A team of researchers from the University of Michigan and Yale studied how people in unglamorous jobs coped with their often devalued work. When the researchers tried to think of supposedly unrewarding jobs to study, they chose hospital janitors. But what they learned from their studies took them completely by surprise.

When the researchers interviewed the cleaning staff of a major hospital in the Midwest, they discovered that a certain subset of housekeepers didn't see themselves as part of the janitorial staff at all. They saw themselves as part of the professional staff, as part of the healing team. And that changed everything. These people would get to know the patients and their families and would offer support in small but important ways: a box of Kleenex here, a glass of water there, or a word of encouragement. One housekeeper reported rearranging pictures on the walls of comatose patients, with the hope that a change of scenery might have some positive effect.

The researchers coined a term for what these special housekeepers brought to their job—job crafting. Job crafting means that people take their existing job expectations—or job descriptions—and expand them to suit their desire to make a difference. Job crafters are those who do what's expected (because it's required) and then find a way to add something new to their work. Something that delights. Something that benefits both the giver and the receiver. One of the lead researchers put it this way: "People who job-craft don't just reshape their jobs to make life better for themselves, but to serve others in some beneficial way."