So, it's time once again to highlight some of our employee and their tattoos. With Zappos being such an open, employee friendly company, our employees have the freedom to show off their own unique personalities - and many of them show it off through their tattoos.

Some people just have one that they got on that one crazy night out with friends, and others, like Bill, have many years of tattoos across their body. But no matter how many they have, there are always stories behind them.

We, the C-Shift of Tech Support, have created life, and we shall call him… Nibble.

Nibble T. Half-Byte is our floppy haired new friend that was created out of madness, err… out of creating fun and a little weirdness. C-Shift (Blake and Kristy) each work alone except for one night a week. We get lonesome on some of the quiet nights as we work on our projects. It gets tough not having anyone immediately available to bounce ideas off of, and not having someone there when you’re thinking too hard about how to resolve an issue to tell you ‘Hey, silly, plug in the power cord!’. For these moments, Nibble is there for us. Don’t let his goofy exterior fool you; he’s a very intelligent and complex Tech Support Rep Jr..



Nibble The Half-Byte’s Bio

Hi! My name is Nibble, I work in Tech Support. I specialize in staring issues straight in the face and… well, waiting until staring fixes it. I am also a great tamer of the mischievous Kiva bots. I am a very hard worker and I love being part of the team. I resolve tickets in creative ways; usually I just throw myself into it (literally, as I have no arms to do much else). I love to have fun and frolic about the warehouse. I recently went on an outing with the team. We rode the conveyor coaster, played hide and seek, and worked on the world record for the biggest rubber band ball EVER! I also met a lot of new friends. Most people don’t quite understand me, and I love Zappos because everyone here accepts me for who I am. If you’re ever in KY and need some help with your computer stop by and I’ll help ya out!
Your friend,
Nibble

written by: Kristy W.

After the Passing of Michael Jackson on June 25th, we asked several Zappos.com Team Members to talk about their favorite Michael Jackson song. We were surprised how much different yet also similar everyone's taste in MJ tracks was!What's your favorite Michael Jackson Song? Please comment below!

Zappos.com athlete Jeremy Chardy played some great tennis in the First Round of Wimbledon on June 23rd versus American Favorite Andy Roddick. Prior to his appearance at Wimbledon last week, Jeremy was ranked 41st on the ATP Tour with a 21-16 record this year and no Titles to his name. We were extremely happy to see Jeremy Give Andy Roddick a run for his money in this awesome matchup.

Photos Courtesy of of Stuart at Corporate Graffiti

Photo Collage by our very own Matt W.

As we start to get into the summer months here in Las Vegas, everyone is always looking for ways to stay cool. With this week bringing us several days of 100 plus degree temperatures, our Cruise Ship team decided it was time to break out the summer activities. Today they had a snow cone day for us. With several great flavors to choose from, it was a cool treat for everyone.

If you work at Zappos.com in Las Vegas or have taken a tour of our offices in the past week, you already know that this game is spreading like wildfire. I'm sure we've all played games like this, but I must say this is the most difficult of it's type I have ever experienced. We decided to go around the office and see if anyone had the skills to battle, but I think we may have to let everyone practice for a week to get their chops up to par. Stay tuned for the Barrel on a Stick Tournament!

On most days the Casual lifestyle department is known as the Comfort, Euro-Comfort, Slipper and Size and Width and Housewares buying team. Yesterday however, they were known as the department filling the downstairs office with the smell of amazing food. Latrira S. gives us a little more insight into this cool and very delicious get-together.

Once the New Hires Graduate from their one month CLT training course they go straight to incubation where they are watched closely and receive helpful feedback to take with them once they are released into the wild. And we know it's stressful being new to the CLT Floor, so they schedule fun Core Value arts and craft time to help relieve some of the tension.

So just when you think you can tie your shoes correctly someone like Debbie Weitzman comes along and tells you that you're doing it all wrong (she should know, she is Stuart's niece). That's right, it all happened last week when we had the pleasure of having Debbie tour our Henderson Headquarters and upon introduction she glanced down at my shoes and screamed out "look at those laces! Come here, you're a mess!" And before I had time to take that remark personally, she was already in the process of retying and explaining the correct way to tie a shoe. And since the difference was so amazing, we decided to walk around the office a find other Zapponians in need of a shoe lace makeover.

Thank you Debbie for schooling me and all of Zappos in the art of shoe tying. Our bows will never be lopsided again!

This week our Customer Loyalty Team's graveyard shift celebrated its 5th anniversary. That's right, June 21, 2004 is the day Zappos started WOWing customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of the reasons Zappos moved to Las Vegas from the Bay Area five years ago, was for the 24 hour workforce and culture that is alive and well in this town. So, shortly after moving to Las Vegas the graveyard shift was started.

The amazing thing is that even though the graveyard shift only started with just a handful of people, five years later, we still have a couple of the original members here working on the shift.

So just remember, when you're curled up in bed at night - "You sleep, they Wow!" And if you ever find yourself up on the computer in the middle of the night, and what to find some shoes, clothes or a handbag, just go to Zappos.com. While you're having fun shopping, if you need help or even just want to say hi, give our graveyard team a call, because they would love to help you out. We're here 24 hours a day, online and in person.

Today is the Kentucky All Hands Meeting for all Zappos Fulfillment Center employees! Matter of fact, it's happening right now! Brett is there and these photos are literally from a few minutes ago. We wanted to show the meeting as it is happening!

As you may have seen, on June 1st, the employees from the Vegas headquarters all met at the Henderson Pavilion for this 2nd annual event, and now it's Kentucky's turn.

Just like in Vegas, the 2009 yearbooks were handed out to everyone, and excitement is in the air!

Do you remember that first job working at the local fast food restaurant or grocery store. Some of those first jobs were so fun you wish you could still do them today and some the exact opposite – you wouldn't go back no matter how much you were paid. Some people had big aspirations of working for a pro sports franchise when they get older – our very own John D. lived that dream in his early years.

On this latest first jobs video, Zappos employees tell us about some of their first and worst jobs.

We have several Decorated rooms at Zappos.com, but this time we wanted to showcase a very special one. The Meeting room at the Kentucky Fulfillment Center. Craig A. tells us why these decorations are more than just aesthetically pleasing.

After our All Hands Meeting we thought it would be a grand idea to film a classic downhill charge scene much like the one in Braveheart - only Zappos style. So instead of William Wallace we have Tony, Alfred and Fred proudly holding the Zappos flags and leading our unarmed army of Zapponians down the hill towards, well, no one really. However, Max M. bravely stood at the bottom off the hill in front of the charge to capture still shots of this momentous event and pieced them together to make this stop motion video. You rock Max!

Many Zapponians have one if not several tattoos, and since we're a company that allows our employees to show their sleeves proudly, we're going around the office inviting our coworkers to share their body art with us. And as everyone knows, where there's a tattoo, there's a story behind it and today Stephanie, Heather and Lyle are highlighting their favorite tattoos (or the tattoos that they can show) and giving us the stories that go along with 'em.

We like talented people here at Zappos.com and we respect all talents from being able to stand on your head while eating a bowl of cereal to coding up something magical for our site. Liz G., today's Zapponian of the Day, is a woman of many talents, one of which is being able to scratch behind her ear with her foot, kinda like a cat AMAZING! But one talent that she is most known for around the office is her better-than-Broadway voice that she uses to serenade coworkers with her group,The Zappettes.

And that my friends is why Liz is our Zapponian of the Day.

At our NYC Tweetup in the Hudson Hotel we asked our twittering guests if they have ever tweeted out something that wasn't entirely true and or have been guilty of drunk twittering.

Let's see what they have to say.

At the end of each quarter, our Finance department has a team event to celebrate their accomplishments and have a little fun before the next quarter. Each event has a different theme, and this quarters was "Crazy Hat Day."

Check out how creative our Finance depatment can be.

That's right, we have so Many Tattoos at Zappos.com it will Blow your mind. We really like Body Art, but the stories behind them make them even cooler. If you have any interesting Tattoo Stories, please comment below.

When Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh travels, his Twitter following is never far behind. Especially this week when Tony was in the great city of New York speaking at the Twitter Boot Camp and the 140 Characters conferences on Monday and Tuesday. Brett and Melissa from the Zappos Blogs team followed along to a Tweetup sponsored by Zappos at the Hudson Hotel on Monday evening, and it was a fine time, indeed! We had a great selection of our Twitter friends show up and dance the night away.
Here is a little introduction to everyone!

When you think about a Finance department, you don't normally think of guys doing crazy things like betting on getting a mohawk hairdo over a UFC fight – but then again, this is Zappos we're talking about.

Scott S. lost the bet and had to get a mohawk, and since we're all about team spirit around here, Daniel and Lakshan went ahead and joined in on the fun.

Almost on a daily basis, you will find random, fun things going on here at the office, and it usually happens when someone comes up with an idea and just runs with it.

So the other day, our Cruise Ship Captain, Jamie N. decided we should have an eating contest. An email went out to the company, and the next day everyone gathered around a multitude of packages of Oreo cookies in the lunchroom, and the contest was on.

Congratulations to Ryan I. for being the fastest at eating Oreo cookies.

PURE nightclub sponsored an event for the 2009 Corporate Challenge closing ceremonies last Saturday Night, and gave our Zappos Help Desk several tickets to hand out to Team Members. Each ticket admitted 2 people and it was first come, first serve, so needless to say, they went fast! We definitely appreciate an excuse to get out and get our groove on outside of the office with coworkers any chance we get, so we would like to say Thank You to PURE Nightclub for the perfect opportunity.



Picture above are just a few of the lovely Zappos.com Ladies who made an appearance!

So this weekend marked the closing of the 2009 Corporate Challenge here in Las Vegas. Over the past two-plus months, we've had numerous team and many of our employees competing in events throughout Las Vegas.

We had an amazing amount of employee participation this year: From the team participants, the employees who were volunteers for certain events, and everyone who went out and supported all the teams. Because of this, even with moving up to a higher division last year, we ended this year the highest place we've had in the five years in this competition.

A big thank you goes out to Dory and Anne for coordinating all the events and making everything run so smooth. Also, thank you Ros for coordinating the blood drives that were part of this - look for more blood drives throughout the year. Overall, thank you to everyone who help make this a successful event for us at Zappos.

A few weeks ago, our friend Jay Spaleta at Footwear News sent Tony the gift of music (well, at least he tried) as well as another opportunity to Pursue Growth and Learning. Local Jazz Musician Michael Ray Tyler arrived at our offices with the mission to teach Tony how to whistle, and had no idea what he was getting himself into. Not only does Tony not know how to whistle, but Snapping his fingers is also quite a challenge. Senior Blogger Brett H. joined Tony in this lesson, as he has absolutely zero whistling skills either. Thank you both Jay Spaleta and Michael Ray Tyler, we hope you enjoy the video!

Like the mysterious things that are said to take place in Area 51, there were some really amazing things happening at our own Area 52 here at Zappos last week. Each day emails were sent out about promotions into this area. So we decided to investigate what was happening by speaking to Jane J., our Senior Manager in charge of our Customer Loyalty Team.

Our CLT team is our call center, which is our main interaction of Zappos and our customers. Area 52 is the management staff for CLT. While Zappos is know for customer service, and the amazing job our CLT does is one of the main reasons why, they feel like they want to continuously improve the level of service they give. With Zappos call center growing so rapidly over the past few years, they felt they wanted to make some changes that would strengthen the department, and the service they give even more.

Zappos believes that if you take care of your employees, they will in turn take care of the customers - happy employees = happy customers. The CLT department's goal for this year is to "Develop people and cultivate culture." By promoting several supervisors into management positions, this will allow each manager to have less reps under them, and therefore, build even stronger manager and team relationships.

Congratulations to all those going into Area 52's management staff, and thank you to everyone in CLT for continuing to deliver WOW through service.


Pictured above: Area 52 Customer Loyalty Management Team

Last Week our HR , Training and CLT departments hosted an Ice Cream Social to give our New Hires a chance to hang out with current Zappos.com Team members. The New Hire class received T-shirts which can be written on, which gave us the opportunity to say welcome to the team with Colored markers as well as conversation. The Ice Cream Social also allowed Current team members to eat all of the cookies and cream flavored ice cream in a matter of 10 minutes! Thank you to everyone who made this possible, we look forward to the next ice cream flavored event.

We love our Zappos Family, and we really love when members of our family come to work and let us celebrate it with them! Yesterday Dory had a birthday, and a few of us wanted to let her know just how special she is. Dory started working for Zappos in May of 2001, and she has been rocking our world ever since. A few of Dory's duties include, assisting in the setup of our very first warehouse, setting up our very first retail store and setting up our very first Las Vegas Outlet store. She now leads the Help Desk Team, welcoming and assisting our awesome vendors and Visitors. Happy Birthday Dory!!!

Zappos Zollar program is a fun way that Zappos managers use to recognize employees around the office for doing a good job. Zollars are made up money that Zappos uses to allow employees to purchase things from the Zollar store.

It may not seem like much, but it's just another great program we have here to show employees how valuable they are. Our Cruise Ship Captain, Jamie, who is in charge of the merchandise for the program, talks about how it was started and some of the new item being put in store.

Our Customer Loyalty team would like to thank our Merchandising department, as well as our vendors who participated in this Spring's Expos. We have Expos to show new products to our Team Members who answer emails and phone calls at Zappos.com....Thank you all!

Take it, CLT!

Zappos.com hosted their 2nd annual Thumb War last week, and the competition was more fierce than ever! The Competetition hosted both a Men's and Women's Tournament with the 1st place prize of a Thumb Sized Trophy and 50 Zollars for use in our Zollar Store. Team Members have been training for Months with hopes to claim the title, but of course there was only room for one winner in each division. Congratulations to Myra D. and Anthony S. for capturing their coveted victories!

Tattoos? Any? None? 23 of them? Some people have that desire to get ink done, and Zappos has no shortage of inked up employees! We sent out a company-wide email asking who would like to tell the stories of their tattoos, and we had an overwhelming response!

Here is Matt W.'s take on Zappos Tattoos!

This month was Zappos 10th anniversary, so we decided to have a contest using the the 10 materials associated with the first 10 anniversaries. Each team had to incorporate all 10 materials in their project, and the winning team would get to design their own Zappos T-shirt.

Congratulations to Sean Moore's team in CLT for their winning entry.

O'Neill Doheny slip on!

Today I came in and was excited to see that several folks had received new exercise balls from Think Ink Marketing. I noticed my Neighbor Melissa L. already had one and wasn't using her new one, so I immediately claimed it for myself. I've been using it for a little over a day and I can tell that my core and back muscles feel better already. Thanks Think Ink Marketing!

Can you remember back to that first job? Was it at the local fast food place, or retail store in the mall?

In this latest edition of First Jobs, Zappos employees' tell us about their experiences at the first and worst jobs they've had.

For our 10 year anniversary, Zappos gave all Kentucky and Nevada team members a 2009 Zappos Yearbook. Just like High school, we're taking turns signing each other's yearbooks(or Annuals as some people refer to them) and just chatting it up or looking at the pictures and taking a stroll down memory lane. We went around the office to see what a few folks found to be the most intriguing and or interesting part of this amazing anniversary gift.

Tattoos? Any? None? 23 of them? Some people have that desire to get ink done, and Zappos has no shortage of inked up employees! We sent out a company-wide email asking who would like to tell the stories of their tattoos, and we had an overwhelming response!

So, Jason C. brings us our first installment of Tattoo You!

It's been a long 32 days since some members of our Development Team at Zappos began growing their face-blankets, or beards, and Monday was the day that they shaved. And they decided that since they were shaving anyway, might as well get creative....so...behold: Creepy Beard Day.

Modern Amusement Nostalgic Blazer! Dig it!