How to Hire and Fire Your Employer

and welcome to how to hire and fire your

employer my name is April sides I'm a

developer at little BOTS I'm also the

lead organizer of Drupal camp Asheville

which is July 12th and 14th this year

and no I'm not looking to fire my

employer what about about my background

I have experience in higher education

government and agency work I've taken

several leaps in my career the first one

was the hardest but I've learned a lot

in 13 years of full-time employment each

leap has contributed to my growth

personally and professionally and the

journey has led me to being here in

front of you today so why do I care

about this topic and why should you

based on results from the US Bureau of

Labor Statistics American tiny survey we

spend thirty four percent of our awake

time at work it's the number one

activity after sleep and personal care

so that means we spend over a third of

our wake time in work and work-related

activities so as Drake says Yolo you

only live once life is too short to be

unhappy at work so today we're going to

talk about what do you want what do you

have one two need should I stay or

should I go how do you find the right

employer and how do you fire your

current employer so start with what do

you have what you need this involves

personal reflection and introspection

you have to know yourself and what you

want and need to know what you're

looking for oh it's important to be

honest with yourself there's no right or

wrong answers throughout this process so

start with your assets you have both

soft and hard assets soft assets include

your knowledge skills strengths and

network you know these are the things

that you have that you can contribute to

an organization they may be listed on

your resume or included in a cover

letter and they help to determine your

market value so consider things like

what happens at your organization when

you're not at work now what do people

frequently comment compliment you on

to get an outside perspective ask your

trusted contacts

what do you see or my greatest strengths

if you had to come to me for help or

advice on a topic what would it be your

hard assets aren't going to going to

include your cash investments and

possessions in relation to your

financial obligations so these help in

risk assessment and salary negotiation

you know can you afford all their salary

for better benefits and if an

opportunity doesn't work out can you pay

the bills before your next job next

let's think about your personal values

you know knowing your personal values

will help you make better career

decisions and also finding an employer

and job that closely match your personal

values can lead to better job

satisfaction if you've never realized

your values in a formal list they're

still present just unconsciously that's

because values are found in the

decisions you've made in your past so

this activity is vested - as more

successful if you do it with a friend on

to get an outside perspective but think

about the big transformative moments of

your life with your friends help find

what values were present in those

stories then name five of those values

that you can't live without those will

be your personal values you know this is

similar to something called a mountains

and valleys exercise where you think

about the high and low events or moments

in your life and your past if an

organization wants to learn about your

values to determine if you're a good fit

they may ask you to name someone you

admire and whine so most think about

your aspirations or goals aspirations

are shaped by your ex your actions and

your experiences so in your personal

life what do you do when you have

nothing urgent to do and will someone

pay you to follow your passions I also

think about things that will complement

your soft assets and past experience so

that you can build on your past and

continue to grow

it's also important to think about your

growth trajectory there are two types of

growth trajectory steep and gradual

steep growth trajectory is characterized

by being a change agent being very

ambitious at work and seeking new

opportunities gradual growth trajectory

is characterized by being a force for

stability being up maybe being ambitious

outside work or just simply content in

life and being happy in your current

role but note that both of these are on

the side of excellent performance one is

no better or worse than the other but

just remember it's not sustainable to be

both ambitious at work and outside of

work I like this quote from the book

radical candor

we all have periods in our lives when

our professional growth speeds up or

slows down allow yourself in your peers

the freedom to change so lastly let's

talk about your work environment needs

think about these as a spectrum or

slider Oh think about what's going to

work best for you so in terms of place

in person versus remote how much in

person interactions do you require if

you decide to try remote what will your

workspace look like also consider size a

large versus small a large organization

typically has more hierarchy which means

they may have more growth and change

opportunities them may also be very

process-oriented if a small organization

is owned by another organization it may

operate more like a large organization

and values can be widely different based

on the size of an organization

think about structure formal versus

informal you know what do you need to be

productive

do you prefer or need structured or

flexible work hours workspace and tools

or dress code things like that also

consider the pace of an organization's

work slow versus fast sometimes slow can

be boring and sometimes fast can lead to

burnout there are cases where the pace

will vary from time to time based on

project deadlines but what pace is gonna

work best for you and also think about

distraction low versus high you know

what office environment is gonna work

best for you will you thrive in offices

or cubicles or open spaces and what

level of interruption are you

comfortable with you know this applies

both to in-person and remote you know

work culture often dictates how

available you should be at any given

time so think about what's gonna work

best for you and lastly let's think

about travel you know there can be no

travel there could be lots of travel and

travel can include retreats conferences

client meetings trainings what amount of

travel is going to be comfortable for

you to your assets values aspirations

growth trajectory and work environment

needs will evolve over time you reflect

often if you're familiar with agile

software development think of this as an

iterate and grow process for yourself

and your career

so how do you decide when you need to

leave an organization first evaluate

your current job you know are you

surviving or thriving do you have

work-life balance you know does your job

align with your current aspirations and

growth trajectory are you are you

experiencing burnout so wanna take a

moment to talk about burnout there are

three kinds of burnout overload burnout

is characterized by working hard but

risking health to pursue your ambitions

under challenge burnout is characterized

by being bored having a lack of learning

and growth opportunities and feeling

disengaged from work and neglect burnout

is characterized by feeling helpless and

incompetent you can't keep up and you're

feeling unmotivated so these are the

symptoms or these are the signs of

burnout

physical symptoms such as exhaustion

most of the time headaches and muscle

aches getting sick often a negative

attitude about work or your career

feeling like everything is overwhelming

or your efforts are futile neglecting

your old needs is if you're a pushover

withdrawing from new responsibilities

challenges and people procrastinating

mainly avoiding work or work taking

longer because you can't concentrate

short-tempered

especially with colleagues difficulty

sticking to regular self-care like

exercise and eating well and loss of

motivation and optimism you may not know

you've hit you have burnout until you

hit a wall self-care is very important I

also think about these in relation to a

friend a co-worker employee or boss

adopt the radical candor motto and care

personally and challenge directly

so now let's evaluate your employer

after your personal reflection are your

values aligned do you respect the

leadership you know how do you feel

about the organization's direction and

future do you feel appreciated and

supported are there opportunities for

career growth how is the employee

feedback received is in do you see

results are there problem patterns how

are they managed and are they tolerable

or intolerable how does it feel

be honest with yourself so if you'd like

to consider if you like your current

employer you don't have to fire them you

know consider exploring other options or

opportunities within the same

organization if that's not an option use

your current job and organization as a

reference to compare with other

opportunities but if you seek a higher

salary request the conversation about

increasing your salary before giving

notice

don't use giving notice as a way to get

a raise this action can erode trust

between you and your employer it also

sends the message that your job is only

about the money so ABZ Career Planning

from the startup of view is a great tool

for planning your next move so in this

scenario plan a is your current job and

organization Plan B is what you will

pivot to a new opportunity on sometimes

you change to plan B because a is not

working but sometimes a is working yet

Plan B appears to have more potential

the best Plan B's will be different but

related to what you're doing now so that

you can make use of past experience and

continue growth this plan will be more

open-ended plan Z on the other hand will

be more concrete it will allow you to

take on an uncertainty and risk you know

think of it as your safety net your

lifeboat your failsafe option to build

this plan first identify how to measure

when you're tracking toward a worst-case

scenario then develop a plan that tells

you what to do should that happen

that is your plan z

so now that we know ourselves better and

have a better idea of what we're looking

for there's so many organizations out

there you know how do you find the right

employer

we'll start with research so first

consult your network all of my jobs have

been from network connections your

network can be one of the greatest

assets for your career growth and events

like this are perfect for growing your

network you know be sure to attend

social events um even if you feel a

little uncertain about it you know

consider finding yourself a networking

mentor someone you feel comfortable with

and know that they're going to include

you in conversations and activities

focus on human connections you know play

games have fun on build relationships

who knows you might learn about a new

opportunity tonight but also consider

having a gift first mentality think of

ways you can help others so then you can

check job search channels there are many

websites you know you can see who is

hiring and what organizations are

options for you if you're looking

specifically within the Drupal community

jobs a drupal.org is a good place to

start I've also used indeed and dice

there's also monster comm and LinkedIn

and many others so once we find some

potential organizations how do we learn

more about each organization and compare

in the scenario if thunder mifflin is

our plan a you know how do we know if

initech hooli and Pied Piper which one's

going to be the right plan B and if

you're not familiar with these companies

they're fake companies from TV and TV

shows and movies

so you can compare organizations on

rating websites such as Glassdoor and

comparable e be sure to look at the

employee for abuse but note the posting

dates and look for trends you know I

believe organizations like people can

evolve when they decide to so keep that

in mind as you read the reviews visit

organization websites you know find

their organization values learn about

their employee benefits see if they have

current job openings you review their

portfolio are you interested in working

in similar projects that they are that

they've already worked on um note their

language how do they talk about

themselves and I highly encourage you to

apply an interview applying is not a

commitment it's an exploration

you know don't doubt yourself apply if

you have some of the qualifications let

the interview process to supp determine

if you're going to be a good fit and you

can also gain feedback from the

interview process that can help you

identify gaps in your skill set but

remember to interview your potential

employer as well you know think about

the things you learn from personal

reflection and use your personal values

as tools for decision making you know

ask questions that are going to give you

more insight into how well the

organization is aligned with your values

contact curtain or former employees of

the organization within your network and

if you are directly linked with former

employees look for shared connections

you may have these people and request an

introduction also ask for specific

examples to illustrate descriptions of

the organization

but be sure to filter your research you

know take a step back take off the

rose-colored glasses that make you see

things better than they actually are

consider individual bias and trust pay

attention to language distinguish

between work and play culture and look

for inconsistencies between your sources

so how do we collect and compare all

this information a spreadsheet of course

I'm surprised I didn't come up with this

myself this is an open source Google

sheet from the Twitter post by Joel

Khalifa the handle is not details this

is actually should with me with from avi

this is next level you can add your own

criteria you can add weights to each you

can score each organization and then

compare the totals I've typically used

the whiteboards to just compare benefits

and differences that are important to me

so now let's talk about evaluating the

risk of a specific opportunity or offer

first what is the worst-case scenario

and is it tolerable or intolerable

can you change or reverse the decision

midway through nope is Plan B doable

is there a specified long term

commitment there are some opportunities

that may require years of commitment and

also in my experience agencies typically

have like a 90 day check-in to see if

things are working out so that might

allow for an early change if they aren't

sometimes agencies also offer contract

work prior to offering an official

position as a way to test things out and

can you get to a new plan B or Z

relatively quickly

remember that uncertainty does not equal

risk you will never be 100% certain when

an opportunity is uncertain it doesn't

mean it's risky you know some of the

greatest opportunities have the most

question marks consider age and stage

now what will the risks be to you and a

few years consider your hard assets and

obligations different life situations

will affect your ability to take on

certain levels of risk and remember that

risk is personal you know go after

opportunities that others may see is

risky but you don't

be sure to evaluate all the benefits of

a job and not just the salary you know

experience knowledge connections can

allow you to pivot into a wide range of

Plan B's you know this opportunity could

be a stepping stone to a bigger and

better experience and look for

opportunities that have high short-term

risk but low long-term risk and seek to

build your resilience with frequent

contain risk-taking you know if you're

currently in a low-risk plan a

experiment with risk and side projects

maybe even within the Drupal community

you know find an initiative or a project

that's promising and expressed interest

in contributing think of risk-taking

like a flu shot you get a small

contained dose of the flu which makes

you resilient against the flu this is a

quote from I believe the startup of you

if you don't find risk risk will find

you the only long-term answer to risk is

resilience it sounds scary but it's true

you know safety is relative for example

a government job is typically considered

a low risk job until the government

shuts down for a month you know the

unexpected will happen and resilience is

your secret weapon the tintin 10

decision-making tool may also be helpful

how will you feel about this decision 10

minutes from now 10 months from now and

make a decision can be good as well it

helps to avoid emotional decisions and

that's why people sometimes say to sleep

on it but just beware of analysis

paralysis

so now let's say we have an offer let's

talk negotiation I like this quote if

you don't ask the answers always known

so salary negotiation is important you

know it's easy to easier to increase

your salary before you start than

afterwards

remember the salary growth builds

throughout your career if you don't

negotiate you could be leaving money on

the table think of it it's simply part

of the process but it's also important

to express excitement and flexibility

throughout the negotiation process and

don't be afraid to ask questions like

what are my career progression

opportunities or how is the salary

decided these are some great websites

they have tools to research potential

counteroffers you know be sure to

account for the organization's location

size and industry as well as factor in

your experience education and

performance also search multiple sources

because they each have their own unique

set of filters and the results will vary

so in addition to salary think about

negotiating your start date be sure to

consider the fulfillment of obligations

to your current employer you can likely

find these requirements in your employee

agreement contract or handbook um if you

can take some time off between jobs

it'll allow you to start your new

opportunity refreshed and energized

again be sure to express the excitement

and flexibility throughout the process

so if you're thinking about taking time

off between jobs these are some things

to think about in the u.s. health

insurance so if your insurance doesn't

terminate immediately request that your

last day be in the beginning of a month

then request your start date to be at

the end of the same month your employer

may provide you with information about

Cobra Cobra allows you to purchase the

same insurance you had with your

employer so in my last transition

I learned that Cobra has a retroactive

grace period which means that if my new

job starts before the grace period ends

then I can potentially purchase the

health insurance if I need it and it

will retro actively apply to my last

date of employment also research your

are look at your financial assets and

obligations you know ensure that you can

pay your bells without a paycheck so how

do you fire your current employer first

you give notice you'll want to consult

your employee agreement contractor

handbook to know what the required

notice period is suing notice is most

common but it can range from a month to

a week and just be aware of your place

of employment has legal requirements

such as the UK this is my go to

resignation template not that I do this

a lot it includes a simple statement of

resignation and notes the date of my

last day it also expresses a willingness

to fulfill obligations and it is

thankful for the opportunities

experience with the organization

but before you press send or drop off

your letter be sure to manage your

expectations of how your employee will

react think about what typically happens

when someone leaves your organization

you know this can range to a celebration

with cake to being fired which is not

cool for some the standard protocol is

that an employee is escorted out of the

building by security just prepare

yourself accordingly then we have to

fulfill our obligations given notice and

fulfill your obligations you may be

asked to work with your manager to

transition your work to others maybe

even ask to hire help hire your

replacement there could be opportunities

to work beyond the notice period as a

contractor until they hire your

replacement but just remember to build

bridges don't burn them so you may find

yourself working with them in the future

this is a photo of Mario Hernandez and

myself we worked closely at media

currents and now we are working together

on a project he is still at Media

currents and I have a photo bot so you

never know what the future will hold

just keep in mind that if an

organization burns bridges you can't

control that you can only control your

behavior and your actions and those are

a reflection of who you are and also be

sure to give feedback you know you may

have an exit interview if not you can

provide an exit letter just to remember

to be professional try to avoid

emotionally charged responses also give

the aware organization data to improve

you know this could make things better

for your co-workers or your replacement

and if problems aren't reported and

documented they're less likely to be

resolved so my final thoughts

inter SPECT regularly and allow yourself

to evolve grow your network it will be a

greatest asset for career growth don't

be afraid to apply and negotiate don't

burn bridges build resilience by taking

risk and remember the success for you is

also success for your organization you

aren't being selfish it's a win-win so

I'm an avid audiobook listener and these

are some books that I've been listening

to on this topic radical candor is a

great management focused book it doesn't

have to be crazy at work as a great read

and I have some awesome stickers to give

away if you'd like one the startup of

you is a career building book and the

Alliance is an organization focused book

that complements the startup of you and

tribal leadership is also a great book

I'm also a podcast junkie so there's a

new season of work life with Adam grant

that I'm really excited about derived

global has a podcast but I also

recommend following them on Facebook and

Twitter they have great articles about

career building and burn outs and all

sorts of things yonder is a podcast

focus I'll focus on the challenges of

remote organizations radical candor is

related to the radical candor book

mentioned before and hurry slowly is a

podcast about avoiding burnout so thank

you everyone and happy career planning

are there any questions or comments I'm

actually going to do that so if you

would like to anonymously ask a question

you can go to that address at the top of

the slides so yeah

yes do any opinions on just people

transitioning to two jobs to free only

sometimes I feel that in our community

that's pretty common

I've always wondered if if it is like a

side effect of our industry right you

know I'm not a big fan of just leaving a

job because the work is hard or you know

I think you know I did mention in the

exit interview to give feedback because

problems can't be solved about feedback

but it's good to also get feedback when

you're an employee if you feel safe it's

you know sometimes it's a problem you

don't feel safe being honest and saying

things like that that that might help

but it also you could get some backlash

so I mean it's great to spend enough

time that you can see the way things

work and the patterns that are happening

so you don't want to just you know jet

at the first sign is typically but you

also don't want to stay too long that

the pattern ends up hitting you which

has happened to me before so it's just

you know there's no other variety wait

is you to do it even if you're happy

it's there's no there's nothing wrong

with exploring other options and seeing

what's out there because you know one of

the things that I mentioned was

sometimes you leave your plane a just

because be is has more potential so it's

your life you only live once

you know if to explore your options

yes you're thinking about leaving your

job at your job and you're like I'm in a

position where I'm the most technical

developer and probably take a lot to get

other people to get our other developers

to be able to take all my work like how

do you how would you like pre-plan that

I mean it would which you kind of like

have to your co-workers know like yeah I

mean I guess okay so the question was

you know if I'm the most technical

person on the team and I'm thinking of

leaving you know how do I pass this

information on you without giving away

that I'm looking to leave is that

essentially okay I would say your

initiative would be that you want to

document your work like you would focus

on documentation and and really it's

it's just great for the the scenario you

getting to buy a bus right you've heard

that before um it's it's just good good

practice for you to not be the only

person who knows all the things and so

documenting what you know and having

that available and being able to maybe

transition some of pieces of your work

to other people to allow them to grow

and learn and be a part of it as well so

that you're not burdened with that and

that all the knowledge does not just

live with you because you just never

know what could happen so it's it

wouldn't give away so much that you're

leaving if it's about you know I want

this to survive if I don't this is

anything you happen right

what observations would you have on

making remote work and successful world

what would you be it wouldn't be taken

in as far as what makes me miss

assessments

right I mean sometimes okay so what

makes remote work work essentially for

people I would say you have to think

about how much in-person connection and

interaction do you need because I know

that it doesn't work for everyone but in

those cases you can often find the a

word accord me space and that's your

office you know it's really I think it's

really important to establish an office

wherever that is but I mean other people

enjoy the flexibility so it's really you

know I I want added considerations of

working for myself and so I wanted to

say you know my first leap into agency

and remote work was to see if I could

work from home you only get from am I

going to be doing the laundry or doing

something else can I like sit down and

focus and do work at home and so part of

that for me was to establish an office

and and the company that I worked for

initially was very structured in work

hours and so it worked for me it helped

me to stay focused I knew I needed to be

at my desk at this hour and I was gonna

leave at this hour this were things but

then now I really like more flexibility

to be able to say you know it I need to

step away for a minute and walk my dog

you know so it different there's lots of

different ways to work remote in

different ways that companies you know

structure their work and that way as

well so it's you know you just have to

kind of test it out and see if it works

for you and and some people find out in

the first 90 days if an agency has a

period you know a grace period or

whatever to test things out you might

find you know this doesn't work for me

so maybe having that plan Z in place to

know what you want to do next say I

tested it out it didn't work for me that

you can do that alright one more quick

question

mine is when you're interviewing how do

you get to know the company culture and

managerial style because I found that

people will say one thing but then

reality is a little bit different

dessert like some unique ways to find

that out great I think um having network

connections I'm having maybe even oh

right so ways to figure out how a

company really is if they may be

representing themselves and in one way

and then they end up being a different

company basically um you know being able

to talk to a trusted contact that works

there or has worked there I think it's

better just because you know the person

then they know you and maybe you can get

a better a sense of that I don't know my

question that I've been thinking about

is you know asking either a current

employee or the company you know what

happens when someone gets fired there as

sort of an indicator sort of an abstract

indicator of like what it's like to work

at that company maybe you would get a

true answer because it's so extract and

so you know separate from what they

might be expecting and be able to

represent you can maybe even get a

facial expression like so yeah that's

that's probably one of the hardest

things but I think that that maybe the

reviews the review websites and they're

not all companies have reviews so it's a

little hard if you know there's smaller

companies but really trying to connect

with someone who's worked there or works

there's probably your best way you know

to get better information

all right thank you very much