I’ve worked with Automattic, makers of WordPress.com, for three and a half amazing years. The company, and its faith in me, have transformed me. A leadership coach recently encouraged me to start a learning journal to jot down all the things I’ve learned the past few years. I was astonished by the list, which included … Continue reading I’m joining Support Driven full time!
I lead a WordPress.com live chat team at Automattic, and as we expand our live chat offering into the weekends, I work a couple of weekend days each month. Today is one of those weekend workdays for me. On weekends I do more customer-facing-support and less team-lead stuff than I do during the week, and I’m … Continue reading A day in the life of a live chat Happiness Engineer
On family road trips, I was always captivated by the tall silver cylinders that rose out of the ground to the sky in the endless flats of grain country. They’d often be the only thing on the shimmering landscape; no trees, no buildings taller than a single story, just the these monolithic containers, reaching above … Continue reading Silos
Photo credit Lance Conzett. Several months ago, Scott Tran of the Support Driven community asked me some questions about an internal mini-conference I had organized for Automattic‘s annual meetup. He was thinking about organizing a conference for support professionals, and he’d never organized a conference before. I was excited to share what I knew, as … Continue reading SupConf: a conference organizer’s dream come true
As I help organize the inaugural SupConf, a conference for people who want to make a career in support, I’ve been thinking a lot about what a career looks like, and what a career is. At the company I work for, Automattic, there is no ladder to climb — we don’t have promotions, pay grades, … Continue reading What is a career?
During my first year as a Happiness Engineer at Automattic, I focused internally — on live chatting with WordPress.com users, on supporting my co-workers by training, by cheerleading, by sharing knowledge amongst us about live chat support. This year, quite by accident, I’m lifting my eyes a bit and am seeing the bigger world. I’m … Continue reading On the move
Butterfly Mind 