They had a band singing Simon and Garfunkel, Beatles, Monkees and other 60s songs. At first I thought that the oldies were an odd choice for a forward-looking company's party but then I didn't see many young people. Most of the people working there grew up with the music the band was playing. I'd say they need to make an effort to get more young ideas in the company if they really want to be speeding into the future. We'll be hobbling there with our walkers pretty soon (and with very little hair to let down).
At this party they made a big announcement about new benefits that befit our dynamic workplace. First, they reminded us that we all got a second flat panel monitor. Now we have more than twice the space for our computers to show us stuff and get more stuff done faster. It really does help.
But the big, big announcement was that we're going to be getting free coffee, tea and soft drinks! They've brought back the coffee they were giving us years ago when we first moved into our new buildings. The machines are newer but the coffee is the same stuff people didn't like before.
They gave us Douwe Egberts machines that dispense freshly brewed coffee instantly at the touch of a button. What it does is add hot water to concentrated coffee syrup. They say that they brew coffee, extract the aromas, concentrate the coffee then add the aromas back to the concentrate and package it so that we get the freshest, most flavorful coffee possible. It's a reasonable facsimile.
Here's our new coffee machine.
It looks high-tech.And here's a look inside at the coffee syrup boxes.
The soda will be installed next week. I can hardly contain my excitement.
6 comments:
Hey, wait! Where's the picture of Chuckbert in the inflatable sumo outfit??????
LANL always seemed to have such unstodgy events to boost morale right before a reduction in force. NCR is probably cooler than that. Free soda! I'm there!
No pictures of Chuckbert in a sumo suit. Chuckbert passed up his opportunity to wear it.
I don't think we're facing a RIF. But when I was part of BEA Systems, we had a big party at a semifancy restaurant to celebrate the release of our product. The next week they laid half of us off. (The rest went a few months later after BEA picked the bones clean.)
Back to NCR I went.
NCR bought a company in Raleigh, NC, that had a product in the area my job was working on. They took control of what we were doing. Just after we had a celebration for achieving a big release they shut down the San Diego operation. The old-timers found positions in the company. The newer employees were laid off.
The moral of the story is don't release anything. If you do, don't make noise about it.
We had a employee appreciation pizza party that only the people who do not keep very busy could attend. One nurse said she would go get the rest of us worker bees some pizza while the rest of attended to to the patients. The director said that she could take one piece, and no more. No amount of explanation of the work environment could change his mind. She put the pizza back and came back to the grind.
Well, Chuckbert, I hope you learn to love your Egberts coffee. I certainly hope your party wasn't a prelude to any disaster such as P-doobie described. Except for the ratio of young upstarts to seasoned veterans, Teradata sounds like a real gung-ho company. Enjoy the parties!
Parties! Our directorate of LANS - LANL(formerly UC - LANL), hosted a free food picnic last Saturday catered by the Whole Hog Cafe up at Nambe Falls. On a Saturday! I'm not giving up my Saturday to drive up to Nambe Falls for a company picnic! If they were smart, they would give us a Thursday afternoon and have it at Urban Park or Rover Park in White Rock. ...but of course, they are NOT smart!
I like the idea of free coffee and sodas!
There's a bunch of people I work with that would get in the Sumo suits!
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