WordPress Careers Roundup for the Week of September 19, 2022

Why do designers quit? Matej Latin breaks down the results of his survey. Amelia Nagoski says self-care is not enough to prevent burnout — we have to care for each other. Alyssa Place explains how managers can do that. Maintenance failures can be lethal, but Stewart Brand finds the winning maintenance style in sailing history.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Why Do Designers Quit?

Matej Latin did a survey of designers who quit their jobs and discovered:

No career progression opportunities and unhappiness with the work they do were about equal, at about 20% each.
Problems with company culture came next.
A lack of UX maturity was third followed by salary, poor relationships with management, and misalignment with company values.

Matej was surprised by two other findings: “designers don’t have problems with a lack of speed anymore, and they want the possibility to work remotely.” Also, “Design generalists are happier with the work they do.”

The Cure for Burnout Is Not Self-Care

This is a good interview with burnout expert and author Amelia Nagoski on “quiet quitting.” She concludes:

Quiet quitting is a step toward rational and fair labor practices, but not everyone will have that choice. This is why we say in our book that the cure for burnout is not self-care. The cure for burnout is all of us caring for each other.

What does that look like, especially for team leads and managers? Laurence Lock Lee adds further thoughts at Reworked, citing Alyssa Place‘s How Managers Can Protect Themselves from Burnout:

If they had previously operated in “command and control” mode, they will need to become transparent about their struggles. It’s only through exposing their frailty and uncertainties that they can hope to develop such a climate of trust.

Winning the Maintenance Race

What’s the best approach to maintenance — in software, sailing, or anything else? Hope for the best? Stewart Brand found some big life lessons in the maintenance styles of three sailors in a famous round-the-world, non-stop, solo sailing race. It’s a terrific story he tells well, but if you want the TL;DR, here are the maintenance styles that will win, go beyond winning, or drive you mad and kill you:

Whatever comes, deal with it.
Prepare for the worst.
Hope for the best.

Quick Links

A Beautiful Life is All About Maintenance! I have used RescueTime since it was launched years ago, and Robin Copple‘s blogging there is often insightful. Although I’m not a fan of “life optimization” schemes, I do like Robin’s comparison of good, regular habits to maintenance: “It’s a continual yet relaxed checking in on all your systems–making sure everything is still up to date and humming like a well-oiled machine. Maintenance is the name of the game.”
If interviews cause your palms to get sweaty, learn how to put yourself at ease from Mervin Hernandez. In this video from WP Career Summit, he outlines the best practices for your next interview.
In “We’ve Always Done It That Way” and the Organizational Momentum Trap, the Misanthropic Dev discusses change resistance expert Niccolò Machiavelli and offers this advice for changing an organization. Start with the low-hanging fruit. After several small wins, you may be “able to convince people that you might just be on to something.”
Josepha Haden Chomphosy talks with Hauwa Abashiya about the WordPress Training Team and LearnWP on the latest WordPress Briefing. If you’re interested in joining the training team, it’s OK if you’re not a trainer. You can help take notes, edit, and review. If you are a subject matter expert, take a look at the faculty program. Drop in for one of the Training Team meetings on Tuesdays at 7 AM UTC and 4:00 PM UTC.