Work/Life Balance

We’ve written 8 blog posts about Work/Life Balance. View all topics »

1. 

   Staying Cultured

   

   1/26/17

   by Leigh Nash

   When many think about agency culture, they think: ping pong tables, beer, some guy carrying a longboard, and other miscellaneous hip decor. Well, we do have beer and awesome decor. As cool as having all of those things is, it doesn’t keep people employed at a company. When I started with Happy Cog, in June 2016, it was clear to me that having the appearance of a fun culture did not equal a good culture. Good culture is better. Happy Cog focuses on working hard and producing great projects for good people. We recently ditched the office, moved to a coworking space at WeWork, and officially became distributed. Staff rotate in and out of our office space throughout the week, with the bulk of the team being present on Tuesdays. It’s typically pretty quiet around here. So without people around, how does Happy Cog maintain its culture in the distributed workplace?

2. 

   Find Your True North

   

   7/21/16

   by Dan Delauro

   I remember when I was a kid, and all of the adults around me would ask: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, as if my 7-year old self had all of the answers. I used to hate that question. I still do. I try my best to avoid asking that of my own kids. Not because I get answers like “a dinosaur”, “a princess” and “a tractor”. Those are all amazing answers and most likely, equally lucrative careers if they managed to pull it off. I steer clear of that question to avoid undue stress. What child needs to take time away from building a fort out of couch cushions to worry about getting a job, how they’re going to pay the bills, or what their purpose is on this planet? There’s plenty of time for that stress much later in life.

3. 

   What Will They Say About Me?

   

   3/31/16

   by Dan Delauro

   For most of my life, I’ve subscribed to the #zerof*cks mentality. I rarely cared about what people said or thought. I was a real maverick. Ahem, jerk. I broke rules, I did whatever I wanted, when I wanted, and nothing got in the way. Nobody mattered but me and the awesome things I wanted to do. Anyone who did get in the way got trampled (sorry about that). It worked out pretty well – for a while. I managed to align myself with a group of similar people who all wanted the same things out of life. That all changed when I got a ‘real’ job and began taking life seriously

4. 

   Fortitude 101: Surviving Deadlines and Protecting Passions

   

   8/14/14

   by Mica McPheeters

   I should have an office pony. Something straight out of Thelwell, with a bushy mane as wide as its body, sparkly-painted hooves, and short enough to use as a portable laptop stand. I’m convinced that this should (and will) happen one day. Just ask my coworkers how often “little horses” come up in conversations with me.

   I have a long list of “shoulds.” Most are pony-delightful, but not all of them; some like to sneak in and push my limits—the devious suckers. Those shoulds are the kind that adore instilling doubt, delaying decisions, and convincing us we need to incessantly reach and achieve and exhaust. It takes guts to tackle that kind of should. They play the long game, and they always seem to crop up during tests of our fortitude. They love to mess with our heads.

5. 

   Make, Do.

   

   1/9/14

   by Greg Storey

   This is for everyone who wants to achieve greatness, tries too hard, and ends up driving their efforts right into the ground.

   In my life, I’ve had a few notable personal achievements which I believe merited a celebration—champagne, a ticker tape parade, wild applause—but went relatively (okay, completely) unnoticed. Two come to mind:

6. 

   Take a Break!

   

   4/25/13

   by Stephen Caver

   Web workers have a certain obsession with productivity. And it is not hard to see why. The processes and detailed knowledge required to build a website have grown leaps and bounds in terms of complexity and sophistication. With an Adaptive workflow that considers Responsive Design, multiple platforms, and countless devices with a wide range of capabilities, the job is not as simple as it once was. There are plenty of great applications and methodologies to help get organized and be productive, but these tools do not do the work for us. When it is time to get work done, we need to be working efficiently, quickly, and intelligently—and in a way that promotes good health and happiness at home and in the workplace.

7. 

   Defeating Busy

   

   1/24/13

   by Brett Harned

   We’re all busy at work. It’s a “good thing,” right? Well, it is, unless your to-do list is a mile long, you’re always stressed out, and you don’t know where to start. You see, there is an art to being busy, and it’s not easy to master. You have to stick to your obligations, do a good job, and enjoy yourself while working. Oh, and you totally need to protect your time off.

8. 

   Shut It Down!

   

   9/6/12

   by Joe Rinaldi

   While cruising the boardwalk with my family this weekend, I was struck by what the boardwalk has in common with web design and development: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.