Job Crafting
Quietly reshape the job to fit you instead of contorting yourself to fit the job.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
Harrison's answer to 'what about people who have a job?' is job crafting — a strategy proven out in studies that means trying to make your job a fit for you rather than fitting yourself to your job. Her advice is to be a little bit sneaky about it: you don't have to tell anybody you're doing it. The inputs are three questions — what projects excite me, which colleagues do I like working with, what would I like to learn or grow in — and the outputs are proactive moves: raising your hand for certain projects, reprioritising, and going to your manager with a specific ask. Anything that shapes the job toward you taps intrinsic motivation. When Harrison's own employer refused to make corporate well-being her job, she went rogue and ran weekly hour-long classes for anyone who showed up.
Origin
Job crafting is an established research strategy Harrison cites from the literature, but she ran her own version in corporate: told that well-being couldn't be made into a job for her, she simply ran the classes anyway.
Core principles
- 01You can adjust the job to fit you rather than fitting yourself to the job.
- 02You don't need permission or an announcement to start.
- 03Anything that shapes the job toward you taps intrinsic motivation.
- 04Proactive hand-raising is the primary lever.
- 05If the org won't create the role, run it yourself alongside the role you have.
How to run it
- 1
Inventory what pulls you
Ask which projects at work you're most excited about, which colleagues you most like working with, and which tasks or areas you'd like to learn or grow in.
- 2
Adjust quietly
Start shifting the job a little — raise your hand for certain projects, prioritise certain things. Be a little bit sneaky about it; you don't have to tell anybody you're doing it.
- 3
Make one proactive ask
Go to your manager with a specific request — 'I'd really like to learn this new AI tool we're exploring, can I take the lead on this?' Specific and scoped beats vague career conversations.
Pro tip Frame the ask around a thing the company already wants to explore — you're volunteering, not petitioning.
- 4
If refused, go rogue on something harmless
When the org won't create the role, run the initiative alongside your job. Choose something so obviously beneficial that objecting looks absurd.
Pro tip Harrison's line to anyone who got upset: 'Are you really mad that I'm helping your employees to feel better at work?'
Watch out This works because the initiative helps the company. Going rogue on something self-serving doesn't get the same cover.
In the wild
Harrison wanted to work full-time in corporate well-being and her employer said they couldn't make that a job for her. She decided to run an hour-long well-being class every week for anybody who was interested, without asking permission.
→ It gave her meaning, helped her grow and learn new skills, and was unassailable — as she put it, are you really mad that I'm helping your employees feel better at work?
When Hala was in corporate she always volunteered for employee resource groups, doing charity events and similar work alongside her actual job.
→ Harrison called it a great example of job crafting — a satisfying intrinsic channel found inside a job someone else defined.
Common mistakes
Asking permission to be motivated
Waiting for the org to formally create the role you want stalls indefinitely. Harrison's point is that most crafting requires no announcement at all.
Crafting toward prestige instead of pull
If you raise your hand for the visible project rather than the one that excites you, you've imported an extrinsic goal into the exercise.
Is it for you?
Best for
Employees in corporate roles who can't or don't want to quit but need meaning, growth, and intrinsic pull inside the existing job.
Not ideal for
Rigid roles with zero discretion over projects, collaborators, or side initiatives, or environments hostile to unsanctioned effort.
From the transcript
“They're called job crafting, so it's essentially trying to make your job a fit for you rather than fitting to your job.”
“I think that the best way to do this is to just be a little bit sneaky with it and you don't have to tell…”
“I just decided I was like, I'm going to run a well-being class for anybody who's interested, and I just went rogue and ran these…”
“If anyone got upset at me I said, are you really mad that I'm helping your employees to feel better at work?”
From the episode
Stephanie Harrison: The Old Model of Happiness Is Dead, Design a Business That Fuels Your Joy
Stephanie Harrison