EEP! I missed a blog entry for November. Even though life has been crazy trying to hold down 2 jobs for the past 5 months I promised myself I'd blog at least once a month - it's fun sharing my random thoughts, feelings, lists, secrets, analyses and most of all stories about me doing stupid things or ending up in ridiculous, usually unbelievable situations. There are more of those to come. This time I wanted to feature the top 5 reasons why I love where I work. AND GUESS WHAT - the answers have absolutely nothing to do with trees, nature, doing work I feel good about or any of that other blathery mush. We just had our bi-annual (I can never remember if that means twice a year, or every two years.. every 2 years is what I mean) national staff gathering where 220 people from across Canada including our president, all the VPs, several board members and awesome external speakers (e.g. Chief Scientist from the world's largest conservation organization) got together to celebrate our work and ourselves. Here's my Top 5 about why I love where I work:
1. We had a talent show on Wednesday night which featured at least 4 coordinated sing-a-longs making fun of all the acronyms we use in our daily work (Jeff says it's like I am speaking in code sometimes). Personally, I participated in a song to the tune of "TNT" which sang "PMP! It's dynamite! PMP! We'll win the fight! PMP! Block off that road! PMP! We're saving a toaaaaddddd!!!!" Oi! :) At one point our new land management database was likened to a hungry monster trying to eat all of our work - a Quebec staff was dressed in a scary monster mask and growling and yelling while the two staff who built and manage the database tried to hold it back and whip it into submission. I cried laughing. A few staff from our Quebec region did a dramatic reenactment of the Backstreet Boys' video "Get Down" which brought me right back to Grade 9, Friday night, watching MuchMusic in my basement with Dawn! Loved!!! My coworker Laura wrote a fantastic choir song lamenting everything people hate about our organization "why is National trying to control me!?" "why do I have to get out a calculator for the Net Amount After Tax Recovery on the Invoice Coding Form- it's an Excel spreadsheet!!!!!" - double loved!
2. We did a short version of the Briggs-Meyers personality test during a session on Thursday and a few people were invited to share their answers to the telling questions that help you determine which category you fall into. A cartoon of an apple popped up on the screen and the woman leading the session said "describe it". I wrote "apple" (I am heavily a "sensate", not someone who sees things with intuition - if I was I would have said "healthy" or "autumn"). As she's surveying the room, one of our National VPs replies "global". GLOBAL?! Wtf. I spent the most of the rest of the day telling people I was concerned he needed to speak to a psychiatrist. That night around 2:30 a.m. he said to a few of us over our 8th (or 20th) drink: "I really wish I hadn't said 'global'. It was what I was thinking, but now people keep looking at me really strangely. Either they think I'm a pscychopath, or that I'm the f***ing messiah!". Again, I laughed until I cried.
3. I got to present a "brag book" for Ontario region's successes over the past little while. My old boss Dan and I were tagged to give the presentation. We were told to be competitive with the other regions. Dan and I, without any planning, managed a choreographed entrance onto the stage which involved running, raising the roof hands, a well-timed, surprise high five and during the second iteration of the presentation Dan had us dance up on stage to the Black Eyed Peas (he's in his 40s and has kids, so I'll forgive him if Boom Boom Pow is his #1 badass song). Ontario unofficially "won" the brag book session, largely due to our exuberance, or possibly because when I told the story of fundraising for money for a boat to access a remote island property, Dan concluded my slide with "we're on a boat" and a sage nod.
4. On Wednesday night we danced. Oh did we dance. I quickly lost the sweater and styled hair and was reduced a t-shirt and ponytail and was STILL too hot! We danced from about 9:00 p.m. on, some of us giving up around 12:45 (me) and some lasting until 4:00 a.m. - whoooo!!! For some reason Gangnam Style was played twice, and for some reason, at least 25 of my coworkers know every move to the dance including the funny leg kick. At one point my aforementioned old boss who usually doesn't partake in the dancing grabbed my our colleague Kelly from Alberta, locked elbows with her back-to-back and flipped her over his back. My absolute shock was quelled when Dan and Kelly performed this for a second, then a third time. This year, our president and CEO did not do a handstand, but I hope we'll revisit the glory of 2010 another time. At the end of the night, a small crowd formed around the stage and that's when the crowd-surfing began. No, I did not crowd surf. It was later pointed out to me that it was SLIGHTLY awkward having your hands on a coworker's ass (my sentiments exactly) but I guess enough beers will take the edge off anything! :) My feet were throbbing when I went to bed, but I couldn't stop smiling at how much fun it had been!
5. There was a session given by an external speaker on "Business Etiquette", which I did not sign up for (I think I laughed at it when I saw it on the agenda - I wear jeans to work every day, tank tops and flip flops in the summer because our building has no a/c, and forward all spam emails offering Russian brides or poorly worded offers for college deeplomas to my coworkers - I am informal person through to my heart and that will never change!). I got a full report on it though - the woman giving the talk was advising never to be friends with your coworkers (they're your coworkers, NOT your friends!!) - definitely don't ever hug your coworkers, a firm handshake will suffice, and don't ask people "how are you?", but rather "are you enjoying the staff conference? how did you enjoy the meal?". UGH! Well "ugh" is apparently what a bunch of folks thought, because my one coworker (FRIEND!) Brenda put her hand up and said "are you really saying we shouldn't be hugging, dancing or crowd surfing on our coworkers? Because I have done all those things this week." The woman said "you should absolutely not have done any of those things." In return, the entire room started speaking out of turn: "but our organizational culture is NOT like a corporation! that's how we bond!" "our president hugs people! my boss hugs me!" "we love each other and want to celebrate being together!" - I picture it like a mutiny and the woman having balled up paper thrown at her until she eventually slunk out of the room. I'm sure it was more professional than that (mildly) but I was happy to hear people sticking up for what I think we're really all about.
And to conclude, the fact that the jokes and drinks never stopped all week long throw a lovely blanket over the entire week and all the reasons I love working where I do. Anytime I'm laughing hysterically where I need to bend down to the floor to catch my breath means I'm probably having a pretty good week. Oh, and I got to hold a baby Spotted Turtle which was part of the herptile display - a-MA-zing! Already excited to do it all again in 2014!
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