Automattic powers many sites worldwide with its large assortment of products, so our support team is available every day of the week to best serve our customers. But what does that mean for our Happiness Engineers’ schedule?

Q: What does a typical workday look like for Happiness Engineers?

Generally, a Happiness Engineer’s workday consists of eight work hours, six of which are typically spent working with customers directly through email tickets or live chat. The remaining two hours will usually be dedicated to a team meeting, learning, or catching up on internal conversations. The way you spend the extra two hours per day will be different from day-to-day.

Q: That’s cool, but tell me more about 6 hours of support.

Sure! On average, you will be working 6 hours per day with our customers. These interactions usually happen through email tickets or live chat. Every day will be a bit different. You will have a different combination of ticket and chat hours. Some days you will provide more async support through email, diving deep into issues, and other days, you will be honing your WordPress and customer support skills in live chat.

Q: Can I select the type of work I want to do each day?

You will have an option to communicate your preferred type of work to our team. Our scheduling team will attempt to align your schedule with your preferences.

Q: Can I select my hours, or do they get assigned to me? 

We ask our Happiness Engineers to communicate their preferred hours two weeks in advance by indicating which 8 hours they plan to be available for work on a given day. They can choose any hours that they like. If they want to work 8 hours in a row from 6 am to 2 pm, that is just fine. If their most productive hours are in the evening, they can choose late night hours. Happiness Engineers can also split their day – for instance, work 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening and have several hours free mid-day. Take a look at this post by one of our Happiness Engineers, Jen, to see how she manages her schedule to balance it with her family life.

Q: What about weekend work?

In order to provide access to support for our customers 24/7 all over the globe, Happiness Engineers work either one or two weekend days every four weeks, depending on the division and product they support.

Q: What if I need to change my work hours after they are set and my schedule is assigned to me?

If you have something that came up last minute, our scheduling team will work with you to make necessary changes and ensure that you have the flexibility you need on a given day. You can also trade hours with other Happiness Engineers.

Q: Speaking of teams, how many teammates will I have?

Our Happiness teams typically consist of 10-12 Happiness Engineers. They are timezone-based, which allows teammates to be online at the same time and provides more opportunities for team building and interaction.

Q: Will I always be working alone?

On a typical day, you’ll provide support directly to our customers. However, you will spend ample time with your teammates as well. For instance, each team has a weekly meeting to discuss how things are going, catch up on product updates, or do team-building activities. There are also team meetups once a year – either virtually or in real life – where you participate in special projects, workshops, and even some recreational activities.

Still have questions about a Happiness Engineer’s schedule? Comment below, and we’ll do our best to answer! Also, stay tuned for more upcoming FAQs!

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Interested in becoming a Happiness Engineer at Automattic? Visit the Work with Us page to learn more about how you can express your interest!