Zippidy Doo Dah!

Wow, what a whirlwind!!!  I've officially survived the first week of Zappos New Hire Training.  I say survived only because there are some very, very strict rules about attendance - if you're even ONE MINUTE LATE coming to work, returning from lunch, or returning from a break... you are terminated!  Of course, it's only if you're a slacker and decided willy nilly to be irresponsible and unaccountable...  For example, one of my classmates was over an hour late to work because his brakes suddenly stopped working while he was driving at full speed on the freeway.  Obviously, he was not fired.

 

I preselected my first day's outfit months ago.  I decided to come right out of the gate and display my love for dinosaurs.  The sweater is Zara and I completed the outfit with black skinny jeans and a pair of calf length black boots!  I'm not sure what everyone thought about it but I felt pretty great!!

 

I might have been feeling so wonderful because I was riding high on adrenaline from the excitement of my very first day!!  I met so many awesome people who are all really interesting and unique.  It's neat because every single person who works at Zappos goes through the same Customer Loyalty Training... and they're not lying, joking, or exaggerating.  In my class are a bunch of tech peeps / developers, merchandise buyers, an information security officer, 2 foot models (yeah, for reals) and a cook.  New Hire Training is designed this way because we're all integrated as one company and everyone gets the great Customer Service knowledge and skills that are the very foundation of Zappos.

 

Going above and beyond her call of duty is one of our trainers, Stephanie, who is shown in tjis photo dressed as a penguin for her presentation on CORE VALUE#3 - Create Fun and A Little Weirdness.  One of the misconceptions of Zappos is that we're ALL fun, ALL weird, ALL the time.  But, that's really not true.  We work so hard - but it's just sometimes hard to accept because in between all the hard work is all the team building, parades, free food/beverages, and general fun/weirdness.

However, every department that's come by to speak to us - even for dry topics like Human Resources and Risk Management - make their presentations really interesting and fun for us.  My new hire paperwork included a form where I fill out my shoe and shirt size... why???  Sometimes, the vendors will give away "swag" (Souvenirs, Wearables, and Gifts) to our entire company as a promotion and they want to make sure we all get our appropriate sizes.  Ummm... how amaZing is that?!?! =)

And there is a fake economy inside Zappos... a z-economy?  We get fake money called Zollars for doing things correctly, achievements, and answering question.  There is a Zollar Store where we can buy little fun knick-knacks like blankets, hats, visors, business card holders... all tagged with 'Zappos' of course... but you can also buy a donation for one of our charities where Zappos will change your Zollars into real money.  I'm saving up for a beanie to give to Will - it costs 45 Zollars and I'm only 3 away!  Gonna get that tomorrow Fo'Shizzle!  There's always a movie quote in all 3 of our lobbies and each one you get right gives you 2 Zollars...here are the ones I've guessed so far:

40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN: You know what? I respect women! I love women! I respect them so much that I completely stay away from them!

MEAN GIRLS: I have this theory, that if you cut off all her hair she'd look like a British man.

FIGHT CLUB: Hey, you created me. I didn't create some loser alter-ego to make myself feel better. Take some responsibility!

VALENTINE'S DAY: What's the greates love song of all time? 'Rock and Roll All Night,' by Kiss. That's a stripper song.

TRON: The Grid. A digital frontier. I tried to picture clusters of information as they moved through the computer. What did they look like? Ships? motorcycles? Were the circuits like freeways? I kept dreaming of a world I thought I'd never see.

Still not convinced that I work in a crazy wonderland?  Randomly last week, a group of employees came into our classroom wearing superhero masks and rolled in a giant cooler on a cart... while playing Ice Cream Truck music!!  We all got free ice cream for being our little awesome selves.  *sigh of happiness*

And it was announced on Monday morning that tomorrow is Pajama Day.  In true Zapponian fashion... haha... I jumped onto my VIP account, ordered a set of super cool PJ's, applied my sweet sweet discount, submitted my order before the cutoff time for 1-business day shipping, and got it delivered to me at work, to my very seat, today!!  I'm all set to join in the festivities tomorrow!  I can't wait!!!!

I'll update more on the rest of my life out and about in Las Vegas at a later time.  I'm going to go to bed now so I can wake up refreshed and ready to Zoom Zoom Zoom to another Zippidy Doo Dah Day! =P