Since today is the last work day before the Christmas holiday, I wanted to share with everyone how much we appreciate all of our employees and our industry partners! Last Friday, December 14th, we held our "Annual Fun Day" event where our employees enjoy a day of games, awards, and delicious food.
The day started at 7am with biscuits, coffee, and orange juice. Because it rained all day, all the events had to take place inside our shop (which ruled out some of the favorites--the pine straw relay race and the blower obstacle course). Nevertheless, we had some fun indoor alternatives already planned!
- Miss Linda, who handles our payroll and accounts receivable (in addition to a myriad of other tasks!), kept time and sounded the air horn when it was time for groups to rotate to the next station.
The roughly 100 employees from different locations in NC split into six groups and rotated through six game stations, where each station's winner received a cash prize.
- The ladies of the office (me and Linda)
The management staff manned the game stations and kept track of the winners.
- Ryan Kimbro, Maintenance Division Manager
A new event we held for the first time this year was a trailer tire change challenge (that's a tongue twister)! It was a big hit, with each employee competing for the fastest time. The high score of the day was achieved by Jeff Solomon, with a time of 27.6 seconds (featured in the highlight video at the end of this post).
- Everyone got a chance to show off their tire changing skills and compete for the fastest time.
Other games didn't have so much of a practical focus, but were just for fun.
- Ping pong ball toss. The smaller the cup, the more points!
Our plant ID challenge featured plants that we covered in training throughout the year (with a couple of oddballs thrown in!). The high score of the day was achieved by Sam Letaw, with a perfect score. One round was won by Beau Walker, one of our mechanics, which goes to show how much you can learn if you just pay attention to what's around you!
A new favorite, the quarter toss game was invented last year, when we also got some rain on Fun Day. Each person tosses a quarter, and the closest one to the line without going over wins.
We also had a new frisbee game since we have official Myatt Landscaping frisbees now! The goal is to knock the water bottles off the cones. Our highlight video shows one shot that hit two water bottles!
- Scott tosses a frisbee in between rounds.
- Jermaine scored!
- These are the winners of all the games!
- Cordarus was one of the finalists for the cornhole championship! Scott Thompson, in the Myatt hoodie behind Cordarus, was the other finalist and won 3-0.
We also had raffles and a peanut butter cup guessing game, then continued with our annual awards ceremony.
Scott and Todd presented a number of awards and cash prizes. See all of the winners and Scott's closing remarks below.
- Cleanest Installation Truck Award: Mauricio's crew
- Cleanest Maintenance Truck Award: Justin's crew
- Perfect Attendance Award (left to right): Alberto Aguilar, Emiliano Rodriguez-Ryes, Solomon Hernandez, Antonio Alvarez, Jorge Gutierrez, Gilberto Gonzalez, Justin Niver
- Employee of the Year - Satellite Location: Ausencio Padilla, Chapel Hill
- Most Improved Installation Employee: Antonio Dominguez
- Most Improved Maintenance Employee: Justin Niver
- Installation Employee of the Year: Hector Lugo
- Maintenance Employee of the Year: Neal Baker
- Manager of the Year: Herbie Champion
- Years of Service Awards (left to right): Alberto Aguilar (5 years), Ausencio Padilla (5 years), Mauricio Acevedo (5 years), Marco Acevedo (5 years), John Davis (10 years), Antonio Jaime (15 years), Felipe Morales (15 years), Herbie Champion (15 years), Anna Myatt (20 years), Ryan Kimbro (20 years).