CANDICE WALKER - THE CUSTODIAN JOB CRAFTS

 Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Duttonn, colleagues of Adam Grant, had found that in every line of work, there were people who became active architects of their own jobs.They rethink their roles through job crafting - changing their daily actions to better fit their values, interests and skills. One of the places Amy and Jane studied job crafting was in the University of Michigan health care system.

If you visited a certain floor of the hospital, it wouldn't be long before cancer patients told you how grateful they were for Candice Walker. Her mission was not only to protect their fragile immune systems - it was also to care for their fragile emotions. She called the chemotherapy centre, the House of Hope.

Candice was often the first one to console families when their loved ones were through treatment. She showed up with bagels and coffee. She would make patients laugh by telling stories about her cats drinking her milk or showing them that she had accidentally put on one brown sock and one blue sock. One day she saw a patient on the floor of an elevator writhing in pain and the staff members  nearby weren't sure what to do. Candice  immediately took charge, rushed the woman into a wheelchair and took her up in the elevator for urgent treatment. The patient later called her, 'my saviour.'

Candice Walker wasn't a doctor or a nurse. She wasn't a social worker.either. She was a custodian. Her official job was to keep the cancer centre clean.

Candice and her fellow custodians were all hired to do the same job. But some of them ended up rethinking their roles. One cleaner on a long term intensive care unit took it upon herself to regularly rearrange the paintings on the walls, hoping the change of scenery might spark some awareness among patients in comas.

When asked about, she said, "No, it's not part of my job, but it's a part of me."

Adam Grant
Think Again