02 Jun How to reshape your job for more happiness at work
Happiness at work…you can do what you love or learn to love what you do.
Bringing the right attitude and your top strengths to what you do at work can not only allow you to enjoy more happiness at work but also, boost your performance and productivity.
Sound interesting? Read on…
via Psychology Today by Paula Davis-Laack
As a career changer, I am frequently asked about my decision to leave my law practice and start a business doing something completely different. When I talk about my experience burning out at work, a lot of people confess the same thing; yet, I find that very few people actually want to leave their job (despite stories about packing up and moving to a warm island). The realities of life, in combination with the fact that many people like their work, make them reluctant to want to pick up and move. As I continue to search for, create and teach busy professionals how to better manage their stress at work and stay engaged and motivated, the technique of job crafting is one that I’m teaching with more and more frequency. I call job crafting “Spanx for work” because it involves reshaping certain aspects of your job to fit you better. Here’s how it works:
The concept of employees redesigning their work is not new, but Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton are credited with coining the term “job crafting” in 2001. They proposed that employees could change the boundaries of their jobs in three different ways:
1. Expanding or diminishing the scope of the tasks they perform by changing the form, scope, or number of work activities.
2. Altering the way they interact with people at work.
3. Thinking about work in a different way by reframing the way they see their work.
Newer research defines job crafting as, “The changes that employees make to balance their job demands and job resources with their personal abilities and needs.” The balance between job demands and job resources is important because too many of the wrong types of job demands can make burnout and disengagement more likely. Job demands are those aspects of your job that take sustained effort and energy and can be classified as either a “challenge” or a “hindrance.” Challenge demands are perceived by an employee as stressful, but have the opportunity to promote mastery, personal growth, or future gains. Conversely, hindrance demands are perceived to have the potential to impede growth, learning, and goal attainment. Job resources are the motivational aspects of your job that are energy-giving.
In order to maintain the proper balance between job demands and resources, employees can craft their jobs to:
1. Increase their job resources.
2. Increase their challenging job demands.
3. Reduce their hindrance job demands.
Research consistently shows that employees realize better outcomes when they focus their job crafting on either increasing their job resources or increasing those job demands perceived as challenges…
…keep reading the full & original article HERE