Turning Work into a Refuge: Job Crafting as Coping with Personal, Grief-Inducing Events

Building on an inductive, qualitative study of employees who experienced grief-inducing events such as bereavement or breakup, this paper explores how and with what consequences work becomes a refuge from grief-inducing experiences in people’s lives. Using the results of 68 in-depth interviews, I develop an inductive model that shows that grieving employees not only find refuge in work but can also turn their work into a refuge for themselves. In particular, the model explicates how people turn work into a refuge by engaging in job crafting behavior. I also show perceived consequences of this process that occur in both work and life domains. Such consequences tend to be positive, yet those who work significantly harder also experience negative consequences. This paper advances theorizing on grief in organizations and job crafting.