Sunday, December 30, 2007

Win and In


Redskins in the playoffs... when I came here to write something I discovered that I am at a loss for words. Over the past few weeks it looks like the skins are finally coming together as a group. When looking at the road to the Superbowl you can't help but think that they have a shot to run through to the big game. If it weren't for that embarrassing loss to the Pats earlier this year I might actually believe they have a legit shot at winning it all, but that didn't happen so I have to lean on two things: 1. letting the insane skins fan in me to say 'they can win it all!!!'. And 2. The Madden 360 season I played through in which the skins win it all (Patriots v. Skins in the Superbowl). The secret to beating them is moving Cooley to FB.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas


Christmas time is a exhausting time for anybody out there working retail. Wal-Mart, I'm sure is open today. The theaters are open and I'm pretty sure more then a couple of restaurants are as well. Lots of people working hard when most of the country has off. I'm lucky enough to work in a sector of retail that has off (but back to work tomorrow). Keep these folks working today on your mind as you go wondering about today once the cabin fever sets in. My retail experience was a good one this year. I had over 80 people working hard on my teams. That breaks down to 5 team leaders, 4 group leads, 32 full-time employees and over 50 temporary. I had lots of great experiences this year. Lots of memorable things happened. I was able to meet lots of new people. I learned the art and power of a good motivational speech. I better learned how and when to act towards a disruptive employee, a tardy one, an absent one, one that throws a trash can into a bathroom stall, one that relieves himself in a trash can, people who want to fight, come in drunk. I also learned a bunch about helping injured employees. One strange thing that happened this year is that we had three seizures on the floor. All three I was witness to. The first a girl passed out and hit her head hard on the floor causing quite a bit of bleeding then the seizure. The second was in the same area similar result. The third was was actually someone who refills the medicine cabinets. He passed out because of his diabetic mediation. He stopped breathing for a while then started his seizure which I helped contain (or restrain, as he became violent). Remarkably, all three people were fine after the event.

All that said it was a successful and full-filling holiday season. I'd be hard pressed to find another job like it and enjoy the challenge. My company being located where it is you can't help but wonder and daydream about what it is like to work at one of the 100's of other distribution, fulfilment or manufacturing centers in the area... that is until you hear about a place like Victoria's Secret DC... they have a 30% return rate. Think about that one for a bit. It gets funny.

The above is a picture of one of my teams that I very proud and happy to be a part of.

From L to R: Scott, Beverly, Aaron Lyon, Rosemary Sullivan, Jimmy Dardinger, Ashley Pierce, Kathy Eicher, Juan Mackey, Lisa Latham, Matt Dickenson, Alexis Nile, Joyce Hasan, Britinay, Paula Mitchell.