I’m speaking to so many people at the moment who have been using the last few months of lockdown to reassess their work situation and what they want from their careers. It’s an irony and a challenge of the current climate that while the enforced pause has prompted many to realise that their current jobs have not been fulfilling them, it’s also potentially a tricky time to find something else.
So what can you do if you are desperate for more meaning in your work but, for now, you feel you have to stay put in your current job?
The key to both surviving and potentially thriving in this situation is a concept called ‘job crafting’. This is the idea that you can stay in the same role AND make it more fulfilling and purposeful, by re-moulding your job to suit your strengths and where you find meaning.
This can be done in a number of different ways, falling into three main categories – changing your mindset about what you do (the WHY), changing your tasks (the WHAT) and changing your relationships and interactions (the WHO).
Crafting the WHY
Studies have shown that when people have a greater sense of purpose and meaning in what they do, they are happier in their work, regardless of what work they do.
An example of this is the street cleaner I met the other day who said he loved his work because, over the decades he’d spent cleaning, he had got to know the neighbourhoods and people in the community so well, and had become a bit of an amateur local historian, clearly proud to share his knowledge and enthusiasm for the local area.
This reminded me of the example from one of the seminal studies on job crafting, in which the researchers interviewed hospital janitors, finding those who were happiest in their work were the ones who saw themselves as an integral part of the healing team, taking time to talk to patients and hand out tissues while doing their cleaning work.
The key is to look beyond the day-to-day tasks of your role, and tap into the bigger purpose of what you do. You can do this by asking yourself “why do I do this?” repeatedly about an aspect of your work, until you get down to some fundamental truth about your purpose (this is a version of ‘the 5 why’s’ problem-solving technique).
Crafting the WHAT
If you feel like a square peg in a round hole, it is hard to feel motivated by your work. On the flipside, there’s evidence that those who use at least one of their core strengths every day are most satisfied with their lives. If, then, you can craft your job to allow you to do this – and to develop and grow those strengths - it will help you feel more engaged in your work.
The first thing here, then, is self-awareness and becoming more aware of where your natural strengths lie (part of the process I work through with my clients, but you can do this yourself by investigating the times you’re in ‘flow’ and fully engaged in your tasks). The next part is to be continually on the look-out for opportunities to use them – even if they aren’t a core part of your role – and not to be afraid of asking your employers/line manager for those opportunities.
A client of mine had an experience of this recently where she offered to start hosting the company’s Zoom meetings, giving her the chance to apply and develop her group facilitation and communication skills, which she otherwise didn’t get to use much in her role. I had a similar experience in my past career, where I offered to design and write a staff newsletter on new innovations in digital communication – using the research and writing skills I loved using but which felt under-utilised in the day-to-day work.
So crafting the ‘WHAT’ involves knowing your worth and asking for what you want. It also can mean learning to say NO to anything that is outside your job description and doesn’t feed your soul, leaving you more time to grow in the areas you want to develop.
Crafting the WHO
Who we interact with on a day-to-day basis in our work can either energise or drain us. Key to job crafting then is also to make sure you’re surrounding yourself with the people who inspire you and give you energy.
If those people aren’t the ones in your immediate team, you’ll need to go out looking for them. This might mean sourcing a leader in the organisation who you can approach for mentoring, looking for people to partner with in your work in different teams or organisations, or finding a coach who you can work with who can give you a regular boost of inspiration and energy.
An example of this might be the operations manager who decides to set up a regular call with the head of design, to offer a different/creative perspective on the organisational systems they’re working with. Or the civil servant in the Department for Education who decides they’re going to have an informal lunch each fortnight with a headteacher to help bring themselves back into focus on who their policies are impacting on the ‘frontline’.
Recently, a client told me about a platform called LunchClub where you get matched with likeminded people to have a chat/lunch with – like a “dating app” for professional networking. This seems like a great opportunity – especially if you’re working from home - to meet with people from a whole range of industries, and to craft the interactions you’re having day-to-day, not being limited to those in your organisation.
Get in the driving seat
As I’ve been describing, the key to job crafting is to take back control over your working life. We can feel so boxed-in by our work and job descriptions, but usually we are less trapped than we think. Simply by taking ownership of your career - in the sense of why you do what you do, what you’re doing day-to-day and the people you interact with - you can make a huge difference in your sense of fulfilment. Even if you then decide you still want to ultimately change jobs or careers- which can take time - this means you’ll probably also have more energy and motivation to step into that process.
I hope this has been helpful. I’d love to hear from you how you’re feeling about your career in the current climate, so do let me know in the comments below. If you’d like a bit more personal support, I offer a free 30 minute consultation so email me and we can arrange a chat.