Rob: It is often the case that we take the good things that we have in life for granted, but the one thing that we should not take for granted is the place that we work.  FurtherEd is where we spend most of our time and we should really take a step back and be thankful for all our the good things that we have at are very fingertips.  The overwhelming majority of us are thankful for just being here, but there were others that more thankful for detailed things.  Even though we may get stressed out and exhausted sometimes, we can’t forget how fortunate we actually are to be working in an environment where we can all be free to express our ideas and make our voices heard.

As many people as seen and laughed at the fail blog, there are those who like seeing success instead. Hence the Win Blog!

Jackie: I chose it because I thought it went well with our core value of “exuding optimism”. Optimism is so contagious that I find the best way to share it with others is by enjoying each others’ excitement and accomplishments. I wanted the team to watch other people excel in their tasks, whether it be sports or tricks, and leave with a sense of optimism to apply in their own tasks.

Alex P: It’s October, and officially autumn in New York City.  Fallen leaves crunch beneath our feet on the walk to the subway, pumpkins adorn stoops and doorways, and the chill in the air makes us hug our sweaters tighter and cup our hot coffees gratefully.

This is my favorite time of year to be in this city, so to truly kick off the season, I asked each Lawliner to share his or her favorite (or most memorable) Halloween costume.  Responses were varied (and hilarious) and included several Power Rangers, Edward Scissorhands, a very dedicated vampire, and a very convincing Slater from Saved by the Bell.  Here’s to another year of creative costumes!

Patricia: This morning I decided to play Needle in A Haystack. It was something that my sorority sisters and I did one year for recruitment to get to know our potential pledges. Since I couldn’t bring a haystack to work, I put push pins in a box instead.

There where several different color push pins and each color represented a question. These questions where supposed to be answered by the person who picked the pin and then in turn they could ask another person the same question. I found the questions online or per conversations I had with people. Here is the break down I had:

• White: What is your first memory?
• Blue: What smell automatically brings back a memory?
• Green: Talk or Text?
• Red: What would be your theme song when you walk into a room?
• Silver: What scares you?
• Off white: Favorite artist?
• Black: Pixar or Dreamworks?

You can have as many colors as you like and make up whatever questions you like. It is a fun way to get to know people because they don’t know what question they will get and it interesting to hear what they will say.

This morning Michele shared a fun video about Rosh Hashana (9/17) and Jewish High Holidays.
The dance moves are incredible and head spinning!

Rosh Hashana Rock Anthem is a parody of Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO.

Every time we see Symphonie she is always smiling, which in turn makes us smile.   She has taken the initiative on a lot of projects that have been stagnant, such as Lawline’s Culture Book 2.0.  In order to complete this task, Symphonie has organized several department photo-shoots, and even some of the pictures you see here are the work of hers.

Symphonie has been phenomenal in assisting with customer experiences over the phone, taking the lessons she has learned from her peers to practice.

On top of all of that, Symphonie has made some of the most delicious baked goods we have ever tasted.  Her tres leches cake caused many employees to skip their normal breakfast and lunch routines to dig in to the delicious dessert.

We are still waiting for the day when Janet comes to work without a smile on her face.  Every single day, Janet seems to be exuding optimism and sharing that happiness with everyone in the office.

When asked the other day why she seems so damn happy all the time her response was, “Why not?”

That is exactly what Lawline employees say!

Not only does she lead in call volume everyday in the Sales Department, but she does it with a smile on her face!

Mike is the type of guy who could talk to anyone, anywhere; A gentleman and a scholar!

Mike’s attitude is also contagious throughout the office.  He always has a smile on his face and does a great job of putting his best foot forward.

While Mike’s sales numbers were not where he projected one month, he did not sulk in his performance, but rather made it a point to exceed his goal the next month.

He did just that!  Setting a personal record in his next month and exuded optimism every step of the way!

Ted Videos

In Lawline.com Morning Meetings, TED Videos have become a staple at least a few days a month. TED videos have become extremely popular over the last two years, with people bringing up “Ideas Worth Spreading” to live and online audiences.

There are TED conferences, TED Talks, TED Events….. basically there is a lot of TED going around!

Derek Sivers: How to start a movement

The link above is to one of my personal favorites, titled, “Derek Sivers: How to start a movement”

He uses a popular YouTube video to portray how to get others involved in what your trying to accomplish. One “Lone Nut” begins dancing, and is joined by another who begins dancing. But it doesn’t stop there….eventually there are dozens dancing along together.

Derek mentions in the video while it took courage to be the first person to start dancing, it was really the second person that was the key to success as it’s much easier to follow two people than one.

Hope you enjoy the video!

Becoming a new program attorney is no easy task. You have to go through Kyle…enough said. However, Sigalle makes it seem like a theme park ride with her bottomless optimism. She has booked courses, done interviews, and hosted live events with confidence and fiery energy. She has only been here a little over a month but it seems she has been her forever. She perhaps a program attorney in her past life; who knows?

Sigalle, keep up the great work!

Last Thursday, Jeff Fann, an intern for the Production Department, presented on his last day here. We’ll miss him around here. Thanks for your hard work Jeff F!

Jeff Fann: For my last day at Lawline, I decided to just go with something lighthearted and fun. Inspirational is always great but sometimes it’s helpful just to let loose and laugh. I decided to play a game wherein people would get pieces of paper with the name of an animal and, acting as that animal, would have to locate similar “animals” in the room.

As predicted, things got wacky pretty quickly and I was happy to see everyone was taking on their new roles enthusiastically. The highlight of the entire exercise came from Micah. Not knowing how many people would show up, I made more pieces of paper than there were participants. Micah (who I believe was a frog) turned out to be the only frog and spent the entire time hopping around looking for his fellow frogs to no avail. Oh, and of course there was Kyle pretending to be a pigeon with no partner as well. Thanks Lawline for the fun times!