Better Than a Good Old Fashion Griswold Family Vacation
For quite a few years now, our company has been sending the sales personnel who perform well on a well deserved trip to some typically exotic location somewhere in North America. The company pays all expenses, showing great appreciation for the hard work and dedication of these professionals. After all, the company's income is dependent upon their successes in the field.
Not too long after I started with this relatively young company, one of my coworkers and I (troublemakers that we are) had some thoughts about that coveted trip. While we acknowledged that the sales staff deserved to be rewarded for their hard work beyond their fairly healthy commissions, but we recognized that without the dedicated and hard working support staff doing what we do, those deals would never be closed. We knew the hours and commitment we put in to help them be successful, only to see their celebrations on their social media posts from some luxury resort in Mexico. Why not have a drawing or some sort of lottery to allow a handful of employees from operations to be a part of that celebration as well? The first couple of years of taking our case to the 'powers that be' pretty much fell flat. As with any genius idea, sometimes it takes a while for those ideas to take root and sprout.
After two or three years of beggi...I mean high level executive negotiations, it was announced that non-sales personnel would have the opportunity to go on the Presidents trip. Success! Huzzah! Yay! My coworker and I were excited and mentally started packing our bags. Obviously we'd be chosen to go on the trip after all of the hard work we did lobbying for that amazing privilege. The day of the first great announcement came and we were excited. While we were excited for that guy that had been with the company for a whole two months, that hadn't even made it through his freakin probationary period, hadn't sweat bullets, put in over time, and worked his finger to the bone for 6 years for the company...but I digress..., we were a smidge disappointed (ok, a whole lot) that neither of us was chosen to take the trip with him. Perhaps, next year. Or the next. Oooooor the next. Nope.
I suppose that altruism should have won out in our response, as with other great crusaders for change. You know, in the spirit of life's heroes like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Clark Griswold... But we're talking about a trip to Cabo! Dang, what the crap!! The reaction was allegedly a little more....ugly.
In January, I had stepped away from my desk for a moment and when I was coming back to my cube home away from home, I heard the voices of coworkers asking me if I had checked my email. I thought to myself, "Great, I have another crazy appraisal issue I have to address!" It was strange that I was being encouraged to log back in and check my email. When I did, lo and behold, a message in my inbox indicated that I was one of the individuals from the company that was drawn to go on the trip...wooooooohoo! What really sucked is that my coworker and long time friend received no such email. "Dampen the enthusiasm a few notches, son!" I thought to myself. You've been there, haven't you...you're really excited about something, but someone nearby is disappointed about the same thing and you're afraid that if you let your excitement show you might get cut?? Well it seemed like it was potentially one of those moments. What made it a little more....interesting...was that my wife, who works 20 feet away from me in another department was going to be able to go too. The trip was for the employee who was drawn and a guest.
The company was paying for everything from the time we parked at the airport until the time we hopped off of the airplane. It was a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. Airfare, the bus trip to from Hobby Airport in Houston to Galveston, the ship, the drink passes, all the food, and everything for the return trip. Also included was a gift card which would cover excursions when we arrived at Cozumel and any cab fare if we wanted to go into town. And that was happening for 59 people! Wow! I have to say, I work for the BEST company in the area. It's definitely the best company I've ever worked for, and I've been my own boss twice!
"How was the trip?" you ask?? I'm glad you asked!! The weather was perfect, the sea was calm, and the company was amazing. Some of my favorite coworkers I deal with on the regular who are located in other parts of the country were on the trip with us. Neither my wife nor I had ever been on a cruise before, so we experience the amazing service of the huge cruise staff. They are literally from all over the world, representing many, many countries.
What is interesting about the staff is, not only do they have a good handle on the English language, but they hear your name once, and they remember it for the remainder of the trip. I'd never make it on a cruise ship. I'm not exactly what the issue is, if I'm simply that self-centered and selfish, have such a crappy memory, or just don't care enough (none of the above are very flattering options), but you can introduce your friend to me one minute, and by the time the next sentence falls out of your mouth, I've forgotten your friends name. Now it's going to be, "Heeeeey........yooooou!", with a smile of course, because we've met. We know each other. Buds. The captain would have me walking the plank before we left port....and what's his name will probably help.
There was always something to do. There were shows, a casino, piano bar, swimming in the indoor or outdoor pools, and sitting with 400 kids packed into a "God only knows what's in the water now" hot tub. There were dance contests, trivia contests, the guy who had the seizure by the pool, sunbathing, bingo games, and the really cool belly flop contest where the big ol' guy wasn't derided for his weight, but lauded as a freakin hero...and that XXL red bellied dude had an ear to ear smile as the ship erupted in applause for his....ummmm...huge success.
The excursion was awesome. We went on a catamaran to an area where we offloaded the 75 people into the water to snorkel. In Oklahoma lakes, you can barely see your hand in front of your face. In the Western Caribbean, we could see the 35 or so feet below us to the bottom. The colors of the fish were amazing. Imagine how amazed I was at the crystal clear water as I put my face in the water and began to peer at the amazing sights and saw the brilliant blue color of my snorkel tube as it began to spiral toward the ocean floor. Crap. My attempt at diving to retrieve said tube only netted a mouthful of salt water. The kid next to me who helped out the old dude only got a runaway snorkel tube, and I assume no salt water....loser. One of the girls out there only got a jellyfish sting.
We went from there to a private beach area, complete with trampolines and other water amusements, paddle boards, kayaks, beds, hammocks, lounge chairs, sand and lots of sun. By the way, when you don't follow the very simple directions about staying close to the ropes and instead take a shortcut between the water inflatables and the shore...those Mexican lifeguards get TESTY...ay yi yi.
Following that, we went back to dock and hopped into a cab and went into town to eat at a.....yep, you guessed it....Mexican restaurant. Pretty good stuff. We were serenaded by a marimba band and then a mariachi band. I had to swap hats with the kid on the end of the mariachi band for a photo op. He looked at me like I swallowed an alien, and I thought he looked pretty cool in a Gateway cap. We did a little shopping with our friends and headed back to the ship.
All in all it was a pretty amazing trip. 2 things about the trip: One, I may have cost Royal Caribbean money on the drink pass. Two, I can confirm to you that human beings have at least 7 layers of skin because I've lost 6 layers since we got home and there is still another layer of skin holding me together. I guess I should have said three things. Three, my family are all grateful that I made it there and back without creating an international incident. #winning FG
Not too long after I started with this relatively young company, one of my coworkers and I (troublemakers that we are) had some thoughts about that coveted trip. While we acknowledged that the sales staff deserved to be rewarded for their hard work beyond their fairly healthy commissions, but we recognized that without the dedicated and hard working support staff doing what we do, those deals would never be closed. We knew the hours and commitment we put in to help them be successful, only to see their celebrations on their social media posts from some luxury resort in Mexico. Why not have a drawing or some sort of lottery to allow a handful of employees from operations to be a part of that celebration as well? The first couple of years of taking our case to the 'powers that be' pretty much fell flat. As with any genius idea, sometimes it takes a while for those ideas to take root and sprout.
After two or three years of beggi...I mean high level executive negotiations, it was announced that non-sales personnel would have the opportunity to go on the Presidents trip. Success! Huzzah! Yay! My coworker and I were excited and mentally started packing our bags. Obviously we'd be chosen to go on the trip after all of the hard work we did lobbying for that amazing privilege. The day of the first great announcement came and we were excited. While we were excited for that guy that had been with the company for a whole two months, that hadn't even made it through his freakin probationary period, hadn't sweat bullets, put in over time, and worked his finger to the bone for 6 years for the company...but I digress..., we were a smidge disappointed (ok, a whole lot) that neither of us was chosen to take the trip with him. Perhaps, next year. Or the next. Oooooor the next. Nope.
I suppose that altruism should have won out in our response, as with other great crusaders for change. You know, in the spirit of life's heroes like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Clark Griswold... But we're talking about a trip to Cabo! Dang, what the crap!! The reaction was allegedly a little more....ugly.
In January, I had stepped away from my desk for a moment and when I was coming back to my cube home away from home, I heard the voices of coworkers asking me if I had checked my email. I thought to myself, "Great, I have another crazy appraisal issue I have to address!" It was strange that I was being encouraged to log back in and check my email. When I did, lo and behold, a message in my inbox indicated that I was one of the individuals from the company that was drawn to go on the trip...wooooooohoo! What really sucked is that my coworker and long time friend received no such email. "Dampen the enthusiasm a few notches, son!" I thought to myself. You've been there, haven't you...you're really excited about something, but someone nearby is disappointed about the same thing and you're afraid that if you let your excitement show you might get cut?? Well it seemed like it was potentially one of those moments. What made it a little more....interesting...was that my wife, who works 20 feet away from me in another department was going to be able to go too. The trip was for the employee who was drawn and a guest.
The company was paying for everything from the time we parked at the airport until the time we hopped off of the airplane. It was a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. Airfare, the bus trip to from Hobby Airport in Houston to Galveston, the ship, the drink passes, all the food, and everything for the return trip. Also included was a gift card which would cover excursions when we arrived at Cozumel and any cab fare if we wanted to go into town. And that was happening for 59 people! Wow! I have to say, I work for the BEST company in the area. It's definitely the best company I've ever worked for, and I've been my own boss twice!
"How was the trip?" you ask?? I'm glad you asked!! The weather was perfect, the sea was calm, and the company was amazing. Some of my favorite coworkers I deal with on the regular who are located in other parts of the country were on the trip with us. Neither my wife nor I had ever been on a cruise before, so we experience the amazing service of the huge cruise staff. They are literally from all over the world, representing many, many countries.
What is interesting about the staff is, not only do they have a good handle on the English language, but they hear your name once, and they remember it for the remainder of the trip. I'd never make it on a cruise ship. I'm not exactly what the issue is, if I'm simply that self-centered and selfish, have such a crappy memory, or just don't care enough (none of the above are very flattering options), but you can introduce your friend to me one minute, and by the time the next sentence falls out of your mouth, I've forgotten your friends name. Now it's going to be, "Heeeeey........yooooou!", with a smile of course, because we've met. We know each other. Buds. The captain would have me walking the plank before we left port....and what's his name will probably help.
There was always something to do. There were shows, a casino, piano bar, swimming in the indoor or outdoor pools, and sitting with 400 kids packed into a "God only knows what's in the water now" hot tub. There were dance contests, trivia contests, the guy who had the seizure by the pool, sunbathing, bingo games, and the really cool belly flop contest where the big ol' guy wasn't derided for his weight, but lauded as a freakin hero...and that XXL red bellied dude had an ear to ear smile as the ship erupted in applause for his....ummmm...huge success.
The excursion was awesome. We went on a catamaran to an area where we offloaded the 75 people into the water to snorkel. In Oklahoma lakes, you can barely see your hand in front of your face. In the Western Caribbean, we could see the 35 or so feet below us to the bottom. The colors of the fish were amazing. Imagine how amazed I was at the crystal clear water as I put my face in the water and began to peer at the amazing sights and saw the brilliant blue color of my snorkel tube as it began to spiral toward the ocean floor. Crap. My attempt at diving to retrieve said tube only netted a mouthful of salt water. The kid next to me who helped out the old dude only got a runaway snorkel tube, and I assume no salt water....loser. One of the girls out there only got a jellyfish sting.
We went from there to a private beach area, complete with trampolines and other water amusements, paddle boards, kayaks, beds, hammocks, lounge chairs, sand and lots of sun. By the way, when you don't follow the very simple directions about staying close to the ropes and instead take a shortcut between the water inflatables and the shore...those Mexican lifeguards get TESTY...ay yi yi.
Following that, we went back to dock and hopped into a cab and went into town to eat at a.....yep, you guessed it....Mexican restaurant. Pretty good stuff. We were serenaded by a marimba band and then a mariachi band. I had to swap hats with the kid on the end of the mariachi band for a photo op. He looked at me like I swallowed an alien, and I thought he looked pretty cool in a Gateway cap. We did a little shopping with our friends and headed back to the ship.
All in all it was a pretty amazing trip. 2 things about the trip: One, I may have cost Royal Caribbean money on the drink pass. Two, I can confirm to you that human beings have at least 7 layers of skin because I've lost 6 layers since we got home and there is still another layer of skin holding me together. I guess I should have said three things. Three, my family are all grateful that I made it there and back without creating an international incident. #winning FG
Comments
Post a Comment