Office Parties R Us!

I have such cool people working for me!

As the HR team for our division, one of our duties is to arrange events. In that vein, we had to put together a farewell party on short notice. The departing employee had been with us for eighteen years, so it could be no small deal.

Well, we did all the usual stuff—arranged the room, catering, gifts, guest list, etc, but something was missing. Yesterday morning on the way to work, I had an idea—we would get a scrapbook and photo printer and make a commemorative book right there on the spot, with all the party guests collaborating!

Everyone liked the idea, so I sent two people from my staff to get supplies. And since there wasn’t enough time to arrange for the use of a university photo printer, I bought a new cartridge and extra photo paper so we could use my own.

At the party today, we removed the pages from the scrapbook and set them out on a table with different color pens so people could sign them. Then we took pictures of the party, trimmed them with fancy pinking shears, and pasted them in the book, decorating any white space with scrapbooking stickers and the like.

Or rather, my staff did most of it. I helped when I could, but as a manager, I had to do some politicking, and as the owner of the photo printer, I had to print pics, switch out chips and cameras, and all that. The bulk of the creative work was done by my staff and they did a really amazing job. The uber-boss and even the CIO were impressed.

We’ve started something, I think, and the bar can only get raised higher. No good deed goes unpunished.

But for today, I was just so happy to be able to have a neat idea, hand it off to the fantastic people on my team and see them do something wonderful with it. Our departing employee loves her book, and we took compliments all afternoon on what a great party it was.

I know I occasionally use this blog to grump about my job, but there are some days when I just need to say that I work with some of the bestest people EVAH!

Recent Workouts
Sunday: 2 hour spin
Monday: 30 hour elliptical (ladder drill)
Tuesday: 15 minute elliptical, 15 minute treadmill (intervals on both)
Wednesday: 3.5 mile run
Thursday: 30 minute spin + upper body and abs