Being a cleaner is universally viewed as a mundane, functional job. It was quite a surprise then to researchers who studied the cleaners at a hospital in Boston, to find out what they did, and to see how they chose to describe the work they do.

All the cleaners in the study had been trained the same way to do the same job, which is to keep the hospital clean. All of them were doing the things you’d expect – hoovering, mopping, wiping, disinfecting. But some of them were doing additional tasks or doing things a bit differently to the others. Things they hadn’t been asked to do. Things they had decided to do themselves. And the response that these people gave to the question ‘what do you do around here?’ was astounding.

Why DO We Work?

We all work for various reasons. Most of us have to, in order to provide a roof over our heads and food on the table. And it is very easy to fall into a routine of showing up to do the tasks we do for that reason alone. Work can get very mundane or boring and we lose sight of any deeper, meaningful purpose behind it.

Often, people complain about their work. They resign themselves to this existence, complaining internally and externally about the job, the team, the company. They give in and give up. They become box tickers, B or worse players who don’t make any extra discretionary effort because they see no reason to do so. They blame the organization, the leader, the team… anyone but themselves.

But what if you chose to simply see your job a bit differently? What if you just reframed your existence to give it meaning?

The scientists who carried out the study on the cleaners in the hospital were able to separate the cleaners into two separate groups. Here’s what they found:

One group created a task and relational boundary in the job that included only a minimum of necessary tasks and interaction with as few others as possible. Members of this group disliked cleaning in general, judged the skill level of the work to be low, and were less willing to step outside formal job boundaries to engage with others and alter job tasks.

In contrast, the second group of cleaners altered the task and relational boundaries of the job to include additional work tasks, as well as frequent interactions with patients, visitors, and others in their unit. Members of this group liked the job, enjoyed cleaning, felt the work was highly skilled, and engaged in many tasks that helped patients and visitors and made others’ jobs in the unit (e.g., nurses, clerks) go more smoothly”.[1]

These people were doing the same job, but some of them just chose to look at it differently. Nothing else. Just their personal attitude. People in the second group were doing things like checking the ceilings in patient’s rooms were clean – not on the job description – because they worked out that the patients view for most of the day was the ceiling. One cleaner working on the floor with patients who were in comas changed the pictures between rooms periodically, because she felt it might help their recovery if their environment was refreshed.

Be clear about what you do

The most striking thing was their response to the question ‘what do you do here’? Cleaners in the first group responded with ‘I am a cleaner’ or words to that effect. In group two, one person said, ‘I am an ambassador for the hospital’ and one even said ‘I am a healer’ because she saw her job as keeping the rooms sterile so the patients could heal better or quicker.

It’s obvious who was going to be happier in their job, and as a result, were more likely to be doing a good job. Don’t forget: Both these groups had the exact same job, with the same training, resources, and goals. The only difference was in how the individuals chose to ‘see’ their jobs. It’s as simple as that.

There is purpose and meaning behind all the work that we do. It’s often up to us to find it. Some people are lucky enough to work for organizations that make the effort to identify purpose and connect the work that each individual does with that purpose. Most don’t.

Craft your job

My message to you if you then is don’t wait for the organization to do this for you. Take a good hard look at what it is that you do and find ways to connect your activities with making a difference to people’s lives. Find your own meaning. Craft your own job. Maybe do some things a little differently. But you’ll be surprised how you will feel if you can find meaning in your work. It is there – you just have to be the one that uncovers it.

[1] Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton, Crafting a Job, Academy of Management Review, 2001