I suppose workplace disillusionment depends entirely on the work, and the individual.
I work with people in the IT world from time to time who are delighted to come to work each day, have a real passion for what they're doing, and these are clearly the gifted adults, because along with that passion, they strive for a deeper understanding, and their results are outstanding. And these jobs pay pretty well.
Honestly, I never understood it, because my big passion in life is my family, this is just something I do to make that happen, and I get my reward at the end of the work day/week. But somewhere along the lines, something funny happened. I realized that while IT in and of itself isn't particularly interesting to me, the opportunity to tackle complex and novel problems is, and IT happens to be one environment which can provide that... and that, as a constantly-changing environment, the flow of novel problems is somewhat maintained.
Who knew? I always wanted to be a writer. I suppose I would have noticed it sooner if I had one of those employers that was revolutionizing the industry, like Apple or Google, but alas.
Anyway, the point is, work can be enriching and challenging for gifted people, while still being under the traditional employment umbrella. And gifted people typically have many interests, so any one of those could become a rewarding career.
