**6. Discussion of findings**

This study aimed to investigate the moderating effect of career adaptability on the relationship between the presence of a career calling and employee health measured through mental and physical health. The finding around the link between the presence of a calling and mental health appears to support the theorizing around the role of a presence to calling to positive behaviours in the workplace [11]. In this chapter, the findings support empirical literature with regards to the effect of presence of calling on mental health but paint a different picture with regards to the effect of presence of calling on physical health. The existence of a calling potentially offers individual drive in the midst of challenges to fulfil outcomes expected of work [34]. At the core here, could be as found through the study that the important role of the presence of a calling to teachers and its implication is not just for career progression but also for mental health outcomes. In essence, we extend the work that shows the influence of presence of a calling and constructs such as career adaptability on outcomes of not only outcomes of work [35–37] but also health outcomes that cover mental and physical health. In achieving all this, the role of career adaptability [38] becomes critical and may be a buffer to the challenges faced by teachers.

The two (career adaptability and presence of calling) can be thought to work in different directions. Career adaptability may be used in the short term to manage ongoing changes faced. Conversely, the presence of a calling may exist as a long-term strategy used by teachers as part of their work within the profession. This thinking supported by the findings appears to show support of the idea of the two acting as individual self-regulatory tools [38, 40, 41] for addressing employee mental and physical health-related issues at the workplace. This positions quests for employee health, given focus in this study, as important issues of employee well-being [42].
