A topic that comes up every once in a while during a Happiness Engineer Trial is how to balance your “regular” life with your new one at Automattic. Sometimes it can feel a little bit like you’re leading a double life! Here I’ll share a few tips on how I managed to balance a full-time 35-hours/week job with a 20-ish second one as an HE … Continue reading Leading a Double Life as a Trial Happiness Engineer
When I completed the Happiness Trial, I was already a full-time employee at another company. Due to this, weekends were the only time I was able to dedicate the largest blocks of time. Through trial and error, I was able to come up with a plan that worked for me. I was able to keep up my responsibilities at my “day job” as well as … Continue reading Balancing the Happiness Engineer Trial When You Have a Full-Time Job
Eric McDuffie is a Happiness Engineer supporting customers using WordPress.com. He is also team lead for one of the WordPress.com support teams at Automattic. Eric shares what it’s like working for Automattic, the benefits of working from home, and what it’s like to be a Happiness Engineer. Listen through to the end if you’re interested in joining Automattic as a Happiness Engineer. Eric gives some great … Continue reading Meet a Happiness Engineer: Eric
The Happiness Engineer trial can be daunting, but with the right mindset and tips, it is possible to ace it! I know this because I was a trial myself and made it through the chaos. During my first week in the trial, I was completely clueless about working here at Automattic. But a few weeks later, my trial buddy said, “If I was in the … Continue reading Ten tips to ace your Happiness Engineer trial
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates At Automattic, we aim to offer world-class support. We want to be known for offering the best experience to our customers. Internally, Happiness Engineers encourage each other to “engineer the happiness” of our customers. This isn’t always easy — sometimes people reach out to us when they’re struggling with their site, their … Continue reading Learning from unhappy customers
Happiness Engineers love helping people use Automattic’s products like WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, and more. While the desire to help others is important, Happiness Engineers must have other skills to successfully help customers in live chat and by email. With that in mind, here are my recommendations for those wanting to improve their skills as new or aspiring Happiness Engineers. These tips are from my personal … Continue reading Five standout skills to be a successful Happiness Engineer
Every Happiness Engineer has a different type of day, schedule, tasks, etc. That’s one benefit I love so much about my position… I work when it is best for me and my family! The flexibility is very important to me, as it is lots of people. Personally I choose to work most weekends and take weekdays off. We are homeschooling our kids this year, so … Continue reading My Schedule as a Happiness Engineer
Erica Kuschel is a Happiness Engineer supporting customers using WooCommerce to manage their online stores. She is also team lead for one of the WooCommerce support teams at Automattic. One of the most appealing aspects of the Happiness Engineer role is the flexibility provided while working remotely. Maintaining a work-life balance is a plus for this former travel blogger. When more wide-spread travel is possible, … Continue reading Meet a Happiness Engineer: Erica
Part of working with a distributed team, like the one at Automattic, includes communicating with co-workers on video calls. Even though most of our communication is asynchronous and my teammates are in different countries, I can still see and hear them thanks to video conferencing. Once a week I have a meeting with other members of my team using the Zoom video conferencing app. I … Continue reading Communicating effectively with a remote team on video
I joined Automattic in 2017 as a WordPress.com Happiness Engineer. After two and a half years, I decided to apply for the WooCommerce rotation. For several months I stopped working in WordPress.com support to learn all about the WooCommerce product and how to support those customers. Rotations are encouraged by Automattic as a great way to widen our skills, get out of our comfort zone, … Continue reading Engineering Happiness For a Different Product
Happiness Everywhere 