On Friday my company, ProFlowers, kicked off it's employee appreciation week with a BBQ and musical chairs. Yes, musical chairs is not just a party game for 5 year olds, it's also for working professionals and executives. It is an amazing show watching IT nerds, customer service chatty Cathy's, and number crunching analysts battle it out for the title of musical chair champ and $100. This year I found myself being summoned by our CEO to join in the girl's competition. I didn't want to play since girls are mean but as the music started to play, I found myself actually competing and pushing other women out of the way to ensure I captured a seat. I didn't win but I was able to walk away with fairly sore sit bones.
This is just a small example of why I probably have the best job of anyone who reads this. My job does require real effort, but I don't like jobs that you just sit around. One of my least favorite summer positions involved me watching tv in the conference room literally all day because I had no work to do. Some may say, "Awesome! Where did you work and how do I get hired?" I'm not telling because you slackers that want this job definitely need a back breaking job to put you straight. I don't want you ending up on the street dealing crack.
The San Diego magazine rated ProFlowers as one of the best in the city to work for. Below is a list of reasons why I think it was rated so well in no particular order:
*Free lunch every Tuesday from a different restaurant - Corbin is very envious of this perk. Often I get free lunch on other days of the week as well, especially during holidays when we work 12-14 hour days.
*Laid back working environment - you can wear flip flops and shorts or a suit if you want.
*Open door policy with everyone - no matter what your rank in the company, everyone works together
*Innovative mindset - everyone I work with are serious geniuses, which makes me wonder why they hired me. They are open to any suggestion you have for improvement.
*Holiday thank yous - following Mother's day, the company reserved an entire theater to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Everyone in the company plus whomever you wanted got to go. We also got popcorn and drinks.
*Bonuses! What more can I say?
*Parties - we have a summer and a holiday party. Lots of prizes are given out like electronics, money, and vacations. At our summer party I won $250.
*Employee appreciation activities - We have a week's worth of activities. This year we are seeing a movie at lunch (last year we watched a few episodes of the office), playing musical chairs during a BBQ, going to the Del Mar race tracks, going go kart racing, and attending a Padre's game (which we can bring family). 
*Free flowers. I love this perk a lot. Just this week I learned how to arrange short stem flower bouquets and brought home two bouquets. I've included a picture of the flowers I arranged to enhance the jealousy factor I hope to instill in each of you.
Post some of the good/fun things about your job. I'd particularly enjoy hearing about the frustrations you have, that while not funny in the moment, are entertaining after the fact.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Musical Chairs is Not Just for Children Anymore
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9 Helens agree.
Of course my job is better than yours. I work with a bunch of imbeciles, I am constantly put down by one of my bosses, and I leave every day pissed off and ready to quit. Why would I want some lame job where every day is a holiday. Who needs flowers when I have pure rage producing moments that I get to bring home everyday.
one perk that i don't have and wish so much for, is to be working in Virginia 10 minutes from all of you. despite how great a job i have and the beautiful area we live in, nothing beats being with family and friends. come to think of it, i shouldn't move back, all of you should move here.
My boss is a jerk. Constantly stopping work to play with her baby. She never gets work done and the company suffers for it. There are no benefits, except that I get to bring my baby to work, and the company is just scraping by!
Did I mention that my boss is me?? BOOYAA!! SJP Accounting.
i was hoping no one with their own business would read this blog...that totally beats all my perks. now that that's out of the way, people can continue to have subpar jobs to mine :)
so that's awesome that you have your own business. congratulations! we need to catch up. do you have a blog? i hear that that's what cool people do.
I do have a blog---but I haven't done anything with it since like May. And believe me, your perks are much better then mine right now.. I need one or two clients more and then I will be more comfortable.
I wish i could remember how to sign into my blog...but here ya go
sashaandpatric.blogspot.com
The best perk of my job is checking out hot, married, military guys all day. Seriously the married ones are super hot and the single ones only have a hot bod. I am going to become a home wreaker, that is my new career goal and I think it will suit me well. Other then that my job has me posting on the Hanson forums all day since it's only one of the websites I can access. BTW I need to see if you will give me a discount on some good steaks like you said when you first moved out there. Shell is due any day with her daughter, yes her second kid that will hopefully look like her. I always send her flowers but since her husband is actually home for this birth I was thinking of sending steaks since that's what guys do.
Musical Chairs? Are you serious? What happened to the good ol' company softball team? Pro Flowers had to opt for a lame-o childs game to make you feel like part of "the team" and then it denied you a measly $100 prize when the company is making money hand over fist? Sounds like you got punked.
On the other hand, my job is the shiznit. Not only do I have access to the Bureau of Prisons database (I was among the first to know where Moutha Stewart was going to do her time), but I also get to interact with some of the biggest snitches in the nation, including former mafia God Fathers, Aryan Brotherhood commissioners, and MS-13 turncoats. If that isn't enough, I get to work in the capital city of the greatest country in the world, where it is a regular occurance to see motorcades of politicians (who, incidentally, are also some of the biggest crooks), diplomats, foreign dignitaries, and even the President of the United States clogging up the very streets on which I drive to and from work. Even Borat made an apperance at the nearby "Kazak" embasy before walking to the White House to demand a meeting with the President.
Need I mention the hot dog vendors on every corner who curiously remain in their portable, toiletless kiosks all day long without ever leaving and with no sink to wash their hands? I have decided that these super human vendors must be equiped with very large bladders or posessed by demons. The latter would not be surprising considering the controversay over the satanic and masonic symbols evident in the layout of the streets of our Nation's Capital.
Speaking of the Masons, I bet your SD doesn't have the House of the Temple, Head Quarters of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree of Freemasonry. Masons come from all over the world to this edifice to receive their 33rd Degree initiation. But they arent the only ones who flock to this great city.
Thousands of people pay their way to visit Washington DC every year, whereas you and all your tax paying friends pay me to come to DC every day. Although you might get to attend the occasional baseball game because the sport is so boring that they can't sell out the stadium and have to resort to giving corporations like Pro Flowers discounts on the nosebleed sections, I get to work in a city where every museum is free. So rather than spending several hours wondering when something exciting in baseball will happen, or trying to understand the difference between NASCAR and Funnycar, I can stroll into a building full of artifacts covering just about any topic interesting to anyone with a pulse. If that doesn't have you convinced, consider that one day during every summer, Ben and Jerry's offers free ice cream all day long to anyone visiting the old post office building.
I'm not sure if it's the Coffee Toffee ice cream or the miriad possibilities of thought provoking entertainment that has people lining up to visit the city where I work, but I do know that you wont find people lining up outside the doors of Pro Flowers to get a shot at that musical chair prize.
And, last time I checked, Uncle Sam isn't giving out any deductions for having a cat, so please accept a heartfelt thank you from the bottom of my heart for contributing more of your taxable income (which hopefully includes that prize money) to make possible my prestigious postiion.
Besides, I have my own team of musical chair players and I could play every evening if I wanted to. Let me be the first to tell you that it gets dull quite fast. There comes a point when they couldn't pay you to play another round. Instead, you should try taking up a sport with a little more thrill and skill in it like water skiing, which I am able to do quite regularly during the summer months.
In conclusion, you might get free flowers and a few nights of baseball boredom, but my job is better.
P.S. I grow my own flowers, because, yes, I am that good.
Go ahead. It's only 2¢.