Job Crafting

September 2022
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Transform your tasks and relationships at work to build more meaning and purpose.

1 hour • Moderate

Why You Should Try It

Our jobs aren’t always as satisfying as we want them to be; in fact, research suggests that only 34% of Americans find a great deal of meaning at work, and 29% find little to no meaning.

But for a variety of reasons, we still may not want to leave our job. Rather than resigning ourselves to feeling stressed and unfulfilled, Job Crafting allows us to take active steps toward greater feelings of purpose and well-being at work. Research suggests that engaging in job crafting can make us more engaged and more satisfied at work, with a greater sense of meaning in what we do. It can also improve our performance and our resilience to stress.

While there are exceptions, many workplaces will welcome job crafting—particularly in an era when employees are expected to be flexible, proactive, and multitalented. Job Crafting lets you be a “job entrepreneur,” more in control of your own professional fate.

Why It Works

Often, our jobs are more flexible than we assume. Job Crafting allows us to tweak our jobs so they align better with our interests and skills.

Relationships, in particular, are crucial to our happiness at work and can be a fruitful area for change. When people have high-quality connections at work, they tend to be more committed, have more positive attitudes, and bounce back better from difficulty. Anyone who’s worked with a difficult boss—compared to a kind, supportive leader—knows the power of relationships at work.

Evidence That It Works

Tims, M., Derks, D., and Bakker, A. (2016). Job crafting and its relationships with person–job fit and meaningfulness: A three-wave study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 92, 44–53.

Employees who engaged in more job crafting experienced a greater sense of fit with their jobs, which in turn led to more feelings of meaningfulness at work.

Sources

Justin M. Berg, Ph.D., Stanford University

Jane E. Dutton, Ph.D., University of Michigan

Amy Wrzesniewski, Ph.D., Yale University