Hey what ever happened to that plun guy? Well I still don’t know what a plun is but this post is the official baddest pun blog so far at Zappos. Why you ask? Well read on and see!

Here’s the back story - late last Winter, I was walking into Zappos and I saw Melody on a balcony taking a break. She was wearing her signature cat ear hoodie. <meow> She waved to me, I waved back and then pulled a child-sized velour cap with lil ears out of my bag and put it on. She cracks up. I head up to the 2nd floor and she showed me her cat mittens. We talked about doing a group picture of cat people sometime. The project went into hibernation but now with the warmer weather here in Vegas (expected to go triple digits this
weekend) it was back on the front burner.

So this morning I padded up to Duke’s row and this “eary” sight greeted me.

Going from the left, we have Duke the Bunny, Danny the Reindeer, Derek the Koala (when he is not the pink gorilla) Jenna Cat, Lucas the Elephant, Megan cat, Melody with mittens, Toni the Tiger (behind Melody), Stacey cat, Shannon Reindeer and Augusta bunny. Click >HERE< to see a video clip.

Here’s a closing Cattitude quote from Melody - /Humans: No fur, no paws, no tail. They run away from mice. They never get enough sleep. How can you help but love such an absurd animal?/

At Zappos we have a very unique culture where each team and/or department is responsible for creating their own environment. By environment, we mean our surroundings…our home away from home…the place that we live and breathe Zappos.

While it's unheard of in most companies, at Zappos we tend to think it breathes a little life into what could otherwise be very drab and dreary office walls. Plus, it’s kinda fun!

So, what’s the marketing theme? Hint: Save the Customer, Save the World.

Okay, you’ve got it! Heroes! Here’s a quick introduction to a few of the heroes in the marketing department and what they think their superpowers are:

Fletch, the Investigative Reporter (aka Andy)
Super Shopping Woman (aka Ashley)
Guitar Hero (aka Brian)
Ultimate Multi-Tasker (aka Britni)
Search Sensei (aka Darrin)
Fairy Godmother (aka Holly)
Kristaman, does what the Kristaman can do (aka Krista)
Rapid Reader/ Predicting the Future (aka Libby)
Bionic Woman (aka Linda)
Keeper of Time (aka Michelle)
Donatello’s Voice of Reason (aka Mig)
Mandal Man (aka Ned)
Flying Wonder Woman (aka Rachel)
El Sonador - The Dreamer (aka Robert)
Spreadsheet Surfer (aka Vegas)

If you had to pick what kind of hero you’d be or superpower you’d have, who/what would you be? Comments welcome! Oh and by the way, we're always looking for more heroes to join us in the good fight!

Here at Zappos.com, our new CLT reps have many hurdles to go through to becoming full time employees, and today we are going to discussing Incubation.

After leaving our fantastic CLT training course, they head to what we call "Incubation." I visualize it as a "training outside of training." It's purpose is to fine tune the skills that you have learned in training and also get you acclimated with the general "ways of the call center floor." They move to the call center building, focus more their acquired skills and work together as
a team. With that being said, here is an account of one of our new employees, Derek Flores, who is currently in Incubation. Take it away, Derek!

"Today is the seventh day in incubation, and let me tell you, we are getting the whole Zappos experience. Our leads are awesome and have done a lot in helping us understand and overcome the various challenges that we will face once we get out onto the floor. First, we
have Jim who is the lead of the morning shift, 6:00-3:00. Then we have Derek (D-Rock) and Abbie who have the later shift, 11-8. Overall, we are very impressed with their knowledge base regarding the questions we have for them. It's kind of hard to stump them, but I am waiting for that one question that will get Jim to say, "Wow, never heard that one before!" I feel that these guys, and girl, are a great fit for our group of unique individuals.

Each day has been very interesting and fun as we are introduced into the Zappos Culture. We are all embracing the core values and are doing so through Core Value Presentations. Each person is paired up with another person within Incubation and assigned a core value to present to the entire class. So far we have had some great presentations, but these couple have stood out in my mind.

Noelle and Liz's group were assigned, Creating Fun with a Little Weirdness and they brought in pipe cleaners and clay for us to make weird little objects. Some people made unique things out of the pipe cleaners and others made really weird objects out of the clay, but it showed each and every one of us that we all can create fun and a little weirdness.

One more presentation I have to write about is Randy and Greg's group. There core value presentation was on Building an Open and Honest Relationships with Communication. They brought in bread, peanut butter and jelly and wanted us to explain to Greg how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, as if he had never made one before. I will let you know that one of us did not tell Greg to use a knife and he stuffed his whole hand into the peanut butter....it was quite a sight. The presentations are good because each group has related the core value to something that we encounter everyday here at Zappos and how we can use them to either help better us or overcome challenges that accompany the job.

Well, so far, so good, with seven days under our belt. Tune in later for more from the wonderful world of Incubation."

Thanks Derek, hang in there!!

Last night the B shift photo department had a going away party for our beloved Jeremy I. and Travis A.

Luckily, Zappos is not losing these fine boys completely, but our shift will have some big shoes to fill now.

Jeremy has been working at with us in the photo department for around 11 months. He has been an asset to the apparel department during his 9 months on B-shift Photo. Next week he is transferring to A-shift Photo!

Travis, has been working at Zappos for almost a year. He has been working as a very helpful photo assistant in the apparel studio for the past 3 months on B-shift Photo. He will be venturing back out to the FC as a C-shift Receiving team member.

One of our apparel photographers, Abby, had an opportunity to ask them a few questions during the party:

Q: What are you going to miss the most about B-shift photo?

Jeremy: I am going to miss pranking A-shift with the annoy-a-tron. Since I will be on A-shift, I won't be able to play pranks on them with the annoy-a-tron, but I will miss working with the B-shift crew, and 11 o'clock trivia!

Travis: I will miss everyone's sense of humor and inside jokes with random people!

Q: Are you excited about your new position?

Jeremy: I'm nervous about waking up so early, but excited to have my nights free!

Travis: Yes! It presents me with new opportunities to better myself.

Q: Tell me a memory from working in B-shift photo.

Jeremy: Winning the annual photo Beard Off! (After 12 weeks Jeremy won the beard off and donated his winnings to Dreams with Wings.)

Travis: The going away party with great food, especially the awesome queso and dirty rice!

Q: Do you have any parting words of advice as you venture onto your life outside of B-shift photo?

Jeremy: In the words of our old pal Joe C. "Liquor before beer never fear. Beer before liquor never sicker."

Travis: Make sure when you are in the LS, (the apparel studio) everything is straight, steamed, and ironed or there will be heck to pay, HECK I TELL YOU!!

GOOD LUCK GUYS WE"LL MISS YOU!!

Core Value #7: Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
And thats one thing these sisters do best. Not only does Katie and Sarah work for the same awesome company they work in the same crazy department! When they arent jumping around or hanging out with random statues, you can find them working hard in our Finance Dept. I was lucky enough to catch up with them and ask them a few random questions!

What was your favorite childhood show/book?

Sarah: Popples or the Care Bears! We owned everything they made!

Katie: My Little Pony forever and ever!

What do you like about working at Zappos?