"We often get trapped into thinking about our job as a list of things to do and a list of responsibilities," says Amy Wrzesniewski, an associate professor at the Yale School of Management. "But what if you set aside that mind-set?" If you could adjust what you do, she says, "who would you start talking to, what other tasks would you take on, and who would you work with?" See 10 ways your job will change in the coming years.
To make livelihoods more lively, Wrzesniewski and her colleagues Jane Dutton and Justin Berg have developed a methodology they call job-crafting. They're working with Fortune 500 companies, smaller firms and business schools to change the way Americans think about work. The idea is to make all jobs - even mundane ones - more meaningful by empowering employees to brainstorm and implement subtle but significant workplace adjustments.
Step 1: Rethink Your Job - Creatively
"The default some people wake up to is dragging themselves to work and facing a list of things they have to do," says Wrzesniewski. So in the job-crafting process, the first step is to think about your job holistically. You first analyze how much time, energy and attention you devote to your various tasks. Then you reflect on that allocation. See 10 perfect jobs for the recession - and after.
Take, for example, a maintenance technician at Burt's Bees, which makes personal-care products. He was interested in process engineering, though that wasn't part of his job description. To alter the scope of his day-to-day activities, the technician asked a supervisor if he could spend some time studying an idea he had for making the firm's manufacturing procedures more energy-efficient. His ideas proved helpful, and now process engineering is part of the scope of his work.
Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity and a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says it's crucial for people to pay attention to their workday emotions. "Doing so," she says, "will help you discover which aspects of your work are most life-giving - and most life-draining."