Simply Hired Blog

Simply Spooky

Simply Hired had quite a great time at our annual Halloween party last week. The office was decked out, we had plenty of food to munch on including bat wings (jerk chicken wings), deviled eggs, dirty toenails (Cajun pumpkin seeds), and dirt (chocolate fudge parfait), and of course, there were plenty of games!

The Simply Hired employees came to the party dressed to impress in all sorts of costumes. Attendees included Duck Duck Goose, Michael Jackson, a T-bone steak, Russell from Pixar’s Up, a Simply Hired International cowboy, and Simply Prime - the most powerful Transformer of them all (who actually transformed). Anyone not dressed up was provided with a costume - scarecrows stuffed with hay.

 

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Simply Hired Celebrates Diwali

This past Friday, Simply Hired celebrated Diwali, or the Festival of Lights (though this year, the festival actually occurred on Saturday, October 17). An official holiday of India, Diwali is traditionally celebrated with lighting Diyas, which are small earthen lamps.

This year, we celebrated by painting our own Diyas to light in our homes. The creativity flowed as we painted our small clay pots in all of the colors of the rainbow.

Shubh Diwali!

Who is the fittest one of all?

For the past few months, the folks at Simply Hired have been shaping up – and I mean literally. We’ve had an ongoing fitness competition in the office where we have been running, spinning, lifting and sweating our way into better shape. Plus, we love a good competition.

 Each employee has been logging their workouts on a fitness tracking site, in which each activity is assigned a certain amount of points based on the duration and intensity of the workout. And this is a pretty comprehensive and up-to-date list that even includes Nintendo Wii Sports as an activity that can be logged.

The competition runs on two levels: an individual level to see who rack up the most points (daily results are posted in the kitchen of all places) as well as a team level with combined points and number of days worked out.

In addition to the workout log, Fitness Challenges are held regularly in which members from each team take each other on in a head to head challenges of strength, speed, balance and technique to earn some extra points for their team. Examples of past events include push-ups, leg lifts, planks, and balancing on one leg in various positions.

Currently Simply Hired’s employees have racked up a solid combined 850 days worked out and a whopping 542,708 points! To give you an idea of how difficult it is to earn points in this competition, here’s a list of activities and their corresponding amount of points:

Activity	Intensity	Duration	Points
Walking	Moderate	30 minutes	110
Running	Moderate	30 minutes	305
Yoga	General	45 minutes	101
Weight Training	Vigorous	45 minutes	261
Bicycling	Moderate	45 minutes	392
Basketball	Moderate	1 hour 30 minutes	522

May the fittest team win!

Simply Hired Goes Back to School

It’s that time of the year again: Back to School time! Each year, Simply Hired participates in a backpack drive to donate bags filled with school supplies to the Family Giving Tree. Backpack wish cards were posted around the office for employees to take that contained information about the student who would receive their backpack, as well as a list of school supplies. This year, through donations in the form of physical backpacks, online donations and checks, we were able to provide 70 packs for students of all ages in need.

School is now in session!

2009 Simply Hired Nugget Bowl

This week marked the first (and very possibly the only) Simply Hired Nugget Bowl! What is a Nugget Bowl, you ask? Just over 25 years ago, small pieces of chicken that were breaded and fried were introduced to the McDonald’s menu and called Chicken McNuggets. But today, Chicken McNuggets have become one of the world’s best foods for an eating contest because of their fun size and deliciousness (now with real white meat!). And that’s where it all begins.

Nine very competitive and hungry Simply Hired employees marched over to the nearest McDonald’s on their lunch break to stock up on however many nuggets and dipping sauces they thought they could consume. Some of the competitors had the goal to eat a certain number of nuggets while others just wanted to eat more than everyone else. The group brought back over 250 Chicken McNuggets.

Back at the office, they laid their many boxes in front of them on a long table. Each competitor faced at least 20 pieces of Chicken McNuggets. Before the contest began, they drew in one last breath. And with the ring of a cowbell, they were off.

It was interesting to note the different eating styles. Some ate as quickly as possible to stuff themselves before realizing they were full. Others used the “turtle and the hare” strategy and ate at a more relaxed pace. Some alternated dipping the McNuggets in different flavors to keep their taste buds guessing and a few went without sauce all together.

There seemed to be four phases of the eating challenge:  

1. Yum stage (nuggets 1-5): “I love Chicken McNuggets!”
2. Oh, No stage (nuggets 6-10): “This is a lot of nuggets. I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish all 20, or 30… or even 40.”
3. Mindless, Tasteless Eating stage (nuggets 11-?): Chomp… chomp… chomp…
4. Second Wind stage (last 3 nuggets or so): “Woo! Bring it on! Where are the fries?”

Slow and steady won the race in this competition. Our winner ate 40 chicken nuggets in our contest, all while he leafed through the day’s newspaper. Congratulations to our new Nugget Master!