The hidden cost of design tasks

It’s a strange thing, being diagnosed with a chronic disease.

At first there’s just such relief, that this collection of horribleness has a name, and that its not ‘all in your mind’, or ‘stress’.

Then gradually the realisation comes — this is it. You are never going to get better.

I got diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease when I was twenty, and after the initial relief I was furious. Furious with the disease, my body, the doctors, me. So I decided to ignore it. A big fuck you to Crohns.

I ignored all the symptoms, worked and partied super hard, until I collapsed and was taken to A&E * and ended up in hospital for a month.

I didn’t really learn a lesson, and again ignored my symptoms. I worked super hard on a pitch and a project, and when I came out of the pitch I ended up back in A&E even more ill than before. I developed a toxic megacolon (although it sounds like where Judge Dredd lives, its actually this). It was the closest I’ve come to dying.

I’m talking about this, not to show off or about how impressive it is to work through pain — quite the reverse. I was an absolute fucking idiot. I was monumentally stupid for ignoring everything and working so hard.

The reason I’m talking about this publicly for the first time was this tweet I sent at the Leading Design conference.

Twitter isn’t the best place to have a nuanced discussion, and I also found the discussion surprisingly emotional — and importantly the person I was chatting with was very gracious and respectful — so I didn’t say any more at the time.

The case against take home tasks

Since the conference several people have got in touch with me, and so I wanted to make the case for why take home design tasks as part of a job interview are bad. I’ve been thinking this for a while, but I’d like to open the discussion.

The reason I talked about my monumental stupidity at the start of this article is to hit home the consequences of ignoring a flare in an autoimmune disease — the consequences can be disastrous, and you may be unknowingly asking someone to do this when you give them a take home task.

(To explain what a flare is: autoimmune diseases are when the body attacks itself. I have Crohns which means my immune system attacks my digestive system. You may have heard of other autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, lupus or multiple sclerosis. When something triggers the condition it the symptoms can get suddenly worse or debilitating, and this is usually accompanied by extreme fatigue and flu like symptoms. Once you’ve had a few flares you’ll do everything in your power to avoid them.)

To avoid flares now, I’m as careful as possible. I work but if a flare is coming I come home and I go to bed at 8. I sleep all weekend. I’m very careful with my time and energy, and don’t take work home. Often, I’ll have to cancel plans at the last minute. I’ve lost a few friends this way, but I’m very lucky to know a lot of wonderful people who understand and don’t mind being blown out * regularly — but the sad thing is that my friendships aren’t as deep as they should be because I can socialise so little. I’ve missed concerts, and exhibitions, birthday meals and nights out. Its worked, because I’m largely well and I’ve held down all my jobs with little time off, but the constraints of my life make me sad sometimes.

This is pretty normal for someone with a chronic illness or chronic pain. You have so little energy you have to parcel it out carefully.

And in the middle of this, to get a job, you get hit with a design task. Where does the energy come from? What doesn’t get done? Your current job? Family life? Friendships? You try to fit it in over a weekend when you should be resting. You choose between losing out on the job or triggering a flare. Or maybe the choice isn’t quite so stark. Its the task versus doing any of the things that make life enjoyable — spending time with family or friends, going out and doing things, generally having a life. I suspect that few people setting the task understand the choice they may be asking people to make.

You might be applying for a few jobs at once. The overhead becomes impossible then.

One of the people who got in touch with me after my tweet had been told to do a design task for a challenger bank. He has Rheumatoid Arthritis. He was in a mild flare in a full on job when he was given the task. He decided against doing it as he didn’t want to take the risk of getting worse, so the bank missed out on someone I know to be excellent. He’s working in New York now.

You could say, there are ways to make the design challenge work. You could give people the choice of doing the task or coming in to do it instead * as part of the interview process so that it is part of their working day and time boxed. This is possible, but you would have to phrase the options carefully so people felt comfortable telling you about their conditions and confident in their choice. (I told no employer or potential employer about my disease for years because I was so scared it would mean I wouldn’t get the job). Secondly, for the person giving the task, are you confident that you could decide with clarity between the person who spent time on a take home task, and someone who came in and either did the same task time boxed, or did something else entirely? Especially if you feel you need a task to give you clarity in the first place.

Another argument in favour of the take home task is that people are told to only spend a short time on it and so it shouldn’t impact their life or energy significantly. However, I heard another story about this same bank — someone did the task, and spent all weekend on it, to be told the work was great but the UI execution wasn’t polished enough. You want polish, but you are telling people to only spend a few hours — something is off. The bank also missed out on an excellent candidate there. She’s at Google now.

Apart from mismatched expectations like this example, I’ve heard many examples where the person who got the job was the one with the ‘better task’ — ie more polished, more time spent. I think no matter how much you tell candidates only to ‘take a few hours’ few will, and how could you police this anyway? So people push themselves, and your task takes their few spoons. Is what you will learn from the task worth it?

Another person got in touch with me to say she was the carer of her mother with late stage Alzheimer’s. Her mother was looked after during work hours, but she had sole responsibility in the evening and at weekends. She also missed out on a job because there was simply no time outside her job to work on a task. She was fully committed to her mother for the last few years of her life, and this choice closed down many avenues for her, including going for some jobs that she really wanted.

In my experience people giving the tasks are often young and healthy often with no children or a stay at home wife, have simply not thought outside their own experience to all the complex demands people have on their time, and what the impact of a task to be done in people’s own time might have on the rest of their lives.

Other people got in touch with me after I sent my tweet, and confessed that they give the task as they don’t know how else to assess a candidate. What else could they do they asked?

Heres my answer:

— A task won’t tell you as much as a structured behavioural interview that really digs into what somebody did on a project, how they handled people, constraints and politics to get the work done, how they are in reality rather than in a fantasy task.

— If you don’t know how to do this, get some training or ask HR.

— Use references properly. Talk to them rather than using them as an HR tick box exercise.

— Interview also to find out about personality, attitude, and potential. Maybe the candidate doesn’t meet every requirement you have, but passion counts for a lot. Have the confidence to take a punt on people sometimes.

— Get the person set up for success with good onboarding and get them to work immediately

— Use the probation period properly: monitor your hire, get 360s on them, and if despite your best intentions it’s not working out, then end the employment, and tell the person why.

My challenge to everyone is — please think carefully about why you are giving take home design tasks, and what the impact will be on the candidates…and your team.

Look at your team — diversity includes health and age. If you have a group made up only of young healthy people, or people with no big family commitments, then maybe it’s time to change things.

Think carefully about why you are giving a task- because its just how things are done? Because you need it to add confidence to your hiring process?

Please think again about this choice and look at all the excellent resources on hiring and interviewing out there to help you make better decisions without the crutch of a task.

It’s fairer and more inclusive, and means that you won’t miss out on excellent candidates because they have other things going on in their lives.

For my American friends

• A&E means Accident and Emergency department in the hospital, kind of like your Emergency Room I think
• In Britain we ‘blow out’. In America you ‘blow off’.
• I’m told by American friends that in some places its necessary to give everyone coming for the role the same task — please check your HR guidance on this as it may vary by company and country

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