Perhaps you are unhappy in your job, or you want to make your job even more enjoyable. To help with this you could try to change your current job in such a way that you enjoy it more and it fits your abilities and values better. The idea behind ‘job crafting’ is that many jobs are actually quite flexible, meaning that their focus can be adjusted to fit the skills and preferences of the current job-holder. By subtly redesigning your job you shift the emphasis of the job towards tasks that you enjoy and are good at, and away from those where your performance is likely to be weaker or that you don’t enjoy.
Before we go into more details about job crafting, it is important to realize that it is quite possible that there is no 100% perfect job for you and that you cannot change every aspect of your job to your complete satisfaction. Every job has its ups and downs but ideally your job has (way) more ups than down. Set goals and make sure that, within your recrafted job, you're fully meeting the objectives you've set yourself.
Benefits of job crafting
- Giving you greater enjoyment from what you do at work.
- Helping you approach your work with more energy and enthusiasm.
- Encouraging personal development by improving your skills.
- Better performance and results.
- And of course perfecting the skill of job crafting can, in itself, lead to career enhancement opportunities.
It’s up to you to take the initiative! An important element of successful job crafting is that it's up to you to take the initiative: you don't need to wait for your manager or supervisor to give you instructions or even approval.
You have to increase the control over your own professional life and get rid of any symptoms of what psychologists call "learned helplessness". This is the phenomenon whereby people have become so accustomed to the idea that no matter what they do, nothing will come of it. Practically any job can be crafted, at least to some extent, and you can start right now.
How to begin with job crafting?
Job crafting starts with you taking the time to evaluate your current position. What tasks do you do during a workday? What tasks take up most of your time; and are they the activities that you enjoy doing most? Only after you have made this analysis you can think of how you can get more tasks that you like and less of what you dislike. This sounds quite obvious and easy, but the thing is, people are not used to thinking about these issues. They know, for example, that they enjoy working with people, but they don’t know exactly what makes them tick, when they go home all cheerfully after a day’s work and which patterns they can discover in that. The better insight you have, the better you can craft your job.
Ways to craft your job
There are four main ways to craft your job. In all cases it is important to keep in mind that successful job crafting is only possible when it leads to a win-win situation:
- The first option is to add something to your job. For example, if you like working with people and having new contacts, you could ask to train new employees.
- The second possibility is to exchange a task which you dislike and trading it with a task colleagues dislike.
- Another way for job crafting is to improve your skills. If you are better at something, you probably will enjoy it more. Examples are language skills and personal effectiveness.
- And finally, the fourth option is to get rid of a task. If it is acceptable for your employer, decide not to spend any more time and energy on certain parts of your job or certain customers and colleagues you really dislike.
Tried the above and looking for a different job after all? Or want to learn more about the life science sector?
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Or our website with more career articles: https://www.bcfcareer.nl/articles
