sudden affluence is highly visible in South African public discourse, particularly through popular media, its occupational consequences remain under-theorised. Work identity is central to this understanding. Work identity appears most vulnerable not when work is lost, but when work becomes optional. Sudden wealth removes the immediate need for employment, which can erode the structures and social connections that reinforce identity (Daskalaki & Simosi, 2018; Stoeffler & Joseph, 2020). Justifying the need for this study, previous research highlights that individuals from developing economies who acquire sudden wealth often face long-term financial insecurity (Mpofu et al., 2023; Shayo, 2020) and psychological strain linked to social expectations and self-worth (Hokemeyer, 2019; Khalid et al., 2021). Examining these experiences through the lens of work identities is fundamental in understanding disengagement from work by some and the reconstruction of a new sense of occupational purpose by others after wealth has been gained and lost.

Despite extensive research on the behavioural and emotional consequences of wealth acquisition, most of those studies have been conducted in Western or Asian contexts (Chai, 2021; Hedenus, 2011; Murray, 2016; Raschke, 2019), with little research into the topic in Africa. Furthermore, existing work fails to explain how individuals make sense of work once its necessity is abruptly removed (Mnisi, 2015; Ngoepe-Ntsoane, 2022).

The existing literature tends to focus on financial mismanagement or emotional outcomes such as stress and anxiety (Falk & Graeber, 2020; Ohrnberger et al., 2020), rather than on how individuals reconstruct the meaning of work itself. What is striking about work’s relationship to windfall is the speed with which work ceases to function as a meaningful anchor of self-conception.

Understanding how individuals make sense of work once its necessity is removed has implications for research on retirement, financial independence, inheritance and post-unemployment identity. This study addresses this gap by exploring I Blew It narratives through a psychological and occupational lens. Thus, in the context of a changing work identity within rapid economic change, the following questions guided this study:

• How did participants construct work identity before and during sudden wealth?
• How did sudden wealth reshape work identity through disengagement, alternative identities and entrepreneurial efforts?
• How did financial decline influence the reconstruction of work identity?

Conceptualising work identity

Work identity forms an essential component of an individual’s self-concept. It represents the way in which people define themselves through their occupational roles, relationships and sense of contribution to society (Ashforth, 2000; Walsh & Gordon, 2008). This identity evolves in response to personal experiences and contextual changes (Miscenko & Day, 2016). Work identity therefore encompasses both cognitive and emotional dimensions. It reflects the way people understand who they are in relation to their work and how they feel about that relationship. In this sense, work serves as a means of income and as a primary source of meaning, belonging and self-worth (Caza et al., 2018; Ibarra, 2023).

When individuals receive an unexpected financial windfall, the necessity of employment may appear to diminish. The result is a psychological and behavioural shift in how people view their professional role and their broader purpose in life (Hokemeyer, 2019; Jelschen & Schmidt, 2023; Woike et al., 2020). For the individuals featured on I Blew It, work identity appeared to erode rapidly once economic survival was no longer an immediate concern. This shows that work identity is intertwined with perceptions of necessity and value, all of which change significantly when financial conditions are altered. While work identity research has largely focused on identity maintenance during employment or career transition, far less attention has been given to how work identity unravels when work becomes economically unnecessary. Unlike identity threat, which arises from negative evaluation, that follows role exit, work identity disruption refers to the suspension of work’s perceived necessity and leads to voluntary disengagement rather than imposed exclusion.

Work identity disruption and change

Research shows that work identity can be destabilised by major life transitions such as job loss, retirement or sudden affluence (Furaker & Hedenus, 2009; Pratt et al., 2006). These turning points challenge established routines and self-definitions (Ashforth, 2000; Walsh & Gordon, 2008). When the need to earn a living is abruptly removed, individuals may initially experience relief, followed by uncertainty and disorientation as their occupational role loses relevance (Bland & Chambers, 2020; Bothma et al., 2015). The transition can provoke identity ambiguity, characterised by difficulty in answering the question ‘Who am I without my work?’ (Caza et al., 2018; Miscenko & Day, 2016). These patterns suggest a cycle of work identity suspension and later re-engagement, rather than a permanent exit from occupational identity.

The individuals featured on I Blew It often described leaving their jobs shortly after acquiring wealth (Molokoane, 2024; Mpofu et al., 2023). The departure from employment was not only an economic decision but also a symbolic one, as it signalled a perceived shift in status and freedom (Hedenus, 2014; Shayo, 2020).

However, when their wealth diminished, many struggled to reintegrate into the workforce or rediscover a sense of vocational purpose (Ibañez & Lopez, 2018; Van Wyk, 2012). This cyclical process of disengagement and attempted re-engagement demonstrates how sudden wealth can both disrupt and later necessitate the reconstruction of work identity (Mpofu et al., 2023; Stoeffler & Joseph, 2020).

Theoretical perspectives on work identity change

Social identity theory

Social identity theory (Tajfel et al., 1971) explains that individuals derive part of their self-concept from membership of social groups. In the context of sudden wealth, the social standing of recipients often changes dramatically (Harwood, 2020; Trepte & Loy, 2017). Before acquiring wealth, many identified with working-class or economically marginalised groups (Bartels & Reinders, 2016; Czarnecka et al., 2020). After receiving wealth, they often occupied new social positions in which different norms, expectations and comparisons applied (Barrera & Ponce, 2021; Shayo, 2020).

Episodes of I Blew It reveal how recipients’ self-perceptions shifted as they became perceived community providers or success stories (Molokoane, 2024; Mpofu et al., 2023). This elevation in social identity often generated pride and validation, yet it also introduced social pressure to maintain that status through visible consumption (Brown, 2020; Woike et al., 2020). When wealth was depleted, individuals frequently reported feelings of shame and alienation as they lost both the financial means and the social affirmation that accompanied it (Falk & Graeber, 2020; Livingstone & McCafferty, 2015; Lucier, 2021). In this way, the loss of wealth produced a parallel decline in both social and work identity (Ibañez & Lopez, 2018; McArdle et al., 2007). This study extends social identity theory by showing that sudden wealth allows individuals to gain social elevation without belonging to a group. This leaves both social and work identities fragile.

Hedonic adaptation theory

Hedonic adaptation theory (Brickman et al., 1978) suggests that individuals’ levels of happiness and well-being tend to return to a baseline following major positive or negative life events. After acquiring sudden wealth, recipients initially experience heightened satisfaction and a sense of freedom (Romagnoli, 2020). Over time, however, this exhilaration fades as they adapt to their new circumstances (Klausen et al., 2022). They begin to pursue new forms of excitement or affirmation to maintain the same sense of pleasure. From an identity perspective, hedonic adaptation helps to explain why the initial emotional benefits of wealth fade, as the lack of meaningful work becomes more apparent.

With respect to work identity, hedonic adaptation explains why financial gain seldom results in lasting fulfilment. The absence of meaningful occupational engagement can lower self-esteem and destabilise a person’s sense of direction (Luhmann & Intelisano, 2018; Mpofu et al., 2023). As illustrated in I Blew It, the recipients’ initial joy often gave way to restlessness, loss of purpose and a longing for the structure that work once provided. The process reflects both a financial decline and a psychological return to a baseline of identity seeking, where individuals must reconstruct who they are and how they contribute beyond material status.

Sudden wealth and work identity in the South African context

South Africa presents a distinctive environment for exploring work identity transformation after sudden wealth. Local financial reports indicate that many South African windfall recipients, including lottery winners, rapidly deplete their funds owing to social pressure and limited financial literacy (Old Mutual, 2021). Extreme inequality and high unemployment create a socio-economic backdrop where work is both scarce and symbolically important (Francis et al., 2020; World Bank Group, 2024). For many South Africans, employment represents dignity, belonging and contribution to family and community life (Botha, 2015; Lee & Hanna, 2015). When sudden wealth interrupts this relationship, it alters financial conditions and how individuals perceive their value within collective structures (McKeever, 2024; Mpofu et al., 2023).

The narratives in I Blew It demonstrate how sudden affluence interacts with collectivist norms (see Czarnecka et al., 2020; Ngoepe-Ntsoane, 2022). Recipients often felt obligated to support extended family networks, which reinforced their social identity as providers but weakened their personal work identity (Bartels & Reinders, 2016; Małecka et al., 2022). This dual tension between individual aspiration and group responsibility highlights the cultural specificity of work identity change in South Africa (Dawson, 2023; Dube-Addae, 2019).

Furthermore, limited access to financial education and employment opportunities made the re-establishment of work identity after wealth loss particularly challenging (Nhemachena & Murimbika, 2018; Sibanda et al., 2025).

By integrating social identity theory (Tajfel et al., 1971) and hedonic adaptation theory (Brickman et al., 1978), we are able to make sense of how financial windfall affects individuals’ work identity. Social identity theory helps to explain how work-related meaning is affected by belonging after a sudden windfall (Harwood, 2020; Scheepers & Ellemers, 2019), and hedonic adaptation theory examines the emotional changes that come with the windfall, from exhilaration to adjustment to renewed purpose (Jelschen & Schmidt, 2023; Klausen et al., 2022; Luhmann & Intelisano, 2018). The two frameworks together explain how work identity changes over time through social validation and emotional adaptation (Caza et al., 2018; Ibarra, 2023). From a theoretical point of view, this study extends the understanding of how work identity changes in the context of socio-economic fluctuations. From a practical perspective, the study has bearing on career counselling and psychosocial support to help individuals rebuild their work identities after changes in financial circumstances and ensure they do not slip back to a life of poverty (Lusardi, 2019; Makina, 2017). While shaped by South Africa’s inequality and collectivist norms, these dynamics resonate with other contexts where sudden wealth intersects with strong social obligation.

Reflexivity and positionality

Given the study’s focus on identity, reflexive engagement was central to how meanings were interpreted and themes constructed.

First author

As a South African researcher, my understanding of sudden wealth and work identity is shaped by my own exposure to economic inequality and the social pressures that accompany financial change. Throughout the study, I remained aware of the risk of making value judgements about participants whose lives were publicly displayed, and I worked to approach their narratives with sensitivity and respect. I continually reflected on my own assumptions about work and responsibility to prevent them from shaping the interpretation of the data. By engaging in ongoing reflexivity, I aimed to ensure that the findings remained grounded and true to the lived experiences represented in the episodes.

Second author

I am a well-educated black academic woman who grew up in the township in the first few years of my life. This identity makes me both an insider and an outsider to the experiences of the participants. While I understand the lived experiences of growing up in a township and the challenges this often brings for people, I have never had to navigate life after receiving a windfall. It was easy to make assumptions about what I would do to generate an income had I suddenly received a large sum of money, but this came from a worldview of having experienced a different world geographically, educationally and socioeconomically. It was therefore important for me to set aside my own assumptions and biases to be able to stay true to the voices and experiences of the participants.

Third author

I am a black South African woman. Although I do not have personal or direct experience of sudden wealth, I am aware that financial windfall is a common occurrence in South Africa through the Road Accident Fund (RAF), funeral and life cover, retirement payouts and other means. I recognise that my race, nationality, gender, pre-study beliefs and values could have a bearing on the research process in its entirety. Engaging in reflexive practice helped me to develop a deep understanding of the study’s unique context, including the participants’ backgrounds and unique circumstances and challenges they faced, thereby curtailing potential personal biases that may have arisen in guiding the research, particularly in the interpretation of the research findings.

Research design

Research approach

We adopted a qualitative research approach in this study to gain a deeper understanding of how sudden wealth influenced the work identity of participants featured on I Blew It. An exploratory deductive qualitative approach was most appropriate because it allowed the interpretation of meanings, emotions and social dynamics that shaped the participants’ experiences after their financial windfalls (Busetto et al., 2020; Shepherd & Williams, 2018). The research followed a constructivist paradigm, which assumes that knowledge is socially constructed through human interaction and cultural context (Chandra & Shang, 2017; Ugwu et al., 2021). Within this paradigm, the study explored how individual narratives and media portrayals reflected the evolving work identities of sudden wealth recipients.

Research participants and sampling methods

Each episode of I Blew It follows a single case of sudden wealth. In addition to interviews with the recipient of wealth, accounts from their friends, family and other community members are also featured. We use the term ‘participants’ to refer to both the recipients and their friends or family and community, as all contributed valuable data towards answering the research questions.

The selection of episodes was based on several factors. Firstly, the featured individuals needed to have had a source of income before they acquired sudden wealth. Secondly, we sought variation in the sources of sudden wealth. The participants’ windfalls came from the RAF, sports, acting and music contracts and inheritance.

The main source across seasons was the RAF. Lastly, the episode needed to reflect shifts in work and self-understanding across time. Episodes were transcribed by the first author as part of her master’s research. She combined narrations by the participants and relevant contextual cues from the visual narrative to preserve meaning. Identity disruption was inferred through recurring patterns in how the participants described themselves (or referred to the recipient), their roles and their relationship to work across different narrative moments and not as a stable or directly observable construct.

Consistent with recent methodological work on participant experiences (Sekaja & Kgosiemang, 2026), we recognise that participation in televised narratives is shaped by relational dynamics not visible in the final broadcast. Individuals who appear on I Blew It volunteer for public storytelling, which may carry its own forms of social pressure by way of obligation to producers or family expectations. While we cannot access these behind-the-scenes dynamics directly, we acknowledge that while the situations we analysed were true and verified by the show’s producers, there is a layer of production for entertainment purposes.

We drew the episodes from multiple seasons to increase the experiences of the participants as far as possible while also attempting to reduce participant identifiability, despite the episodes being available to the public. Doing this allowed the study to capture a broader range of work identity shifts while maintaining ethical sensitivity in the use of secondary data.

The featured individuals were at least 18 years old when they received their wealth and held a job before or pursued income-generating activities after acquiring it. A total of 10 episodes were selected from the series across multiple seasons. Table 1 presents a summary of the recipients’ characteristics, including demographic details, sources of wealth and work trajectories across time.

Data source

This study treats identity as a narrative and socially constructed process that is expressed through stories people tell about themselves. Narrative identity theory argues that individuals construct a sense of self through life stories that integrate past and present experiences with future aspirations (McAdams, 2018). Therefore, televised narratives such as those presented in I Blew It are another avenue to perform and negotiate identity.

Although these narratives underwent editing and production processes, this mediation does not invalidate them as data points. Rather, it makes it visible, through illustrations and storytelling, how identities are co-constructed in social contexts. This includes media representations. Media texts have been widely used in qualitative research to examine how roles and identities are constructed, particularly where they reflect recurring cultural patterns. In this study, the focus was therefore less on unfiltered accounts of the recipients’ internal identities, but on analysing how work identity was narratively constructed in these mediated accounts.

This approach is in alignment with an interpretive, constructivist paradigm, which supports the use of televised narratives as valid material for examining identity as a socially situated and discursively produced phenomenon.

Data analysis

We chose to analyse data using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2021) over content analysis, as presenting the data through themes allowed for the evolution of the participants’ work identity stories to emerge. Reflexive thematic analysis was particularly suited to this study as it allowed for the examination of work identity change as a dynamic, interpretive process, rather than a fixed category. The process involved familiarisation with the data, coding, identifying themes and refining thematic relationships.

Initial codes were generated from interview transcripts and visual narratives. During coding, we constantly turned to the research questions to ensure that the findings would ultimately be aligned to them. We then developed themes to capture work identity disruption before, during and after financial decline. Having all the research members involved in the analysis, each with our potential biases and own life stories, which shaped our understanding of the participants’ experiences, called for us to interrogate our assumptions to reduce bias (see Linneberg & Korsgaard, 2019; McGowan & Sekaja, 2022).

Strategies employed to ensure quality data and integrity

We deliberately planned how we would maintain rigour when using publicly available data. Rigour in this study was treated as an interpretive practice rather than a checklist of techniques. Trustworthiness was ensured through credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). We maintained credibility by grounding interpretations in both literature and direct quotations from participants. This helped to preserve their authentic voices. We enhanced dependability by maintaining detailed methodological documentation and engaging in regular consultations among ourselves. Having three researchers involved in the process acted as a form of investigator triangulation. Reflexive engagement and ongoing dialogue among the researchers helped achieve confirmability. This also ensured that the interpretations of experiences remained grounded in the data while also acknowledging the researchers’ roles in the construction of knowledge. Lastly, transferability was supported by rich descriptions of participants’ experiences, context and process, which would allow future researchers to assess the applicability of the findings to other research settings.

Ethical considerations

This study received ethical clearance from the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management’s Research Ethics Committee, under clearance code IPPM-2025-942(M). Although the data were obtained from publicly available episodes of I Blew It, formal clearance was obtained to ensure responsible secondary data use and to confirm that the study met institutional ethical requirements. It was important for us to still protect the participants and treat them and their stories with care. As there was no direct contact with participants, informed consent was not required. However, participants’ confidentiality was maintained by omitting episode identifiers and using coded references when quoting individual narratives (Ngoepe-Ntsoane, 2022). It was important for us to do this because even though the participants applied and agreed to be featured on a publicly available platform, professional psychology practice calls on us to still respect the privacy of participants. This study demonstrates how narratives that are available publicly may be ethically mined and used to explore psychological processes without direct participant contact.

We conducted all interpretations with sensitivity to participants’ dignity, cultural context and lived experience (Griesel, 2020; Wasserman, 2020). We have taken care to avoid moral judgement or stigmatising language when discussing participants’ financial or occupational outcomes. The research focused on systemic issues that influence work identity change, rather than on individual shortcomings (Workman et al., 2017).

Results

Analysis of the participants’ accounts yielded five interrelated themes that specifically address changes in work identity, specifically: (1) worker self before sudden wealth, (2) dissolution of the worker self, (3) shifts into non-work-based identities, (4) attempts at forging an entrepreneurial identity and (5) re-emergence of work identity through financial loss. These themes capture the ways in which sudden wealth disrupted, reshaped and in some cases reconstructed participants’ relationships with work across time.

Theme 1: Worker self before sudden wealth

This theme captures how participants defined themselves through work prior to receiving their financial windfalls. Their retrospective accounts revealed that they not only held jobs as an economic necessity, but a few derived meaning and a sense of self from their work roles. For those participants, their work had structure and purpose, and they could imagine a future in that work. Establishing this pre-wealth work identity was important for understanding how sudden wealth later disrupted it.

The participants’ accounts pointed to occupational aspiration, family responsibility, work routine and future orientation. For example, Tebogo had a pre-existing music career that he wanted to continue to build:

‘I had plans with my music. I wanted to build something, to support my family through it. That was who I was.’ (P1, Tebogo, male)

For Vinesh, work before sudden wealth provided a sense of purpose that he linked to meeting family needs:

‘I was the one everyone relied on. My job meant my children could eat, my mother could get her medicine. That gave me a reason to wake up.’ (P5, Vinesh, male)

Andile saw himself in aspirational terms. He viewed work as a pathway to leadership and recognition:

‘I always wanted to be somebody. I worked hard because I knew I was meant to run things, not just follow.’ (P7, Andile, male)

One of Andile’s family members contrasted his pre-wealth discipline with his later disengagement. They put it plainly:

‘Before the money, he woke up early every day, but after that, he just stayed home and chilled. He didn’t talk about work again.’ (Relative of Andile)

Before the windfall, Lebogang had built a small business from the ground up. He regarded the business as an extension of himself and saw himself as an independent, capable businessman:

‘I started with nothing. That business was me. Every brick, every customer – that was my name.’ (P10, Lebogang, male)

This theme establishes that before windfall, work was both an economic activity for participants and a source of routine and aspiration. Without this baseline understanding of work as identity anchoring, the disruption that followed sudden wealth would lack meaningful contrast.

Theme 2: Dissolution of the worker self

This theme refers to the way participants described a rapid weakening of their attachment to employment after receiving sudden wealth. Based on their narratives, dissolution of the worker self reflects a shift from identifying as workers with routine and occupational commitment to viewing work as unnecessary once financial pressure was removed, which indicates that their work identity depended more on financial need than personal meaning. The participants described how work no longer felt like a central part of who they were, and how their sense of responsibility towards jobs and career goals faded as soon as they no longer needed regular income. Gradually, the featured individuals began to withdraw from the routines they had been accustomed to. Feelings of relief, detachment or indifference towards employment took over, which pointed to a gradual pulling away from their identity as workers.

Across the episodes, once the participants had received money, staying motivated and engaged in labour was difficult for them. Their newly gained independence took away any need for practical and psychological necessity for employment, which became a burden that restricted the enjoyment of newly acquired freedom.

This changed how they saw work: from something necessary to something limiting. The recipients and their relatives captured these feelings of relief and detachment from work. Reflecting on how quickly his relationship with work changed once the money arrived, Kabelo described feeling mentally exhausted and ready to prioritise rest over routine:

‘I just told myself, I am not waking up for anyone anymore. I wanted to rest and enjoy what I never had before.’ (P2, Kabelo, male)

Tebogo also recalled that seeing the payout reflect in his account created an immediate sense of liberation from employment. It prompted a decisive break from the demands of daily labour:

‘I resigned the moment the money cleared. I felt like work was for people who needed to hustle, not me anymore.’ (P1, Tebogo, male)

A family member of Andile explained the stark contrast in his behaviour before and after receiving the windfall. The family member noted how quickly his structured habits disappeared once he no longer needed to work:

‘Before the money, he woke up early every day, but after that, he just stayed home and chilled. He didn’t talk about work again.’ (Relative of Andile)

Similarly, Lebogang described the shift from a demanding routine to complete freedom. He emphasised how the absence of pressure made returning to work feel unnecessary:

‘There was no alarm, no boss, nothing. I was free, and I did not want to go back.’ (P10, Lebogang, male)

In these accounts, the dissolution of the worker self suggests that work identity may be vulnerable to both job loss and the removal of economic necessity. When work was no longer required for survival, its function as an identity-making process was lost and left participants without a clear sense of occupational purpose.

Theme 3: Shift into non-work-based identities

This theme refers to how the participants spent their time following the dissolution of their work identities. Based on their narratives, this shift reflects how individuals no longer saw themselves through occupational roles but instead formed new identities anchored in spending and social recognition. This indicated a move away from work-based identity towards lifestyle-based identity. The participants described adopting roles that emphasised lifestyle and generosity, which temporarily replaced the sense of purpose and discipline previously associated with work.

Once the participants had shed their identities as workers, they drifted towards their other identities that were unrelated to labour. At this stage, the participants had not grounded themselves in any other occupation and opted to construct their identities around enjoyment, leisure, unstructured freedom, material spending and gaining social status, all of which suggested that they lacked a stable alternative identity to replace work.

These patterns of identity expression align with broader findings that sudden access to wealth often prompts individuals to adopt such as consumption practices associated with globalised status norms. For the participants, this was a way to pay themselves back for years of economic and social struggles. They would become spenders for themselves, family, friends and other people that had gravitated towards them because of their newfound riches. This might point to spending as serving both personal reward and social expectations. Common across the participants was the fleeting nature of these identities and how they left little time for productive activities, from a familial and economic point of view. Therefore, these identities were short lived. By eliminating employment, purpose and personal discipline became absent, and this had a detrimental impact on the recipients’ psychological well-being. This suggested that before sudden wealth, work may have given structure to their lives.

As the participants explained, these new identities were shaped by internal goals and how others began to treat them. A recurring pattern across episodes was that the featured individuals described feeling valued because they could provide, entertain or maintain a certain lifestyle, which gradually became central to how they understood themselves during that period. This indicates that their identity depended on how others responded to them. Their day-to-day lives revolved around social activities, constant availability to others and the pressure to maintain an image associated with wealth. This identity shift was therefore grounded in visibility and relational expectations rather than work or long-term goals. This may point to identity being about being seen rather than what one produces.

The participants’ reflections captured how quickly these identities took hold:

‘People started coming to me for everything, and I just went with it. I liked being the person who could make things happen.’ (P3, Vusi, male)

‘I was living, going out, buying what I wanted. That became my life. I was not thinking about work or anything serious anymore.’ (P6, Lumka, male)

‘He enjoyed being seen. The clothes, the cars, the attention. It changed how he carried himself.’ (Relative of Monde)

‘Once the money came, I became the guy everyone called. I felt important, even when I was doing too much.’ (P9, Maanda, male)

These accounts demonstrate how sudden wealth encouraged a shift into identities centred on pleasure and social validation. Although these identities felt liberating, they lacked stability and direction, and the participants described how difficult it became to sustain them once the featured individuals’ resources later began to decline.

In these narratives, work temporarily ceased to function as a primary source of meaning, with little evidence that anything enduring replaced it as a source of purpose. Instead, the recipients of sudden wealth relied on social recognition to feel valued, but this did not last once their funds were depleted.

Theme 4: Attempts at forging an entrepreneurial identity

While some participants prioritised leisure, others tried to find ways to continue to make money. When they were still in possession of substantial wealth, recipients attempted to start or develop an existing enterprise and generate income independently as business owners. By doing so, they signalled upward mobility, shed their pre-sudden-wealth identities and showed that business activity may have been a way to present themselves as successful to others. Their newfound wealth afforded them opportunities to experiment with enterprising, which was something they could not attempt previously with limited resources. Having money, therefore, can be seen as presenting individuals with new identity possibilities. While the windfall inspired some participants to start a business, others in the dataset had been wanting to do so for some time; therefore, the windfall became an enabler of this dream. They invested in a rental room to generate passive income. In addition, participants invested in others’ businesses as a way to support and uplift their community. For example, Karabo described how he used their payout to build rental rooms and support a local business. They believed that this would generate long-term financial security. Similarly, Vinesh used some of his funds to pay for a family member’s education and invest in small-scale ventures. For this participant, these actions were about laying a foundation for sustained income.

Although starting a business was a long-standing aspiration for many of the featured individuals, they lacked the financial and business know-how to sustain the businesses beyond the short term. All of their enterprises came to an end, which diminished their entrepreneurial identities. This made their business identity difficult to sustain over time. A close examination of Andile’s journey reveals that for him, his ventures had less to do with sustaining his wealth and more with maintaining his newfound economic status because he wanted to be seen as a ‘boss’. He attempted to do this by opening multiple businesses, including a tavern, taxi service and spaza shop. He valued being seen as a successful figure of authority and subject of community admiration more than actually being successful. This indicates that others’ perceptions mattered more to him than business outcomes. Maanda also demonstrated this pattern by attempting to run a small shop, yet the lack of proper operational systems and the pressure to give financially to others caused the business to collapse. Therefore, at least in part, social pressure influenced whether their businesses would become successful. Andile and Maanda’s reflections showed that the entrepreneurial identity was aspirational but not supported by the structures needed for long-term sustainability.

Lebogang came into money already having been a small-scale entrepreneur. Therefore, the expansion of his business after his windfall was an alignment of his entrepreneurial intentions, rather than an emergence of a new identity. However, soon, nightlife and image-driven spending took over. This reduced the time he spent on business operations. By his own admission, he was ‘too busy partying to run it properly’. Therefore, whereas he was previously disciplined with his business and showed signs of making it an even greater success, sudden wealth undermined the entrepreneurial potential he had shown before. This shift was also observed by Lebogang’s family members, who found that he spent increasingly less time at his business site and more time socialising, which eroded the stability he had built before receiving the payout.

At times, the lines between business and lifestyle were blurred in ways that undermined the participants’ attempts to establish entrepreneurial identities. Maanda described how he and others would consume the stock that was purchased for the shop during social gatherings, explaining:

‘Sometimes we would drink from the stock, and then I would try to sell what was left.’ (P9, Maanda, male)

Andile also blurred these boundaries. A relative noted:

‘If they were chilling and wanted meat, he would take it from the business because he said it was all his anyway.’ (Relative of Andile)

In addition, Maanda struggled to enforce repayment of goods taken on credit. He stated:

‘People would just say they will pay me later, and they never did.’ (P9, Maanda, male)

In the case of these participants, entrepreneurial identity represented an attempt to retain a work-related self-concept without returning to formal employment. However, those ventures were often driven by image and social pressure rather than operational discipline, and so they failed to provide the stable identity anchor that the participants sought. This showed that not all work-related identities are equally durable.

Theme 5: Re-emergence of work identity through financial loss

The final theme refers to how the featured individuals’ sense of themselves as workers resurfaced after their wealth diminished. The re-emergence of work identity reflects the return to small jobs, informal trading or entrepreneurship as the participants regained appreciation for structure and stability, with work once again taking on a central role in how the participants organised their daily lives and understood themselves. Their financial loss ignited a need for them to reflect and re-establish routines through income-generating activities, where necessity became the primary condition under which engagement with work resumed. Several participants explained that working again helped them to regain dignity and confidence, and for some, the return to work represented a turning point that allowed them to correct past mistakes. The participants also described regaining a sense of control over their lives, expressing that returning to work created direction and brought meaning back into their daily experience.

The featured individuals’ accounts reflected that once their sudden wealth declined, they were compelled to re-establish a connection with work. While the return to work varied in form, several participants resumed income-generating activities after their finances were depleted. For example, Tebogo returned to small creative and informal earning projects, Maanda went back to working on creative tasks to support himself, Vinesh re-engaged with steady responsibilities to provide for family needs, and Lebogang restarted a smaller but more disciplined business venture. The participants consistently described this period as a turning point marked by renewed motivation. They viewed work no longer as an obligation to survive but as a meaningful source of identity and stability. This marked a shift from externally driven participation in work to a more internalised sense of its value. Entrepreneurial identity tended to re-emerge more authentically after the loss of wealth, with business activity becoming more closely tied to sustainability and discipline rather than image or status.

This was strongly supported by an operational discipline that had been lacking during economic stability. Family members also confirmed this shift, observing how the recipients’ behaviour became more structured and purposeful once they re-entered productive activity. One relative explained:

‘After the money was finished, he became serious again. He woke up early, focused more, and wanted to fix his life.’ (Family member of Lebogang)

These experiences illustrate a process of rebuilding work identity through necessity, reflection and regained personal agency, as supported by the following participant quotes:

‘I realised I had to start over, to find something that gave me purpose again.’ (P10, Lebogang, male)

‘When the money finished, I saw that work was not punishment. It gave me dignity.’ (P6, Lumka, male)

‘After everything was gone, I went back to doing small creative jobs because at least that made me feel like myself again.’ (P1, Tebogo, male)

Another participant described how returning to work restored structure:

‘I had to hustle again, even if it was small things. It helped me get my life back on track.’ (P9, Maanda, male)

Family members also confirmed this shift. One of Vinesh’s relatives commented that once the money was depleted, they noticed that he ‘became more focused again and wanted to rebuild properly’.

In these accounts, when participants lost their money, work regained centrality to their identity, largely because financial need returned. However, they no longer saw work as just survival, but as something that gave them dignity and structure. This suggests that after losing wealth, individuals may develop a deeper and more stable sense of work identity than before, when it was taken for granted.

A summary of themes

The five themes trace a trajectory of work identity across time for the windfall recipients on I Blew It. Theme 1 establishes that work functioned as a source of meaning, routine and aspiration before the participants acquired wealth. Theme 2 shows how sudden wealth dissolved this worker self, as participants described losing their attachment to employment when financial necessity was removed. Theme 3 illustrates the shift into non-work-based identities centred on leisure, generosity and social recognition, which temporarily displaced work as a source of meaning. However, these new identities proved unstable because they were built on social attention and spending rather than a deeper sense of purpose and thus made them difficult to sustain once the money and recognition began to fade. Theme 4 captures participants’ attempts to forge entrepreneurial identities, which often failed because of image-driven motives and a lack of operational discipline. Lastly, Theme 5 captures how the depletion of wealth prompted a re-emergence of work identity, with participants regaining appreciation for the structure and dignity that work provides.

Table 1 shows the shifts in identity after the attainment and loss of sudden wealth.

While the trajectories of the featured individuals differ in form and outcome, a shared pattern of disruption and reconstruction is evident across cases. As reflected in Table 1, the participants’ trajectories reveal a clear temporal sequence: a pre-wealth work identity, followed by dissolution of the worker self, displacement into non-work-based identities, attempts at entrepreneurial identity and finally a reconstruction of work identity following financial loss. These patterns suggest that, within these narratives, sudden wealth featured prominently in the way the participants described changes to their sense of self and personal value.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to explore how sudden wealth influences the work identity of South Africans featured on I Blew It. The findings reveal a process of work identity disruption following sudden wealth, marked by suspension, disorientation and later attempts at reconstruction (Molokoane, 2024; Mpofu et al., 2023). In these narratives, work identity appeared most vulnerable when work was no longer needed. Over time, this disruption evolved into reflection and gradual identity reconstruction once the financial resources were depleted (Furaker & Hedenus, 2009; Ngoepe-Ntsoane, 2022). In this section, we discuss this evolution, grounded in the findings and linked to extant literature.

Before receiving sudden wealth, the featured individuals’ work identities were grounded in the routines, relational networks and collective sense of identity formed through colleagues, daily routines and achievement recognition (Dube-Addae, 2019; Ibarra et al., 2014). Work served as a source of discipline and stability, reinforcing self-concept and providing social belonging (Stoeffler & Joseph, 2020). For participants from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, the rejection of work also symbolised liberation from economic constraint (Mnisi, 2015; Ngoepe-Ntsoane, 2022). Work was associated with struggle and scarcity, while wealth was equated with personal worth and success. These pre-wealth experiences shaped how the participants understood the symbolic and practical importance of employment.

The sudden wealth recipients’ disengagement from work coincided with their loss of structure and professional identity. This produced uncertainty about their role in society once the initial excitement faded. The dissolution of the worker self was therefore both financial and existential. It was characterised by the absence of the routines and relational networks that previously reinforced self-concept and discipline (Stoeffler & Joseph, 2020). As hedonic adaptation set in and the novelty of wealth diminished, the participants’ disengagement from productive activity was associated with a loss of purpose and a diminished sense of contribution (Brickman et al., 1978; Luhmann & Intelisano, 2018).

After disengaging from formal work, the participants began redefining themselves through new social roles that were shaped by community expectations and cultural norms (Apouey & Clark, 2015; Czarnecka et al., 2020). The acquisition of sudden wealth elevated their perceived social standing, positioning them as providers or role models in their families and communities (Mpofu et al., 2023; Ngoepe-Ntsoane, 2022). However, this new identity was fragile and largely dependent on continuous displays of generosity and material success (Furaker & Hedenus, 2009; Harwood, 2020). The displacement of work identity by social status was described by participants as carrying a psychological cost, in particular through loss of direction and diminished self-worth. Without the structure, discipline and self-worth once derived from employment, the recipients of sudden wealth relied increasingly on external approval to define their value (Ibarra, 2023; Miscenko & Day, 2016). Their identities became contingent upon social perception rather than intrinsic motivation or professional competence. These externally constructed identities proved unsustainable, which contributed to a deeper sense of dislocation and loss once their wealth declined (Furaker & Hedenus, 2009; Mpofu et al., 2023).

When the participants’ wealth diminished, a recurring pattern was that they described reaching a critical point of reflection (Sherman et al., 2020). The loss of financial independence prompted a return to the values, routines and sense of structure that work had once provided (Caza et al., 2018; Walsh & Gordon, 2008).

Financial depletion often forced individuals to re-enter the labour market or seek new income sources through entrepreneurship or informal trading (Mahadea & Kaseeram, 2018; Mpofu et al., 2023). This return represented a process of identity reconstruction that integrated the lessons they learnt through the experience of sudden wealth (Furaker & Hedenus, 2009; Ibarra, 2023). Rather than reflecting failure, attempts to return to work functioned as efforts to repair a disrupted work identity and restore a sense of purpose and social legitimacy.

Work began to hold renewed meaning, associated with self-respect and social contribution (Ashforth, 2000; Caza et al., 2018). Participants developed a more grounded understanding of financial responsibility and a recognition that sustainable fulfilment was linked to consistency and purpose rather than material abundance (Ngoepe-Ntsoane, 2022; Ohrnberger et al., 2020). In this phase, work reappeared as a stabilising force that helped them recover a sense of agency and control (Miscenko & Day, 2016; Walsh & Gordon, 2008).

The process illustrates how losing wealth facilitated a form of identity rebalancing (Brickman et al., 1978; Luhmann & Intelisano, 2018). While sudden fortune initially disrupted individuals’ sense of self, its decline enabled the gradual reconstruction of meaning through work. The experience of financial loss became a transformative turning point, reminding participants of the intrinsic worth of labour and the emotional security it provides (Ashforth, 2000; Ibarra, 2023; Mpofu et al., 2023).

Implications for theory

The study was conducted through the lenses of social identity theory (Tajfel et al., 1971) and hedonic adaptation theory (Brickman et al., 1978). The findings advance social identity theory by indicating that social identities may be reconstructed after sudden wealth attainment. This change is brought about by a change in economic status but lasts only as long as the money lasts. Figure 1 depicts the work identity transition that takes place in the attainment and loss of sudden wealth.

FIGURE 1: Theoretical model of the work identity transitions.

The participants were earners before receiving the financial windfall, and afterwards, they lost this worker identity in favour of a more leisure-based identity. Their newfound wealth brought a shift: they wanted to be seen and recognised as someone who could provide a good time for others (Mpofu et al., 2023; Ngoepe-Ntsoane, 2022). Where participants sought a sustainable means of generating income after attaining their wealth, they attempted enterprises. However, they did not seek to advance their previously held knowledge or attain new knowledge, qualifications or skills, which is an important factor for building and sustaining wealth and making more informed financial decisions (De Beckker et al., 2025). The participants’ experiences extend social identity theory by demonstrating that status elevation can occur without substantive group integration and that as rapidly as social status is gained through sudden wealth, so too is this status quickly and easily lost when the economic basis of social elevation dissipates (Falk & Graeber, 2020; Raschke, 2019). Social identity theory typically assumes that group membership precedes and stabilises social identity, but our findings complicate this claim by suggesting that this assumption may require refinement in contexts where status elevation occurs without group integration. Our participants gained status without acquiring credentials or sustained group affiliations that would normally be the basis of enduring social identities. As a result, their elevated status was brittle because it lacked the structural support, skill development, professional networks and institutional recognition that theory would predict as being necessary for identity maintenance.

The findings also deepen how we understand hedonic adaptation theory (Brickman et al., 1978) by illustrating that adaptation can also occur at the level of work identity, not just at an emotional well-being level. The participants were able to escape from work-related constraints, but this freedom was short lived and quickly replaced by destabilisation as routine was dropped in favour of a less structured pleasure-seeking lifestyle (Falk & Graeber, 2020; Sherman et al., 2020). As their funds depleted, the participants turned back to work to restore lost structure and stability. By doing so, the participants exemplified that hedonic adaptation can compel one to reconstruct their identity when their lifestyles undermine meaning and agency. The study thus expands hedonic adaptation theory by linking adaptation directly to work-related self-concepts. Importantly, this suggests that emotional equilibrium can return through work. Our findings show that people return to their emotional baseline by rebuilding their work identity, not just by getting used to how they feel. Therefore, taking both theories into account, the study shows that when sudden wealth is at play, self-conceptions around work are fragile and sensitive to social and economic factors.

Implications for practice

The findings highlight the importance of designing interventions that strengthen individuals’ work identity and financial decision-making following sudden wealth (Mpofu et al., 2023; Ngoepe-Ntsoane, 2022).

Institutions that administer substantial payouts, including the RAF, pension funds and lottery bodies, should facilitate access to industrial psychologists and financial advisers to help recipients manage the psychological adjustment to sudden wealth, make informed financial decisions and sustain meaningful engagement in work or income-generating activity. The recipients of large sums should undergo financial education programmes.

Furthermore, a portion of the funds should be retained and released in intervals as income or as investment into start-ups or retirement savings to ensure that the money benefits the recipients throughout their lifetimes.

This approach would ensure that they not only retain agency as they receive a lump sum but also ensure they sustain themselves and live a meaningful life upon receiving an income. Encouraging individuals to maintain meaningful engagement in work, enterprising activity or investments that will bring passive income after receiving sudden wealth may safeguard identity continuity and psychological well-being (Caza et al., 2018; Furaker & Hedenus, 2009; Miscenko & Day, 2016).

Employers and career counsellors can play a proactive role by offering post-event coaching to individuals who undergo major financial or social transitions (Ashforth, 2000; Walsh & Gordon, 2008). Similarly, integrating psychological resilience and identity development into financial literacy initiatives may assist in preventing self-destructive behaviours such as excessive spending, social overextension or work withdrawal (Mnisi, 2015; Sherman et al., 2020). In community contexts, media producers can promote more balanced narratives in programmes such as I Blew It to emphasise long-term empowerment rather than short-term consumption (Ferreira, 2016; Molokoane, 2024).

Limitations

This study had a few limitations. The data were obtained from televised narratives, as opposed to narrative accounts common in qualitative inquiry. Because of this, it is possible that accounts from the participants (including the family and friends of the featured individuals) were subject to editing to enhance the entertainment value of the episodes. This means the narratives analysed in the study may not have fully captured the contextual factors around the spending of the recipients’ money. Direct engagement with the participants could have shed light on gaps or any part of the sudden wealth story not captured by the show, or at the very least, provided the opportunity for member checking. Because we relied solely on the televised accounts, we had no way of verifying timelines of events or actual amounts claimed to have been gained or spent. However, it must be observed that the producers conduct a vetting process and ensure the ethical treatment of the participants in line with broadcasting ethics.

The data used from the show captured retrospective accounts around the featured individuals’ work and entrepreneurial experiences, which could result in the participants’ having forgotten or omitting important details regarding thoughts, attitudes and behaviours around work and establishing enterprises that are important for making interpretations about work identity. Longitudinal studies would be effective in this regard, as they could explore the sustainability of re-established work identity after wealth and how these shifting identities remain vulnerable to future disruptions.

All of the study’s key and featured participants were men. This was not unexpected, given that the overwhelming majority of the show’s participants have been men. This is an important consideration, given that work identity, financial behaviour and reactions to sudden wealth are influenced by gender roles. The findings, especially pulling back from work, focusing on status and visibility and certain types of entrepreneurial efforts, may reflect masculine ideas of work and success. So, the work identity processes we observed might not work the same way for people of other genders. Future research should examine how gender shapes different responses to sudden wealth in relation to what work means to people.

Conclusion

In the narratives analysed, sudden wealth appeared to simultaneously elevate and destabilise participants’ sense of identity (see Mpofu et al., 2023). While financial gain may provide temporary autonomy and social prestige, it can also displace the psychological grounding that work provides (Ashforth, 2000; Walsh & Gordon, 2008). For participants in I Blew It, the loss of wealth became a pivotal moment that prompted renewed engagement with work and economic responsibilities. The participants’ experiences illustrated a pattern in which work identity became vulnerable when financial pressures were removed and was subsequently reconstructed as financial stability declined. Whether this pattern holds beyond these narratives requires further investigation. Recognising this dynamic offers valuable guidance for psychologists, educators and policymakers who seek to promote responsible adaptation to sudden financial change (Harwood, 2020; Lusardi, 2019; Stoeffler & Joseph, 2020). Future research can expand on our findings by examining how work identity is rebuilt after loss of wealth and, through a longitudinal investigation, its stability over time. Scholars may also study the reconstruction of work identity among people from various socio-economic backgrounds.

Acknowledgements

This article is based on research originally conducted as part of Esmarié P. van der Merwe’s master’s thesis titled ‘The psychology of sudden wealth: Analysing behaviour and identity shifts in “I Blew It”’, submitted to the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg in 2025. The thesis is currently unpublished and not publicly available. The thesis was supervised by Lusanda Sekaja and Tshegofatso Mabitsela-Siwela. The thesis was reworked, revised and adapted into a journal article for publication. The author confirms that the content has not been previously published or disseminated and complies with ethical standards for original publication.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.

CRediT authorship contribution

Esmarié P. van der Merwe: Conceptualisation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft. Lusanda Sekaja: Conceptualisation, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing. Tshegofatso Mabitsela-Siwela: Conceptualisation, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing. All authors reviewed the article, contributed to the discussion of results, approved the final version for submission and publication and take responsibility for the integrity of its findings.

Funding information

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Data availability

The data that supports the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Tshegofatso Mabitsela-Siwela, upon reasonable request.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. They do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. The authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content.

References