Dopamine dressing. Dopamine decor.
The internet is on a mission to make us feel good — so why not bring that same energy to work?
We call it dopamine working — intentionally redesigning your workday to include more of what lights you up, and less of what drains you. Not by quitting your job or becoming a digital nomad in Bali, but by crafting your current role to better suit your strengths, values, and energy.
The science behind this? It’s called job crafting — and it’s backed by Gallup, Culture Amp, and two decades of research.
From hospital cleaners to high performers
Professor Amy Wrzesniewski (Yale School of Management) was part of a research project that studied hospital cleaning staff. On paper, they all had the same job — but when asked to describe it, their answers varied wildly.
Some saw it as low-skill, thankless work.
Others described themselves as an essential part of the healing process — comforting families, noticing when patients needed help, creating a welcoming environment.
Same role. Wildly different experiences.
What was the difference?
They’d job crafted — reshaping the way they thought about their work, who they connected with, and which tasks they leaned into.
It wasn’t about getting a new job.
It was about turning the one they had into something more energising, meaningful, and personal.
Where CliftonStrengths fits in
At The People & Culture Office, we use Gallup’s CliftonStrengths tool to help individuals and teams discover what they naturally do best. Because once you know that, you can start intentionally crafting your work to fit you — not the other way around.
Let’s say:
- You have Empathy high in your strengths — what if you built more check-ins with teammates into your day, or took on a mentoring role?
- You lead with Strategic — could you carve out space to support long-term planning or challenge how things have always been done?
- Your Achiever is in overdrive — how could you gamify your to-do list to keep that dopamine hit coming?
This isn’t about rewriting job descriptions.
It’s about giving people permission to lean into the parts of their role that feel most like them.
Practical ways to start dopamine working
Start with these three job crafting pathways:
- Task crafting – Add, tweak, or drop tasks to better suit your strengths
- Relational crafting – Spend more time with the people who energise you
- Cognitive crafting – Shift how you think about your role’s impact
Disclaimer: Yes, you still have to do the boring bits. But dopamine working helps you balance the drain with more of what fills your cup.
The result? More engaged humans. Better business outcomes.
Culture Amp highlights that employees who find meaning in their work are more motivated, higher performing, and less likely to leave.
Gallup’s strengths research shows that people who use their strengths every day are:
- 6x more likely to be engaged in their jobs
- 3x more likely to report excellent quality of life
- 6x more likely to strongly agree they do what they do best every day
And that’s what dopamine working is really about.
Not just a feel-good moment — but a proven, powerful way to drive engagement and performance through something as simple as doing more of what you love.
Ready to bring job crafting and strengths-based work into your team?
Let’s talk about how we make it happen — practically, intentionally, and with impact.
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