Generation Y – are you ready to work?

As my 38^th birthday approaches, I realize that the past 5 years has given me a tremendous amount of life experience and business knowledge.  I am finally getting into a groove and feel comfortable with my role in life.  While I celebrate that accomplishment, I am also somewhat disturbed with the next generation.

 

First of all, I would like to exclude my current co-workers from these thoughts.  Right now, I have 7 highly capable and motivated people under the age of 21.  For them, I am very appreciative of the hard work and passion they bring.

What I want to discuss, however, is the others who have come and gone.   I have noticed some trends over the past few years that I have trouble with.  I am unsure of what the solution is, but hopefully there is a solution out there somewhere…

 

I can boil the tendencies down to 3 items: motivation, work ethic and entitlement.

Motivation:

Showing up – Does it really take that much effort to show up for work?

Finding work – Is it really necessary to hold your hand for each task?

Staying focused – Do you really need a break after a half hour?

Goofing off – Do you really need to find humor in everything you do?

Socialization – Can you spend some time on a task without making it a social event?

Sitting down – Are you motivated enough to actually stand up while you work?

Work Ethic:

Pace of work – Yes, you can get a lot done in 5 minutes, but can you keep it up for 2 hours? 4 hours?

Quality of work – Can you care enough about your work that you are proud of it?

Ability – Do you know how to work?  Or just how to text?

Entitlement:

Breaks – Do you need a break every half hour?  Or hour?

Pay – Can you begin at a starting wage, or do you already deserve what everyone else is making?

Advancement – Once you master a task, can you stick with it a while before thinking you should be doing your supervisor’s job?

Pay #2 – Do you deserve the pay of someone who has been working longer than yourself?

 

So here is my $.02 worth of advice to the next generation of workers.  Show up, do your job well, work hard and expect less.  There is opportunity in this world if you are able to learn these traits.  You might not get rich by the age of 25, but you will have the skills necessary to succeed later in life.

 

Maybe I am idealistic and getting old and crusty, but really, has our society changed that much that the younger generation doesn’t have a clue?  I am a fan of having fun.  I am willing to provide a special place to work.  I am willing to be generous and forgiving.  All I ask in return is to be flexible, motivated and hard working.  My thanks go out to Jeremy, Ryan, Justin K., Justin M., Erin, Hilary and Donna for being just that.  Hopefully others in your generation can follow by example.

 

Exposed! How merchants carry the load in fraud protection.

Passion runs deep for entrepreneurs.  I am no exception…especially when I feel I have been a victim of crime.  Although internet fraud is a crime, it is hard to trace and hard to prosecute.  This article is not aimed at the crook who steals from merchants, but more at the dysfunctional system that is in place to process transactions.  Is this system more at fault than the person who fraudulently uses a credit card?  You can decide.  Here is my latest story.

In June, we received an order for 15-20 plaques – including shipping the total for the order was $450ish.  The billing address and shipping address did not match, but the last name did.  This is a common occurrence for us.  The engraving information was odd, so per our protocol, I called the issuing card company to verify the legitimacy of the card.  The fraud department of the card company verified the address and was dumbfounded when I asked to call the cardholder to ask them if they placed the order.  Nobody answered the cardholder’s phone (if they even made the call) and the fraud department told me that the transaction was fine and to go ahead and ship their order and charge their card.  Needless to say, 3 weeks later, we received a ‘chargeback’ or notice that the cardholder was disputing the charge.  I called the fraud department back and confronted them on why they said the charge was OK.  Their response was vague and they told me their responsibility was to protect the cardholder.

So who is protecting the merchant?

After realizing I would get nowhere with the cardholder’s credit card processor, I called my own processor.  These are the people who we pay 2-3% of each transaction.  I thought there would be some sort of process that if the merchant checked and double checked the authenticity of the credit card, there would be some sort of backup insurance to protect the merchant.  Although very friendly and understanding, the conversation yielded the end result that they have no liability either.

So I ask the question, who is holding the liability?

Is it the cardholder?  No…no matter what they do, they dispute the charge and don’t have to pay.

Is it Visa/Mastercard/Amex/Discover? No, they simply process the transaction and play middle man in disputes.

My logic brings me to this conclusion…The cardholder passes blame to the credit card company.  They pass blame onto the merchant.  The merchant gets screwed.

 

In closing, I would like to give a giant, you are a loser shout out to the person who used Ms. Crawford’s credit card.  This person signed for the package at the address of 3279 BELLE GROVE, Memphis, TN, 38115.  The Miss Black Continental Newcomer or Mr. Black Continental Newcomer organization should be ashamed there are people out there using stolen cards to promote your group.

‘Tooting the Horn’ of the Awards Guru, now a CRP!

I am usually the last person to self-promote, give myself praise, or anything to that effect.  Believe it or not, it is really quite hard to give myself acknowledgement or recognition for what I do in the world.  I much rather give it to others, in particular my staff, family, friends or customers.  For this article, though, I will break that practice for a few minutes.

I recently completed the RPI (Recognition Professionals International) certification program that allows me to put the initials CRP after my name.  It means Certified Recognition Professional.  Even though the funny side of me wants to find out a cleaver way to drop an A in CRP, I haven’t figured out something suitable…yet.

Besides learning principles, disciplines and best practices, I learned a lot about the rewards and recognition industry.  I am fascinated by how certain businesses apply recognition to a corporate culture and yield tremendous results.  I am also fascinated why, despite a mountain of evidence and ease of application, that more managers and c-level executives are not begging to implement change in their business.  Over the last 4 days (plus several from last year, too), I saw practitioners who were supported by their management and those that weren’t.  Consistently, those who were supported from the CEO on down not only loved their job, but came through with the best effort and results for their company.

I also gained friendships from my fellow classmates that will enrich my life.  Besides the important stuff (food, drinks and laughter), I know feel like I have a support group that will help me when I run into difficulties.  Thanks as well to the RPI staff, instructors, other CRP graduates, and even the staff at the Newport Beach Marriott Resort and Spa.  All of you did a great job in putting together a world-class event.

If your job puts you in the world of practicing recognition or being a resource provider to businesses, please consider the CRP certification program.

If you are looking to partner with an awards supplier who knows far more than the norm, I am your man!  As far as I can tell, I am the first and only retail awards supplier member to become a CRP designee.  My co-workers also know their stuff, too :-).  We are ready to give our best - to serve you with knowledge, tools and products that assist with your recognition needs.

Should I give my kids trophies? What’s up with the attitude?

At a recent social function, I was confronted by an individual whom I have met previously.  He happened to be a touch inebriated, but his honesty was real and probably echoes the thought of others.  He said, “I don’t believe in giving my kids trophies, they should earn it.”

So there I was, the leader of an awards company, trying to defend why he should give his kid a trophy.  I gave it my best shot outlining the pros/cons of the psychological benefits of positive affirmation, etc. and he was still left with a blank look on his face.  In retrospect, my answer should have been, “don’t give them trophies, then.”  There seems to be a backlash of people who don’t want to give trophies.  I have heard so many reasons not to award trophies, that it seems as if my customers are bitter at me.  They think I am “forcing” them to buy their kid a trophy.

So then I sit and shake my head and think…what is up with the attitude?  Why are they so ticked off?  I might never say this to one’s face as it might start an argument, but here are a few of my hypothesis on why they are upset and don’t want to buy their kids trophies (am I serious or joking?  Hmmm, you decide.):

1) They didn’t win any trophies when they were a kid.  Are they still bitter from 30 years ago when they lost the championship game and didn’t get a trophy?  Note: that was 30 years ago.  This is now.  Get over it - you lost.  Don’t take it out on your kid.

2) They wish they would have gotten a trophy for ‘just showing up’.  Again, that was 30 years ago.  Fast forward to today.  I feel the truth is that kids do care about recognition.  They want to be validated by their coach or parents for a job well done.  Chances are there have been multiple instances when a child feels like they have done something recognition-worthy over the course of the season.  If you don’t want to buy them an award, why don’t you take them out for ice cream or give them a pat on the head…just don’t leave your kid thirsty for your praise.  This is what makes felons.

3) Cost – Things may be a little tight the wallet?  I understand this thought, but really, what else can you buy for $6-10 that will bring your child a touch of joy now and for years to come?

4) You don’t think a teammate’s family can afford it.  My guess is this is just trying to cover up #1, 2 or 3 above.  If it is the honest truth, though, I suggest checking to see if others are willing to chip in and buy that child’s award.  If they aren’t willing, please don’t leave the child out of your awards party.  Email me at jeff@trophies2go.com and I will see what I can do…

So here I am at the end of another monologue…here is my summary:

I want our customers to want to recognize their kids, employees or co-workers for accomplishing their goals and achieving success (however that may be defined by them).  These are the good things in life, why not celebrate them?!?!?  If you are having bitterness when it comes to buying awards, I invite you to reference the above reasons and see if these feelings are caused by your past.  If they are, maybe you can break the cycle and pass on some fun, joy or excitement in the form of a symbol of meaningful recognition – of course you can find these at www.trophies2go.com.

 

Fraud in the internet trophy and award industry

So you say, “Who in the world would want to try and steal trophies and awards on the internet?”  Believe me, they are out there.  Here is my notice to you: I WILL BRING YOU TO JUSTICE!  Church ladies in California, Crack smokers in Houston, People pretending to be school personnel in Connecticut, “Reverends” in Florida - all of you look out!  These are real life people who, in the past year have either defrauded or attempted to defraud my company.  How do they try?  Well, the obvious guess would be by a stolen credit card.  That is most often NOT the case.  They try and steal from us because we try and be nice.  By nice, I mean give the customer the option of paying with a check or submitting a purchase order (from a school or corporation) as a promise to pay by check.

• Some of the crooks try to prepay with a doctored check.  This is a felony.  Notice - I will call the FBI.
• Some of the crooks try and submit a fake purchase order.  This is stupid.  Notice - I am now an expert in the art of PO recognition. You think you are sneaky in the art of PO faking, but you are actually an idiot.
• Some of the crooks try and use a fake credit card.  Notice - do you really think we are going to send awards to New Jersey when the credit card belongs to an old lady in Kansas?  Try buying a big screen TV instead.
• And finally (and my favorite) - email requests.  To the infamous Africa-large-order-what-kind-of-credit-card-do-you-take email spammer: BITE ME!  Stop bugging us.  Maybe start using the BCC: function of your email so we don’t know that you sent it to every trophy shop on the face of the planet.  It is a waste of our time to even delete your email.  Do you think anyone in the awards industry will think about sending 1000 unengraved soccer bobbleheads to Tanzania?  Get real.

 And for the justice?  I have a two pronged attack: Friends in the industry and airline miles.  I will send this post to all of the internet trophy and awards shops I can find.  Maybe a few can share their stories or names and cities of fraudulent activity.  Together, we can put you out of your evil ways!  As for the airline miles?  This is my ace-in-the-hole.  I have tons of miles.  I can get on a plane at anytime of the day or night and fly to your city.  I will stalk you.  I will personally go to your local police station and talk to the cops.  I will talk to your UPS driver and have all of your stolen items redirected to your mother.  The UPS driver will handwrite on each box, “sent to Mom with love from your loser child”.  Heck, I can even contact the local mob and have you beat up.

Or at the least, maybe I will take it easy on you and send you an outhouse trophy.  The engraving would read, “I am smart enough to buy a computer, but ain’t smart enough to use it.”

Think I am psycho?  Think I am serious?  Think I am funny?  I will leave that up to your imagination.  Only those who know me best know the real answer…

Award Humor

Let’s face it; some of you have a demented, crass and perverted sense of humor.  To be honest, I am oftentimes in the same boat.  Being an internet company, we have the distinct pleasure of being a faceless source to provide some really creative ‘awards of humor’.  Bring it on!  What is life without spunk and creativity that will bring laughter and memories for years to come?  I realize that most of these awards are super-small sized orders (of which make us little or no money), but they provide an atmosphere of ‘you never know what we will engrave, next’ kind of energy in our shop.  We get a kick out of speculating how the award will be received or what the real-story is behind the gift.  If you have any great stories, I welcome hearing them.  Please post them here.

One of my favorite stories is providing an Oscar-like achievement trophy that was engraved “Best Boss in Bed - 2nd Place“.  Now that has to be quite a story.  Poor guy who received that can only reminisce on what went wrong, or what he could have done better to achieve the 1st place prize.

On a day-to-day basis, the hands down winner of the most creative and funny awards has to go to the fantasy football players.  Being an avid fantasy player myself, I am in awe of some of the crazy, disgusting and creative team or league names that some of you have.  I will keep it G-rated here, but reserve the right to come up with my own Letterman-like top 10 post for a later date.  Keep it up, NFL fans!

Besides visiting our joke section or searching our whole site and coming up with your own saying to put on your award, here are some product suggestions that might help:

Goofy Golfer

Goofy Bowler

Generic Oscar-like achievement trophy 

Male achievement trophy (dressed in a speed-o type swimsuit)

Generic Metal Cup trophy (engraving text will need to be creative to make it funny)

Outhouse BobbleheadLoser Trophy (with toilet paper)

Shark Bobblehead (with briefcase)

King of the World Trophy

Horses-Rear BobbleheadHorses-Rear Trophy

In addition to these, another idea would be to use an award of a different sport to poke fun at someone (example: for a golf tournament, supply the person with the highest golf score a bowling trophy that says ‘2007 XYZ Company Golf Tournament - Try a different sport’.  

You get the picture…we have set up our site for you to be creative and anonymous.  We will enjoy making your joke awards as much as you will get a kick out of giving them.

Participation trophies - when I was a kid…

Running a trophy shop for 15+ years, I think I have heard it all from my customers.  One of my favorite sayings (that of course comes from males ranging in age from 45-50) is, “when I was a kid, they didn’t give trophies just for showing up…you needed to win something to get a trophy.” That phrase is one of my motivations for what I do.

Just think of what the world would look like if 35 years ago that kid did get some recognition.  He wouldn’t be walking around the rest of his life feeling like he was trying to make up for not winning that championship game.  Large truck sales (the under-recognized man’s self given trophy) would be half of what they are.  Station wagon sales would be through the roof and it would also be OK to wear a pink polo on your golf outing.

What if that same guy was given some verbal or tangible recognition at his first job?  Maybe he wouldn’t have to prove his worthiness by working 60+ hours and making a gazillion dollars.  At least he can now afford to spend $5-10 on a participation trophy for his child and give them a token of recognition that he wished he got from his folks.

In all seriousness, what is the harm?  A trophy (or plaque, acrylic award, or crystal award) is a symbol.  It is a symbol of recognition, of accomplishment, of appreciation, of thanks, of completion…of success.  You can spend $5 or $500 with me for that symbol.  You can also spend nothing by telling them in your own words, in an email or by printing out a certificate.  Any of the above is great with me as it makes others feel good about what they have done.  That appreciation and recognition is what I am about and is what drives me.

I am proud to have myself and staff focused on providing your child or co-worker the recognition they deserve.