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The meaning of work has enjoyed a surge of research interest in recent years (e.g., Rosso, Dekas, & Wrzesniewski, 2010), reflected in studies that largely focus on individuals' experiences of and relations with their work in general. While most research on the meaning of work focuses on perceptions of meaning in stable employment, whether and how these perceptions are influenced under particularly challenging circumstances remain underexplored. In this symposium, four papers, three qualitative and one quantitative, examine the meaning of work in difficult contexts. The papers range from considerations of the changing meaning of work in disappearing occupations to how work meanings influence outcomes during periods of unemployment. The first paper focuses on a disappearing occupation, and considers meaning as experienced by subway drivers in Paris who were forced to change professions due to train automation. The second paper considers teachers' professional identities and work meanings during a radical organizational change. The third paper examines the experiences of work meaning of police officers who face unexpected challenges due to the controversial nature of their jobs. The fourth and final paper introduces how congruence in couples' understanding of the meaning of their individual jobs influences their subsequent work experiences during challenging employment transitions. Taken together, these papers suggest different sources of shocks to individuals' conceptualizations of the meaning of work and encourage discussion of how both transitions and changes in context challenge and extend what scholars know about the meaning of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]