Design was supposed to be creative work. For a lot of designers, it’s turned into endurance. In this episode, I’m joined by Vivianne Castillo to unpack how corporate design culture quietly rewards burnout, why endurance gets mistaken for professionalism, and how designers can start reclaiming creativity, agency, and choice.

What if the behaviors that made you successful in design are the same ones slowly disconnecting you from yourself?

If you’re anything like me, a design career was sold as creative work.

But recently, for many of us, it’s started feel like survival.

🚀 The work still ships.
🥳 The praise still comes.
💀 But we start to feel a little dead inside.

Do you feel that too?

But first, check out this week's sponsor:

Over time, creativity fades… and we start shrinking to fit the system.

This week on the Beyond UX Design podcast, I chat with Vivianne Castillo to talk about something a lot of us designers feel, but we rarely name:

👉 Endurance is quietly replacing our agency.

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Our conversation isn’t urging you to rage-quit or burn your career down.

Instead, we dig into some solid ideas like:
• How to reclaim our agency in small, practical ways
• How to rethink what “security” actually means
• How we can set boundaries without becoming “difficult”
• How we can build optionality instead of white-knuckling your job

If your career looks fine on paper but feels wrong in your body, this episode is for you.

The Hidden Cost of Being the... Jan 8 · Beyond UX Design 61:19   ​

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1️⃣ Endurance is not the same thing as resilience: Confusing the two erodes creativity. Resilience helps you adapt without losing yourself. Endurance just helps you tolerate harm longer. When teams reward output at any cost, designers learn to absorb dysfunction quietly. If work keeps shipping but you feel flatter or disconnected, that’s not resilience—it’s erosion. Pay attention to what gets rewarded and what gets ignored, especially rest and clarity.

2️⃣ Agency isn’t a personality trait: It’s a practice built through small choices. Reclaiming agency doesn’t require quitting. It starts by naming unclear work, asking who owns decisions, and setting conditions around your yes. A “bounded yes” lets you stay collaborative without self-abandonment. These low-drama moves expose invisible authority you’ve been carrying and help you reclaim thinking space, not just execution.

3️⃣ Many “high-performing” behaviors are actually unhealed survival patterns: People-pleasing gets praised as collaboration. Hyper-vigilance looks like attention to detail. Over-responsibility becomes ownership. Self-silencing gets labeled maturity. These patterns may have protected you once, but over time they burn you out. Updating them isn’t about doing less—it’s about performing without sacrificing yourself to feel safe.

4️⃣ Security isn’t something your employer gives you: It’s something you build. High pay and stable titles can feel safe, but layoffs and restructures reveal how fragile that security is. Real security comes from capacity—the ability to pivot, think creatively, and adapt. When you stop outsourcing safety to one job, your choices expand, even if you don’t leave right away.

5️⃣ Entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing: You don’t need to quit to regain agency. Side projects, consulting, teaching, or creative work can reduce dependency on one employer and restore curiosity. Designers already have transferable skills that apply beyond software. Even small experiments can lower fear and make your job feel more like a choice than a trap.

Listen to episode 142 now!

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