Here on the Kids’ Content Team, we all work under the watchful eye of Nick P. He is a leader, mentor and a darn good griller, despite the fact that he is only working with one and a half thumbs. Nick’s path to greatness started off in an odd way. He was born two weeks early, but still weighed in at an enormous 14 lbs. Stories have been told that he was born with a full beard on his face and a spatula in his hand.

When Nick was 3 years old his right thumb was crushed by a steel door and he was never the same. He was forced to use his left hand to complete his everyday tasks while ol’ stumpy healed. To this day, Nick can use both hands equally, which if you ask me is just plain creepy. He claims that he eats with his right hand, throws with his left, plays tennis and ping pong with his right, writes with his left and can swing a bat either direction, but I don’t actually believe that he plays tennis.

Nick never let his stump slow him down. At one point he was on a swimming team, a diving team, 3 soccer teams, a football team and a baseball team at the same time. His parents were forced to tell him to pick a sport and go with that one. In Nick’s free time he enjoys going to see live music, particularly jam bands. He has been to over 70 music festivals and 40 Phish shows and still claims that he is not a hippie. He also enjoys haggling with hippies and people in general. He has one word of advice-never pay full price in an open market over-saturated setting.

In all seriousness, Nick loves the Kids Content Team and the Kids Content Team loves Nick. I asked him what he likes most about working at Zappos, which is definitely a hard question for everyone who works here. Here is what he said, “The thing I like the most about Zappos is waking up in the morning and still liking my job after nearly 3 years. Most people go to work because they have to and they do so every day with a chip on their shoulder. Maybe it’s just a means to an end for them. Maybe they hate their job and just see it as a paycheck. I like being able to honestly say that coming to work is something I like to do. I feel like what I do makes a difference and I truly enjoy what I do.”

Beautiful and so touching.

Now I’m sure you understand why I say: Thumbs are overrated!

It all started one day when:

Erin R. of Sheboygan Wisconsin, claimed she had never tasted fried bologna. Being a friend to her, I knew this was a shame. Her fanatical love for hot dogs was well known to all, and being that this landed in the same mystery meat class, I knew she’d love it.

The following day happened to be a Friday. I made sure to bring enough sandwiches for everyone, cut in small triangles for convenience. I wasn’t in the least bit nervous about how the first-timers feel about it.

The food was a BIG hit. Thus, creating the bi-weekly tradition of Fried Bologna Friday.

Written by Jessica T.

Kyle loves him some fried bologna Friday’s! Even the heartburn that comes with it!

Ok…not exactly, but my fashion-forward neighbor Jonathan showed up to work today with the most pimp-ish jacket I’ve seen within these Zappos walls. Keep in mind that we are located in Las Vegas and it’s the middle of a scorching hot summer! That doesn’t stop the fashionably-adventurous Jonathan from breaking out his pimp-blue “faux” snake blazer. Note to self: animal prints are going to be hot trend this fall! Must stock up now!

Yes, we have no, bananas!! Working here at Zappos, you just never know what you may encounter. One thing is for sure, if you are a night worker, and something is left on your desk with your name on it, (so everyone will know that it belongs to you and you alone, otherwise everyone thinks all things are common) you never know what may be there to greet you when you return the next night. You can definitely be assured though, it won’t look like what it did when you left!

Ahh!! Such a lonely looking banana. Jimmy must really think that this is a treat that he wants to enjoy tomorrow. Or, Wait!! Was he actually starting something that he was testing all the rest of us daytimers with? Well, Jimmy, we daytime members are a little more educated than what you give us credit for. Yeah! I guess we showed you!

So, next time you leave something behind, be prepared to have everyone get their hands on your banana! This was fun for most, but was not “appealing” to all of the others. But this is for you, Jimmy M…......

Written by Mark S.

A while back, Tara B and I did some brainstorming, pinpointed some areas within the Content Team that could benefit from some special attention and created the Specialist Program. Hey, Embrace and Drive Change, , right? Today, we had a little ceremony for our first ever Content Team Specialists and handed out icons that represent these new positions.

Holding the big red pencils are our Editing Specialists. Hannah E., Heather T. and Jennifer B. are responsible for reviewing all of the product descriptions and ‘about texts’ throughout the week. They send each team a report detailing the mistakes they’ve found and will be also be conducting a workshop this week, which I am excited to attend as I’ve been known to misspell a word or two wrong from time to time (wink, wink)!

Nick P., the guy with the beard holding his very own EDI gnome, is not only the Category Manager for the Kids team, but he is also our EDI Specialist. He does a great job helping out the rest of the team with document testing and troubleshooting issues that arise along the way. Trust me when I say that this is no easy task!

Jannel Veal has got our whole world in her hands as our Wiki Specialist. She has updated our Content Team page by making it totally organized, not to mention aesthetically pleasing. There are even team photos. Check out how much we’ve grown. Each team within Content has its own page with category specific information that is really informative and
useful!

Down in front with the red boxing gloves is Dana., our Training Specialist. She organized a page on our Wiki with extensive training information for new hires and pros alike. She will also be helping the management team create some standardized tests for our progression plan.

Look closely and you will see that Kenny Lucas has in his possession a framed picture of the infamous Tila Tequila. No, we did not create a So Bad it’s Good Reality TV Specialist, but we do have our very own TEQUILA/MTPA Specialist. These are the two different tools that our Detailers use to create products in our system. Kenny has done a great job creating a ‘how to’ guide on the Wiki and keeps the team updated on changes.

Hiding behind Kenny is our very own SAP Specialist, Shanda F., with a bottle of maple sap. Shanda also put together a Wiki page with a ‘how to’ section for SAP. She also communicates with Accounting regarding the new supplier set up process. She is our go-to girl for the SAP system.

And then there is Jonathan H. our Librarian Specialist! Jonathan reads at least one book a week from the Zappos Library and summarizes it for the rest of the team in his weekly email, Letters from the Librarian. In these emails, he includes fun facts about our product types and a short bio on a featured designer. Lastly, Jonathan put together a ‘Creative Content’ class for the team that inspires individuals to (in his own words) “spice up their style.”

As you can see, we have a lot of really talented people who Deliver WOW Through Service daily. Stay tuned…more Content Team Specialists are on the way!

The beauty of shopping at Zappos.com is that you can buy whatever your heart desires, any time of the day. Take Jason Lee for instance; he decided one afternoon that he wanted…no, NEEDED this 3-pack of brightly colored underwear (tighty whities, as some may call them). This isn’t exactly the first time Jason has purchased undies from Zappos, and he always insists on causing a scene by wearing them on his head and parading around the office. Just kidding! Although it’s hard not to notice that big smile he gets whenever he opens a fresh new Zappos box filled with tighty whities…; it’s like a kid on Christmas morning!

Every month the photo department gets a cake for everyone’s birthday of that month, and to welcome the new comers to the department. There is so much cake going on in that department!

I guess the person making the cake didn’t think that newbie was the right word or they thought it was a person? Either way, it’s funny!

Welcome New Bies! :D

It began as a simple photograph of our new mannequins, for posterity purposes. I was uploading my image and showed it to a couple of coworkers nearby. Being the creative bunch that we are, we innocently thought of fun ways to alter the picture using photoshop. Then without hesitation Steven T. challenged me to a photoshop duel! Thus began the “Iron Photoshoper Challenge”!

The rules were very basic:

1) You must use the photograph of the new mannequins.
2) Size: 8.5×11 inches
3) Dpi: 72 – 300
4) You can manipulate the image any way as long as Photoshop was used.
5) BE CREATIVITY! Yes, creativity, which is more then just creative!

We had the whole weekend to work on our project, but both Steven and I kind of procrastinated until the last minute. I spent an hour or so working on mine with the idea of an ‘Antarctica Nude Beach theme’ since our mannequins were not clothed. Steven decided to take his mannequins to the dance floor! He even added a break-dancing mannequin!

On the due date, we anonymously turned in our pictures so the judges wouldn’t be swayed by the artist. Our judges were Taurie M. and Jimmy M. who were both present when the challenged commenced. They decided to judge based on image quality, color consistency, technicality, creativity, angle accuracy, and overall presentation using a scale from 1 – 5. After all the points were tallied up, my picture won out. However, both pictures were rated very high for creativity which was the whole point of the challenge, so we were both winners!

‘Iron Photoshoper’ was a really great, friendly competition that pushed us into taking it a step further – to be more creative and think imaginatively! I hope that we can start a new trend and have more Iron Photoshoper Challenges in the future!

Written by Abby B.