Morale Building of Olympic Proportions

Today's guest poster can probably be identified if the right person reads this. Guest poster said, "So what?"

So we're holding a company Olympics. It's a phenomenal idea for morale building. Like most phenomenal ideas at GTM, the execution leaves something to be desired. We've got many events. We've got a leadership team (and meetings). We've got committees (and meetings). We've got an intranet (and meetings).

So what do I get as an event leader? The aforementioned meetings, which I don't mind because my committee actually makes progress. We come to each meeting armed with the information we were tasked with gathering or completed tasks from the last meeting and take it to the next level. We are a happening committee.

Daily I get emails from people who signed up for my event or people asking if sign ups are still open, what's the schedule, etc. It would be nice to have a central location where leaders could post information about their event rather than an email here, or an email there. But wait, we have a company intranet! Why not have an Olympics area where information can be posted? Great idea. But like many things at GTM, the execution leaves something to be desired.

A meeting was held for the leaders to train them how to access their pages, edit their pages, upload pictures and other files to be posted in the different event sections. I took careful notes. When I went to my event's page, the menu I was told to use was nowhere to be found. I wish I could say this is a rare occurrence but it is typical GTM.

An email to IT got that fixed, but I wasn't able to return to the page until today. After our most recent committee meeting I had data to post on the page along with a request for information from the already signed up participants. This time the option to edit my page is there. I begin to follow the instructions for posting a picture and hit another stumbling block. The section of the intranet where I was told to upload pictures does not give me the option to upload files of any sort. Not even a simple text document.

So how am I supposed to get this information out? Well I did what we've always done in the past. I sent an email to everyone. And what do I get back? An email from the highest of highs telling me "...no more everyone emails, OK?" Not, "I thought we had the intranet for this." or, "Why aren't you using your event page?" No, just a scolding. Gee, I wouldn't have sent the everyone email if the effing tool they gave me worked. It probably didn't help that I had to send the email twice due to my mis-spelling the email address of a committee member, but shesh Dave. Get a clue.

I will think twice about volunteering for this sort of thing again. One thoughtless person just sucked all the joy I was getting out of the GTM Olympics. Quite frankly I've hated my job for so long that the only reason I volunteered for this was to put some fun back in it. Big mistake.