Yes, They Pay Me For This Stuff
We had a really fun event at work in our parking lot on Friday - The Forklift Olympics.
Basically, the guys (and they were all guys) drove the forklift through an obstacle course, moved a bucket of water from one pad to another, picked up a basketball and dunked it and some other maneuver that was at the other end of the course. The winner was the one who did it in the best time. They did apply penalties for knocking stuff since one guy pretty much just mowed everything down last year for a fast finish.
It was more than just that, though. We had an MC, official Cheerleaders complete with pom-poms and rehearsed cheers and side betting.
The side betting was well thought out. For $2 a driver, you got his card (think baseball card - we are a printing company so they were really nice) and a chance to win half of the money if he won. The deal was that half of all of the money collected went into our corporate charity fund and the other half went to the person who was randomly picked from those who bet on the winning driver.
I had $10 on me the day I thought to buy in and I did invest in the guy who won. However, they didn't draw my name. It was a guy in our department, though, and he got $300 from his $2 investment. He tried to give it back but our VP of Human Resources made him keep it. Rightfully so, in my opinion.
What I didn't realize is that forklifts just don't move that fast. It took each guy 6 minutes or more to run his route and I think there were 8 contestants in all. I ended up going back inside to work on my Google stuff about half way through the second contestant. A lot of folks stayed out for the whole thing. It was a beautiful day and a nice chance to connect with co-workers.
Basically, the guys (and they were all guys) drove the forklift through an obstacle course, moved a bucket of water from one pad to another, picked up a basketball and dunked it and some other maneuver that was at the other end of the course. The winner was the one who did it in the best time. They did apply penalties for knocking stuff since one guy pretty much just mowed everything down last year for a fast finish.
It was more than just that, though. We had an MC, official Cheerleaders complete with pom-poms and rehearsed cheers and side betting.
The side betting was well thought out. For $2 a driver, you got his card (think baseball card - we are a printing company so they were really nice) and a chance to win half of the money if he won. The deal was that half of all of the money collected went into our corporate charity fund and the other half went to the person who was randomly picked from those who bet on the winning driver.
I had $10 on me the day I thought to buy in and I did invest in the guy who won. However, they didn't draw my name. It was a guy in our department, though, and he got $300 from his $2 investment. He tried to give it back but our VP of Human Resources made him keep it. Rightfully so, in my opinion.
What I didn't realize is that forklifts just don't move that fast. It took each guy 6 minutes or more to run his route and I think there were 8 contestants in all. I ended up going back inside to work on my Google stuff about half way through the second contestant. A lot of folks stayed out for the whole thing. It was a beautiful day and a nice chance to connect with co-workers.
