Category: Burnout

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The role of dogs in UX Design

It’s important to own a dog (or five) because dogs are Nature’s way of saying “Hey! It’s 1am. If you had logged out of work on time you wouldn’t need to go stand in the rain and cold now. So get moving when they tell you to next time!” [1]Cats may be just as useful. I’ve never had one. None of my cat-owning friends have been dragged out into the snow at 3am by a kitten that got too many naps while Mom worked and wants to take an … Continue reading

Terriers Myka and Zoë standing in the rain on watch for rabbits.
1:20 am is the perfect time to hunt rabbits.

 

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Cats may be just as useful. I’ve never had one. None of my cat-owning friends have been dragged out into the snow at 3am by a kitten that got too many naps while Mom worked and wants to take an hour to find a spot to pee though.
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Now on The Interconnected: Staying motivated at work

Sometimes work hits a bad spot. Sometimes mentally you hit a bad spot. Both are OK (which is to say they happen, it’s not necessarily your fault, life goes on).

Sometimes we need a bit more motivation than we’d like to show up at work in the morning.

My August 5 post on The Interconnected was about staying motivated at work. Let me know if you have other ideas I should incorporate into another article. (Or write for us!)

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Now on The Interconnected: You are not “The Guy”

“The Guy” is a concept I heard about years ago. The Guy is that one person that the company absolutely cannot live without — The Guy cleans up the messes, works incredible hours, fixes things no one else can fix, and is indispensable. If The Guy is on vacation, work doesn’t get done. If The Guy gets sick, or has a family emergency, no one’s sure how to pick up The Guy’s work.

Thing is, no company over a certain size should have a The Guy. I’ve seen many situations over the years where The Guy was the result of a manager who didn’t want to staff up or provide adequate support, which forced The Guy develop. I’ve also seen many situations where people made themselves The Guy by putting so much personal pressure on themselves that they became The Guy just because.

Neither of those is healthy. My July 12 post on The Interconnected explains why, and what to do about it.

Read You are not “The Guy”.