Taking Care of Each Other

I knew I was someplace special upon my arrival at Talking Rain. For starters, Free Sparkling Ice daily! Walking around our three-building campus headquarters beautifully set at the Cascade Mountain foothills, I noticed something else: People walking around outside in the fresh mountain air, smiling. It's a diverse, approachable bunch: old, young, a rainbow of fun hair colors and occasional nose piercing. One thing they all seem to have in common: They're really INTO what they do!

I geeked out when I got to meet Jagriti Sharma, the VP of Research and Development. I thanked her for creating Sparkling Ice Ginger Lime: An alcohol-free Moscow Mule, if you ask me! She beamed with pride, "We have the best team in the business. We are unbeatable!" Indeed, Emily Arthurs, the Director of Marketing told me about how a cross-functional team came up with the flavor ideas. Every week we're invited to taste the new ideas they're working on. Huge bonus for me: I'm right next to one of the creative studios where they mix up new concoctions for marketing purposes. I'm on the front lines of tasting some amazing cocktails. In fact, when asked for an opinion on the Cupid's Arrow recipe, I suggested glazed sugar on the rim. I was tickled Black Raspberry pink to see it show up on Instagram!

One lovely day in February, an employee engagement expert stood before our leaders and quantified what I was observing:

"Talking Rain has received the highest score for employee engagement of any company we have ever measured." - Don Rheem, E3 Solutions.

We had data to back the feeling. Survey results indicated:

• We pride ourselves on doing top-notch work.
• There's a keen awareness that our team's goals are aligned with Talking Rain's goals.
• We feel like our supervisors respect and trust us.

We're back in the trenches now and hit with a new challenge. Covid is impacting every business globally. Schools are closed for months. Working parents are challenged. We're all taking "social distancing" seriously so as not to spread the virus. To be sure, the world feels stressed. That's where our amazing culture helps. Without missing a beat, those who could were allowed to shift to work from home. There seems to be an extra kindness floating through the air. Grace and understanding are extended freely and generously.

We're working hard, but we're also sprinkling fun into everything we do. Emails of appreciation make their rounds. Laughter in the midst of a meeting: I told my team that I dreamed one of them popped out of her cubical with a viking helmet on to surprise me. Guess what I brought to work the next day? That's right. YOU get a Viking Hemet, YOU get a Viking Helmet!

Today at noon, I've asked to be trained in on running the reception desk. This is a nimble group that helps each other out.

We're in this together. Six feet apart.*

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WE'RE HIRING!! We have been experiencing double-digit growth the past couple of years, and we're hiring like gangbusters! We need another recruiter to help us find everyone from a Maintenance Mechanic to a National Account Manager and Demand Planning Analyst and much more! Check out the possibilities on the Talking Rain Careers Page.

*CDC recommendation: “keep at least six feet between yourself and another person in all public places." We got this.

#WeGotThisSeattle #SelfIsolating #Covid #CoronaVirus #NationalEmergency