Job Crafting: How to Build a Meaningful Career

Do you love working remotely, but you’re feeling a bit lost? Maybe you’re starting to feel like you’re just doing this to pay the bills. It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of day-to-day job tasks and feel like what you’re doing doesn’t make a difference. And you might have convinced yourself that it’s enough to show up and get the job done.

But when you feel like your work is meaningful, you’ll be more productive, happier, and less stressed. Not only that, but you’ll bring positive energy to the others around you, which can help your career grow organically.

So, if you’ve lost sight of the big picture, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Nevertheless, it sounds like it’s time to reframe how you view your remote job before your performance and joy start to suffer.

What Is Job Crafting? How Job Crafting Works

Have you heard of job crafting? It’s the skill of changing your job to create something more engaging and meaningful. But that doesn’t necessarily mean changing careers or duties. It’s often the act of changing your perspective on the impact you make and the value you offer.

1. Crafting How You Think About Your Work

Are you familiar with the groundbreaking study on hospital custodial staff by Yale Professor Amy Wrzesniewski? Essentially, she uncovered the secret to feeling passionate about any career when she interviewed the janitors who were passionate about what they did. Rather than focus on their repetitive tasks, such as cleaning a bathroom or mopping a floor, they understood the value of the service they offered.

The custodians described getting to know patients, being a part of their care team, and ensuring they had a sanitary environment to heal in. Reframing their perspective didn’t change their tasks, but they viewed their roles as a highly skilled service that required empathy. Those custodians successfully turned a potentially monotonous role into one of profound value and significance. Despite lacking apparent glamour, they felt their jobs were powerful and meaningful.

As you analyze your remote career or current opportunities, take a moment to think like those custodial workers. Ask yourself how you provide meaning and value for others through your job. Really get to know who you serve, even if you work behind the scenes. How are your skills making a difference in others’ lives, even if it’s in a seemingly minor way? Once you tune into the service you provide, you may look at your career differently.

2. Crafting Who You Interact With at Work

Relational crafting is a great way to add more meaning and purpose to your work. One approach to relational crafting involves connecting with the people you work with and building relationships. You’ll better understand their needs, wants, and goals. This is especially important when working remotely, since staying connected without face-to-face interactions can be challenging.

But you’re not limited to your coworkers. You can seek relationships—or a more profound understanding—with your clients and customers. Or, perhaps you can explore the impact you make outside of your department to understand your role’s impact on a larger scale.

You can take your skills and experience and apply them externally to a volunteer or freelance project. That time you save not commuting? You can use that to share your expertise by supporting a single parent’s career development, mentoring young entrepreneurs at the high school, or working in the office of a local animal shelter. Once you see how you enhance the lives of others, you might discover a greater sense of purpose in your role.

3. Crafting the Tasks and Scope of the Work You Perform

Another option for job crafting involves switching up the tasks you spend most of your time on. If you still feel like your work is mundane, expand the scope of what you do. You could ask to try out a new task or challenge yourself with more complex activities than what’s currently on your list.

Look for projects that will help you grow and give you more satisfaction from your work. There may be an opportunity to learn new skills or work with different departments. Or, you could gain visibility and recognition by asking to take the lead on a project that could impact your team. You can also seek out virtual or freelance mentorships or new classes supporting your career development.

4. Crafting Your Remote Work Perspective

When considering your career satisfaction, remote work adds a dynamic to how you view your job. While you don’t want to be in a position that you find miserable or exhausting, it’s worth taking a big-picture look at why you’re working remotely. Many remote workers find that focusing on the relationships they’re building gives their lives more profound meaning and contentment.

Whether it’s more time to pursue your hobbies and interests outside of work, space for self-care, or more time for loved ones, remote jobs can significantly impact your ability to contribute meaningfully to your life. If you focus on that aspect while learning new skills and stretching for a challenging new assignment, your home office can seem like a haven from the traditional commuting and 9-to-5 office lifestyle.

Discovering New Meaning in Your Remote Career

Every company approaches remote work in a unique way. If you’ve analyzed all the ways you could craft a better job in your current role and realized it simply doesn’t fit, it’s time to explore your options.