Examples of things I’ve done

Jessica’s Work User Guide

Overview

User Guides are handy “cheat sheets” that let one another know quicker ways to get the most out of interactions with one another. These short explanations highlight how we prefer to work and communicate. Since much of our work is online (either via video call, email or ping) these days rather than face to face, we sometimes miss the nuances or social niceties that come with casual hallway conversations or daily interactions in the office. While this document doesn’t attempt to replace those moments, it attempts to help you better understand how I work (and interact with others) and how I prefer to work with you. 

Personality Profiles

• I consistently score as the Supportive Contributor: ESFJ on the Myers- Briggs Personality Test. 

• My true colors are Blue, followed by Gold,  Orange and then Green.

• Enneagram THE HELPER type 2, with a tie of wings of THE LOYALIST type 6 and THE PEACEMAKER type 9

• I have more of a Relational workstyle than Individualistic workstyle

Communication + Work Style

• For quick questions I prefer ping/instant message over email 

• For new projects or new content, I prefer a one pager and then discussing over a meeting

• Happy to have meetings that are check ins; doesn’t need to be 30 minute increments – please feel free to throw a 15 or 45 minute meeting on the calendar with the appropriate context

• I like helping people develop and building teams – I’m happy to set aside time to help you work on your career, projects or problems (but please let me know in advance if this is what our 1:1 is for so I can prepare accordingly)

• I’m a fan of no-hello especially if we aren’t social / don’t have a long standing relationship 

• I review my day every morning, so if you throw something on my calendar at the last minute and I don’t accept it, I probably didn’t get the notification for it. As a courtesy, if you do this, please ping me to give me a heads up that you’ve added the last minute addition so I can plan accordingly as I may have planned to use that time for something else (ex: eating?) and you’re not sitting on a video call or in a conference room waiting for me

• I tend to work PST hours (8:30am - 4:30pm)

• If I work at atypical hours I don’t expect others to respond or work at those hours – I work when it’s appropriate for me – just as I assume you work when it’s appropriate for you. 

• I regularly keep my calendar up to date

• I add my doctor appointments, therapy sessions and personal appointments on my calendar with the expectation that others will honor

• I use Please Ask before scheduling blocks for getting work done, ping me prior to booking time during these blocks. 

• Please try to avoid scheduling meetings over lunch periods as a common courtesy – while I know my calendar can be tough to find a spot, this means many days I don’t get to eat, and I end up hangry, and the folks at the end of the day (and my family) bears the brunt of this

Guiding Principles

• I assume good until proven otherwise

• I am the kind of person who wants to say “yes” to everything – which is both great and terrible at the same time. Brainstorming does not mean automatically mean that I have sign up to do the work, I will explicitly tell you if I can do the work with a timeframe.

• I tend to start “one pagers” that never end up one pagers

• I believe in sharing victories and successes and that things are rarely accomplished by a single person

Miscellaneous

• If you have feedback on me I’d love to hear it – you can share it with me privately and anonymously via bit.ly/chata-feedback

• I am a member of bluedot – I’m always happy to help, listen or support if needed

• One of my family nickname for me is Chata, so you most likely see that used in my public content and links