Cushing has been celebrating Customer Service Week for over ten years, and each year is more exciting than the last. Departments come together, break into teams, and compete to play games throughout the week. Each year we have a theme, and this year we chose Movie Marathon. Each team named itself after a favorite movie, and each day of the week was deemed a different movie-related theme. The week ends with our annual party, where we celebrate another year, laugh (and sometimes cry) with each other, and give out awards to our deserving co-workers.
MOVIE MARATHON
The week kicked off with Netflix and Chill Day where co-workers were encouraged to come in sweats and pajamas. Since no Netflix binge would be complete without snacks, we also held a bake-off! All the baked goods were delicious, but Cushing has spoken and here were our top three:
1st place: Jen’s Sweet Potato Bacon Blondies
2nd place: Sharika’s Caramel Cheesecake
3rd place: Jennie’s Oatmeal Raisin and M&M Cookies
Honorable mentions to Julia’s Banana Cheesecake Bread, Rachel’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, Brian’s Apple Bread, Diane’s Butter Cookies, and more – YUM!
NETFLIX AND CHILL
It’s still baseball season here in Chicago (no we are not rubbing it in – Go Cubs!), the second day of Customer Service Week was deemed Field of Dreams Day, where everyone came to work in their favorite baseball team’s gear.
Even co-workers who couldn’t make it celebrated in cardboard cutout form!
FIELD OF DREAMS
On Wednesday, staff celebrated Red Carpet Day. Cushing employees who work on the shop floor are usually dressed casually, working on flatbeds to the new Indigo Press.
Today, however, everyone had the opportunity to dress to impress (and it was a huge success)!
On the final day before the party (and team spirit day), employees dressed as their favorite animated characters. We had a minion, Kim Possible, Bambi, TWO Pocahontases, Pokemon masters, Cinderella, and shout-outs to films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Such a diverse group of characters!
ANIMATED CHARACTERS
On Team Spirit Day, the final day of Customer Service Week, teams dressed in spirit gear. Since this year was movie themed, many chose to dress as a character from famous films (a.k.a fun puns based on movie names), while others used team flags to design t-shirts.
Check out these creative team names:
A Fistful of Prints
Printers of the Caribbean
The Fifth Laminate
Willy Wonka and the Printing Factory
50 Shades of CMYK
TEAMS
Annually, through a secret ballot, Cushing team members vote for Most Valuable Co-Worker. We award points and acknowledge those who work hard and help out the most! This year the winners were:
Julia Kaufman
Sarah Brookhart
Amanda Bridges
Fernando Duran
The Mike Duff award is given to an employee who anticipates what customers want next and innovative with technology we already have at the shop. An award named for our own late Mike Duff, this team member is enthusiastic, creative and leads by example. This year, Julia Kaufman proved (at least ten times over) that she fit this description.
The significance of the bonsai tree?
Duff always had a bonsai tree on display in his office!
Sarah Brookhart
Bruce Luckett
Rachel Batman
Regardless of company position or title, Carl was known for being a thoughtful co-worker, incredible listener, and calm adviser to his colleagues. The Carl Hansen award is given to a Cushing employee who displays all of these characteristics, and this year, that employee is Sarah Brookhart.
A wonderful painter, each year we give one of Carl’s creations to the winner of this award.
Matt Hausler
Frank Jimenez
Karen Mooney
2016 TEAM FLAGS AND TROPHIES
EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION NIGHT
