Happiness Engineer

To cut a long story short, last week my business email address became disconnected. I had moved my website from its original location to WordPress and, in so doing, links to the related email account had been severed. The two-way business street was temporarily – and without warning – unavailable to traffic.

I pride myself on my attention to the speed with which I respond to my email and, as it transpired, one or two of my clients had become rather used to it. Thankfully, they called me to follow up and the problem was brought to light.

What followed was a Formula 1 style race up the learning curve in an environment of unfamiliar terms to get to the crux of the problem. I needed to pose a question on the WordPress forums – with the correct language – in order to elicit a response that would give me a shortcut to the finishing line. After a few pit stops at Google to reinforce my computer vocabulary, I was ready to go. I framed my question on the forum… and waited, fingers crossed.

Within hours, I had a response back from a Happiness Engineer. Oh joy! WordPress’s answer to customer service. Put simply, Happiness Engineers help WordPress users with their questions. The term is perfect when applied to “concerned users” like me, possibly sitting at home but firmly outside their comfort zone. The hint’s in the job title: the promise of results and bringing joy back to the fold. The happiness engineer sent me the correct link together with a steer in the right direction. My email was then reassigned to WordPress, and I was back in business. The traffic flowed back and forth just as it had always done.

This experience made me wonder if I should re-style my job title to “Happiness Engineer” when proofreading marketing paraphernalia. But no… that seat’s taken!