How to job craft when you are stuck in a job
There are many reasons to learn how to job craft when you are stuck in a job. You might be facing a tough job market in your profession, waiting for stock options or a pension to vest, have a visa linked to your current employer, or be constrained by family obligations. Whatever your reasons, this guide will tell you how to job craft to improve your quality of life.
Job crafting is the process of employees redefining and reimagining their job designs in personally meaningful ways. My experience and the job crafting research of others observe that even small changes can cause a significant improvement in your mood, energy, and overall job satisfaction.
The first step in job crafting is to keep an energy log for one to two weeks. Track which tasks add to your energy, which tasks are neutral about your energy, and which tasks drain you.
The second step is to work to increase tasks that energize you and decrease those that don’t. In reality, to start, this might be only one task you increase and one you decrease. Most proponents of job crafting say it is better to choose changes where you don’t have to gain permission from anyone. Start with slight shifts that don’t require approval from a boss.
The three types of job crafting are:
Task crafting - The number, scope, or type of tasks you do;
Example: A therapist realizes he hates billing more than any other task in his practice, so he hires a biller and sees one or two more clients per week to pay for it.Relational crafting - Who you interact with and the frequency and method of interaction;
Example: A software developer realizes she dreads fielding emails from beta testers but is fine with managing a dedicated Slack community, so she changes the mode of communication.Cognitive crafting - How you perceive the meaning/purpose of your work;
Example: A hospital custodian who works at a pediatric hospital reframes her role as “protecting children’s health” instead of “cleaning up messes.”
Cognitive crafting can become toxic positivity if not done thoughtfully, and a major critique of job crafting is that it relies on individual change instead of necessary systemic change, but job crafting is short-term harm reduction to free up energy to make long-term and bigger changes.
A possible additional step is to analyze your employment and each team member’s strengths to see if some task swapping would be beneficial. Most employers don’t care if work is shifted to someone else; they care about the work getting done. Suggested wording to your boss is something like, “We’ve identified that it would be good for our department if <coworker who agreed with this plan> takes over <task you want to shed> so that I can free up time to ramp up my efforts on <task you want to do more of>. The benefits of doing this would be X, Y, and Z.”
X, Y, and Z are usually going to be something to do with higher profit, cost, or time savings, and/or increased client or customer satisfaction. In any conversation with your boss, use benefits to the employer to convince them that task swapping is a win-win-win for the employer and both employees involved.
Another job crafting strategy is to analyze the skills required for the job you want to pursue next, and then to use your time in the current job to gain those skills. This gives your current job more purpose. It is also smart to attend conferences when you can and to join national or international professional groups where you might meet your next hiring manager or referral source.
People who are stuck often feel hopeless that anything can change, and if you are feeling too overwhelmed or despairing that anything is possible to change, consider talking to a therapist or coach to brainstorm strategies that are realistic and attainable.
