The work/life infusion

Dan Catt on his reasons for leaving The Guardian:

It was the crushing lack of scope for creativity within the projects that was the problem. They fell very much into the category of ‘move this over here, put that there, add something somewhere else’. Undoubtedly very important but without very much scope for creativity within them[4].

The flip/flop re-org I could handle… in a team? Great, new projects? Why the heck not, new process? Sure, I like a challenge. All those things were fine. I figured I’d do them 9-5 (actually 10-6) with my usual flair and skillz and carry on fiddling with my own hacks in the evening and weekends.

What I wasn’t expecting was that the lack of being creative during work time would suddenly and mercilessly suck all the energy and joy out of those evenings and weekends.

It’s been my experience that people who do great work in publishing businesses also tend to be doing great, creative things in their spare time – and that the two sets of activities cross-inform each other.

A very long time ago – another century ago, in fact – I was told that employers looked as much at your extra-curricular activities as your degree when offering people their first jobs. There’s a wisdom in that that applies to people recruiting at any level for digital creative jobs.