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How to Survive an Unhealthy Work Environment

Winter is coming but if you work in an unhealthy corporate culture, it might already feel as bleak as season three in Game of Thrones. If your office feels like competing houses fighting for the Iron Throne, it’s time to stop playing the game.

In 2019, I celebrated my fifth year as a Freelance Writer. Artisan Talent was kind enough to ask me to write a guest post on how I built my business. (Thanks, AT!)

Last year, I made a full-time living writing for business clients on nights and weekends. This was in addition to my full-time day job.

Read this article to find out how I did it — and how you can, too. All you need is a little talent, a good spellchecker, and the internal grit to sell yourself and always meet client deadlines.

Some Developers lead "lives of quiet desperation" (thanks, Thoreau). These are the cubicle Developers that you can find near the backbone of any major corporate or governmental setting. Over time, these Developers can get into a rut, where there’s nothing but the factory-like drudge of maintaining status quo.

Tech is alive with possibilities, and computer programming is a field that positively crackles with innovation. For the mid-level or senior Developer that’s lost touch with how exciting their career should be, it might be time to change things up.

How can these skilled Developers stay on top of the latest changes in the field while still maintaining their not-as-challenging corporate or government positions?

How can employers encourage these valuable team members to keep things fresh?

Here are some tips for keeping it real while modernizing your developer stack.

“I quit” are two of the most commonly uttered words in the history of the j-o-b. The reason is that the average amount of time a person spends in a job in the U.S. is 4.2 years. That may seem like a long time (especially for a person that hates their job), but  actually, that number has dropped drastically — turns out the average job tenure for someone 55 to 65 years old is more than a decade, according to Wallet Hacks, while today, people generally don't stick with a job for that long.

Marie Kondo wants to know: does your job spark joy? If not, it might be time to change something, start fresh, and get better. 

Did you make a resolution this year to enjoy your work more? Or maybe it was "New Year, New Job." If it was, you're not alone.

In normal times, a Hiring Manager holds a lot of power in a company. In a 4% unemployment market, the Hiring Manager also has a lot of responsibility and pressure to fill the seats on the bus with the right people. It’s a very challenging job even during times of high unemployment when it’s easier to pick up top quality candidates from a broad pool of applicants.

Everyone dreams about working from home. For the American worker still struggling with the stress of commuting and the distractions of coworkers visiting their office, working remotely sounds like cool salve on a hot sunburn.

But how many American workers could really get things done if they had the option of hanging out in their pajamas all day? It turns out, a high percentage of workers are not only more productive working remotely, but they’re also more engaged.

What are the latest statistics on the WFH craze? What trends will impact what is becoming the new normal of a distributed workforce? Is working from home a totally positive experience or are there drawbacks to consider?

Happy New Year, Creative Professionals!

January of the New Year always brings forward-thinking predictions and historical look-backs. In the creative fields, we often try to determine in advance what consumer or economic trends will affect the products and brands we’re trying to promote. Predicting future advertising trends is always tricky, but there is one thing that we can count on as staying front and center in 2019 — technology.

Try Googling “age discrimination in the workplace, 2018.” You’ll get millions of hits.

At Artisan, we hear a lot of stories from "older" workers (this essentially means anyone that isn’t a millennial or a member of the new Gen Z) about working for years at a big company only to be laid off just as they were beginning that final march toward retirement. Many of these workers believe sincerely that they have been discriminated against.

Freelancing contract jobs are definitely the new normal. That’s because the work world has shifted into an on-demand employment model that mirrors our on-demand digital lifestyles. We can work anywhere now, and we do. Freelancers can be found in every coffee shop and nerdy hangout space in our nation, and of course, at home on the couch.