Fun and weirdness was the mood of the day, as team members from the photo department started showing up dressed like nerds. No, they are not strange, just willing participants in the Polar Bear plunge, where the theme for Zappos employees is nerds. They decided to show off their nerdy costumes in all their glory, so everyone could enjoy their hard work in devising their costumes, before they plunged into the bitterly cold Ohio river the next day.

It felt a little like stepping back into a Revenge of the Nerds movie. It also started a round of nerdy laughs and snorts in our startup meeting that would continue throughout the day.

They deserve a special thanks for bringing fun into our day as well as doing something extraordinary for the Special Olympics.



Blog by Lynn G.
Photo By Joon K.
Graphic design by Alex M.

What does half a keyboard, hot chocolate, puzzles, cupcakes and bowling have in common?

It is a way to pass a culture baton! Starting at the January All Hands Meeting, 10 batons, representing the Zappos.com Core Values, were distributed to various departments. When a team receives a baton they must demonstrate the core value in a fun and creative way as they pass it to another department or shift. For example, Core Value #8 Do More With Less Baton was passed by replacing a laptop with a half (yes half) of a keyboard. CV #7: Build a Positive Team and Family Sprit included one of the tastier demonstrations, a cupcake challenge! Teams only have two weeks to pass the baton on. Once the baton has been passed, an entry is made into the culture baton log. At the end of the year, the results will be tallied and we will see which baton has the most passes!



Blog and Photos by Sarah J!

Brett H. Prides himself on being very knowledgeable on the subject of Film, so naturally he entered the Oscar Contest. Our Cruise Ship Director, Jamie N. Hosted the First Annual Oscar contest at Zappos.com, and had over 30 entries! We encouraged Brett to enter the Contest, but also Encouraged him to be Humble in Doing so. Check out the Video to see How Brett Did!!!

So how many cupcakes do you think you can eat in 3 minutes? Do you really think you can eat more than 20? If so, then you will have to talk to the champion Logan R., from our Maintenance department in KY!

He ate 20 cupcakes in 3 minutes!! All challengers were not allowed to use their hand and had to have an assistant feed them the cupcakes, or shove them in their face is more like it! Logan's assistant was April. This was held in Photo Studio 1 and it was for one of the ten culture batons. The Create fun and a Little Weirdness baton was passed to Maintenance. Basically we have ten batons and each have a Core Value. The trick is you have to do something that pertains to that core value in order to pass it to another department. And Maintenance rose to the challenged and crushed all competitors!

We had a second round that was up for anyone who wanted to join in just for fun. And Kyle S. won that one by eating 16 cupcakes!! Everyone had a blast, and was very entertained to say the least! Thanks to everyone from the KY Content Team for making and bringing in all those cupcakes!!



Picture collage and blog by Lisa M!

Zappos employees rely on the 10 core values to guide them on the way they work and do business each day. Last week the Zappos customer loyalty team participated in a core value challenge to celebrate the three year anniversary of the start of Zappos core values.

Every month, CLT has different fun contests to promote the core values, and help the employees continue to live them as much as possible.

Do you have unwanted books or music that you haven't listened to since snap bracelets and trapper keepers were in? ... Well, look no further!! I

The Zappos Book & CD exchange is here!! In the spirit of Core Values 5 & 8 ( Pursue Growth & Learning and Do More With Less) We have put bookshelves in the lunchroom & loaded them up with used books and music. The exchange works like this: bring in any books or music that you don't want anymore, put them on the shelves and if you see a book or disc that interests you, go ahead & take it! It's that simple. I'm a very avid reader & will often buy paperback books, only to have them pile up in my room after reading, here is the perfect outlet for those read books. It's a great way to save some many as well as pursue your musical & literary interest. So stop by the lunchroom & check out the shelves!!

We have started a monthly dress up theme for each department in the warehouse. This month, the Content team chose to wear as much Zappos stuff as possible. We had some pretty creative ideas. Some people wore as many Zappos shirts as they could get their hands on. We had a pair of binoculars made from Zappos shot glasses. We had a lot of Zappos hats, some strategically placed Zappos ducks, some hand made creations including a zollar headband and artisically altered Zappos shirts. I took the Zappos card deck and pinned the cards on my jeans and put the Zappos car visor around my neck like a cape. We all had a great time creating some fun and weirdness in the Photo Studio!



Written By Jessica A!

The Content Team here at Zappos.com is gung ho about being Gung Ho, so now you're in the know, Joe! Sure, Zappos has their own set of core values, but the Content Team decided to come up with their own. It is important to have company wide core values, but they thought it was also important to have a more intimate set of values that related directly to the Content Team.

Here is what they came up with:

1. Bridge the gap through communication
2. Work with a sense of urgency
3. Take ownership and pride with integrity
4. Be committed to personal and company growth through continuous improvement
5. Work as a team with honesty and trust
6. Push the envelope and work towards the bigger picture
7. Exercise patience and empathy when dealing with others
8. Take your job seriously, not yourself
9. Encourage group growth through continuous education and sharing of knowledge
10. Strive to become your personal best by trying something new each day

Pretty cool, huh? What can be cooler than that, you ask? Well, they have been doing some pretty creative presentations on the different core values. Here is one that Miranda W., Kenny L., Vanessa S., Ash S., Dana B. and Jason Lee presented at the last Content meeting. Fear not, it's just the Zwilight Zone, but what if....

Embrace And Drive Change, which is core value #2 here at Zappos.com, is very understood by Zappos employees, especially lately; There has been a lot of movin' & shakin' goin on around here lately!

The entire Merchandising area has made a move, and not to be outdone, the Delp Desk has moved as well! Throughout the past we were always located upstairs in 2280, and at the beginning of this week, we made the transition to the 'burbs by moving downstairs next to monkey row! The travel & services teams of the Help Desk are now all in one spot with our managers..... yipee!!

You can still locate our reception team at the front desks of both buildings, but should you need to find us at any time, look no further than monkey row! We look forward to seeing everyone soon :)

On Tuesday, February 10, we had our ice cream social for the whole KY content department. We as a team were challenged to each write an entry for the company culture book. Everyone had to write an entry in order to have the party. We all went around encouraging those who were unsure and helped them out if they needed it. At the end, almost everyone did do it. It was a great "building team and family spirit" experiment.

Luckily, because the turn out was SO CLOSE to 100%, we still had our parties!! B-shift had theirs after lunch time. The girls all sat around in a circle to have an "ice cream slumber party".

Theresa came up with that idea and she asked everyone to tell about their first real kiss. We found out some juicy stuff. Did you all know that Laura's lasted five hours?? And that Theresa can't stand to hear the word saliva?

We had great laughs while the boys of the group watched us from a distance, laughing and commenting to each other about the things we were talking about. Eventually some of them joined the girls group. We ended the party with everyone talking about astronomy and how to read our astrological birth charts. We went back to work with a sugar high that quickly crashed, causing us all to feel very sleepy.

Thanks to our managers who put this party together! What a great time!

Jerry and Liz always try to create a little fun around the office for all their fellow Zapponians, as well as the guests that visit Zappos on a daily basis.

They recently brought their new pets to the office to share with everyone.

Each month our Customer Loyalty Team participates in activities that work on learning and living each of Zappos core values. This past month they participated in a piggy bank contest that incorporated core value #2 - "Embrace and Drive Change."

Each team built a bank, and then tried to see which team could collect the most change. All the money collected was donated to the Nevada Childhood Caner Foundation. Here is Lauren C. showing how her teams bank works.

Our Tall and Talented Jason M shows you how he does More with Less, in Episode 2 of this new series. All of our Video Descriptions are done in our Las Vegas Headquarters, and this video contains a little behind the scenes action as well!

I’m sure when many of us at Zappos hear the word socks, the first thing we think of is the things that go on your feet before your shoes. However, there is another lesser know type of SOX that is very important to all of us here at Zappos.

The Sarbanes – Oxley Act (SOX) was created in 2002 to protect investors from corporate accounting fraud in public companies. This act puts accounting standards in place to assure a company's investors that everything is on the up and up.

Being that Zappos is a private company, why does this affect us? Zappos is known for being open and honest with their employees, vendors, business partners, etc. and this is just another way of doing this. Even though the Zappos executives were not required to do so, they decided to early adopt this policy and make sure we are completely compliant with SOX. This provides confidence in our practices to anyone who is working for or with Zappos.

Our wonderful TLD teacher Devlyn teaches the class, and does a great job explaining how all of this affects many jobs here at Zappos on a day to day basis. She also makes it fun and exciting with games and trivia throughout the class. Remember, this class is part of the Zappos Pipeline core classes, so check out the class schedule on the wiki and sign up today, Zapponians!

This is the first installment of our new "Do More with Less" Blog! Since Zappos introduced it's 10 Core Values to Employee's in 2006, we not only use them at work but most of us also use them in our everyday lives. The Blogs team has been going around the office to find employees that have Exuded Core Value #8, and Liz definitely Fits the Bill. Check it out Below!

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