While the news seems absolutely filled with stories of the “Great Resignation,” I’d like to suggest that you don’t actually need to leave your current role and company to thrive at work. In fact, there are often a lot of benefits to staying with your current company, but you also don’t need to settle for your current status quo. The rest of this post discusses how to stay at your current job AND also experience a host of benefits, such as increasing your sense of overall fulfillment at work, multiplying your positive experiences (i.e., sense of achievement, enjoyment, and meaning), and growing your resilience. Sound like something you want more of? If the answer is yes, this post is for you - so read on!
One of the ways to enhance pretty much any aspect of any job is through job crafting. And yes, I actually mean any job. So, what is it? OK, so one of the key ideas beyond the research on this concepts is that people naturally take some agency over their work and their jobs; in other words, they don’t just passively interact with the work that is handed down to them from the companies and managers they work for. People are continuously interacting with and adapting their jobs and how they do their work. Focusing on job crafting is naturally a very organic and ordinary experience that places employees at the center (something us People Scientists dig!). The research suggests that people who successfully job craft do so using any of the following three techniques: by altering 1) what they do at work, 2) who they interact with at work, and 3) how they think about work. Let’s dig in a little more.
This is the technique I usually get the most push back to when I suggest it. People often ask something along the lines of “but I was hired to do specific things at work, I can’t just not do them… I’d get fired!” Others sometimes note that they feel their job expectations are pretty rigid and don’t leave a lot of room for change. And honestly, managers tend to also express pretty similar concerns as individual contributors. I totally hear you and I know that this technique can be more easily applied in some situations than others.
However, with some creativity, I’ve actually found that when I sit down and chat with folks, that almost everyone can find at least one area in their job they can focus on to craft their job tasks. This can be emphasizing the things they do that most closely aligns with what they’re passionate about. Or it can be taking on additional responsibilities that may be extra work, but really fuel a sense of meaning and are so worth the additional effort. Think special committee responsibilities (e.g., holiday committees) in the workplace that could hold a special place in someone’s heart because of how they foster a sense of community and belonging for others. And finally, we can all acknowledge that at times, what you do at work needs to change to best handle adversity or challenges inherent in all jobs (such as, you know, a global pandemic reshaping work for many people).
One example of creative task crafting comes from when I worked with a group of veterinarians and brought up job crafting. Now a vet’s job may seem pretty straightforward in what they do, but again, there was an interesting solution they came up. Specifically, this vet worked at a community clinic which employed a handful of vets. She noted that she actually hates doing new puppy visits and truly finds the most meaning from doing compassionate euthanasia and caring for grieving pet parents. Her coworker on the other hand was all pumped about puppy visits and helping pet parents embark (no pun intended…) on a new life adventure but felt incredibly emotionally drained by euthanasia appointments. When they both realized this out about each other, we then strategized how they could work with the admin who does the scheduling to help them each “swap” the types of appointments they were getting to get more of the one they preferred and fewer of the ones they found difficult. The clinic could still serve just as many patients, quality of care likely increased since each vet was living in their place of passion, and the vets both benefited by engaging in more of the type of work they found most life-giving. Ingenious, right?
This one is pretty straightforward to me. We all know that working with some people at work can be easier than others. Sometimes there are opportunities to no longer work with specific people that are particularly draining – go ahead and make those changes! Other times this can instead look like focusing on how to continue to grow and build on meaningful, helpful, or energizing relationships – again, go for it! And the third way that I’d suggest that isn’t as often discussed in the job crafting literature (but I think is important) is to be intentional about when and how long you plan on interacting with certain people. Some people are best in longer or shorter time chunks, better chatting with face-to-face rather than in emails, or better after you’ve had some time for your morning caffeine to kick in. Take a moment to think through any place there is flexibility to alter how and who you interact with at work….
Finally, the literature on this technique generally supports two broad ways to change how you’re thinking about work. First, consider how the work you do and your daily job tasks may align with your overall passion or general purpose. Is it important to you that your work is contributing to the larger organizational success? That it’s helping other people in some way? That you’re able to build a positive future for your family? Think about what’s most important to you (if you need help identifying what brings you purpose at work, the People Scientists at iAlign are working on developing out a validated assessment to help spark some insights, see more here). Then, back track and consider how each of the smaller parts of your work link up to that larger purpose. These types of thought activities when done frequently can help reinforce the importance of your work and really enhance how your think about your job.
The second way to rethink your work is to consider which of your thoughts or beliefs about your job may be the most or conversely the least helpful when you encounter challenges. In particular, when you encounter obstacles at work, changing up your thought process to view them as opportunities to learn is much more helpful long-term than dwelling on all the extra hassle and hardship they bring. In our people science world, this difference is talked about in the language of leaning into a “learning” mindset rather than viewing something as a “hindrance” stressor. To learn more, check-out this post that discusses these mindsets in more depth.
Overall, the general theme here is to use these different technique strategies and some of the questions sprinkled throughout this post to understand how you may be able to job craft your job – instead of necessary thinking you need to change jobs or companies to get more from work. There isn’t a one-size fits all here; everyone and every job is unique, so the name of the game with job crafting is truly how creative and resourceful you can be. And remember that the only constant is change; what works for you today likely may change, so stay adaptable and creative out there!
We love chatting about these sorts of topics, let us know if you want more and we’re happy to send you updates when we post new content 😊
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