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71037pg001-004 5/14/07 4:33 PM Page 1 I ard r she July 2007 e x nd eory Vol. 23, No. 6 A newsletter just for you! y ong n the r r it oint. hey Using uture bout n? your And, de to nd dition How to turn work problems into possibilities! When life gives you obstacles, make opportunities! Bad things happen to everyone so the question is; how do you get them to work for you? Most people know about the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but would it be as well known if it was just known as the Pisa Bell Tower? Probably not. Instead, it's the distinctive tilt created by a mistake in the foundation that made it famous. Not sure how to create your own Leaning Tower? Here are a few office obstacles that can easily be turned into opportunities with some quick thinking. You made a big mistake In many cases, making a mistake isn't grounds for immediate dismissal but it can still cause problems in your work life. The last thing you should do is deny the mistake or blame it on someone else. Own up! Owning your mistakes shows that you're responsible and accountable. You may also be able to turn your mistake into a success by using the mistake as a learning tool to make something better. You were turned down for a big promotion The best thing you can do is to stay calm. Yes, inside you want to get angry, storm out of the room or threaten to quit, but that will only completely eliminate any future possibility of getting that promotion. Instead, ask them what you can do to prepare for the next promotion opportunity. You might not get the job you were going for in the first place, but you might just get a better one. Your company is downsizing as a EASE s, ticles for 89: ts, If it seems everyone is getting fired or quitting, don't get complacent, get indispensable. You might not be the next one on the chopping block, but badtalking your company just might put you there. Take a look at all the empty desks around you and ask yourself, "Can I do some of the job they were doing?" It will, most likely, increase your workload, but in the long run it might help you keep your job. You’re unhappy with your job Don't make the mistake of staying unhappy; instead, find ways to improve your job. If you're bored, ask for more responsibility. Not only will you get extra points from your boss, but having more to do might make the day move faster. If you're overworked, sit down with your boss and remind them of everything that's on your plate. They might not know about all the things you do and would rather lighten your workload than lose you. r Rd. Take a break and learn something new at Office Living. .com ll Click onto Office Living for a fun and productive break. You’ll find solutions to everyday office challenges, stories about other Quill.com customers, and a place to send us your advice and opinions. • Working Savvy gives you tips on office health and professional growth • The Supply Cabinet helps keep you up-to-date on office trends and supplies es • Just a Minute offers advice on keeping balance in your life Find even more at www.quill.com/officeliving. Visit us today! Business Spotlight sharing success with highlights from one of our customers and their success stories each month. 71037pg001-004 5/14/07 4:47 PM Page 2 A Many of us have very dear friends whom we would be lost without. We value our friendships and do what it takes to keep them going strong. The history of friendship doesn’t necessarily have a starting point. Why would it? Making friends is a natural occurrence. However, there are many folktales and legends which tell us how friendship was valued thousands of years ago. In 1935, the United States Congress announced that the first Sunday in August would be designated as National Friendship Day. It’s great to celebrate friendships year round, but now there is an entire day dedicated to it! This day has turned into a popular festival celebrated around the world. Other countries have caught on to the National Friendship Day phenomenon, and have created their own celebration day. India is one of the largest supporters of National Friendship Day. When the first Sunday in August approaches, what do you give your closest friends as gifts? When you were a child, you might have exchanged friendship bracelets. Now, you might want your gift to have a deeper meaning. Flowers and cards are thoughtful, but how about a picture frame with a photo of yourself and a friend? Whichever gift you decide to give, it’s the thought that counts! N EWS You can use Summer Skin Safety • Both UVA and UVB rays contribute to skin cancer. UVA rays pass more freely through our earth’s ozone layer than UVB rays which are primarily absorbed. However, enough UVB rays are able to pass through to cause extensive damage. • UVA rays contribute to the aging and wrinkling of the skin. These are also the rays typically emitted by tanning beds. • UVC rays are the most dangerous rays that come from the sun. However, they are effectively blocked by the ozone layer. Tanning and burning Protect yourself! • Everyone’s skin contains a chemical called melanin which is our first defense against the sun. Melanin absorbs UV rays so they cannot damage your skin. Each person has a different concentration of melanin in the skin; the darker your skin, the more melanin you have. • A tan is caused by an increase of melanin in your skin in response to sun exposure. • A sunburn happens after a UV overload. Skin burns when the amount of UV exposure your skin has had is greater than what your skin’s melanin can protect. “A co expla count dump house our h decid of us heart Bob d no-ki Midla helps eveni resolv possi provi for co their Anim orga The R many offsp aban 5,000 poun As a effort grow Q De Summer weather is finally here which means many of us are enjoying the outdoors. While there is nothing quite like basking in the warm summer sun after a long cold winter, it’s important to remember skin safety when you’re soaking up those rays. The sun’s rays Wha walki betwe anim an en • Avoid the sun when it is the strongest (10am-4pm) or take precautions like using sunscreen or covering your skin if you are outside during these hours. • Don’t let the clouds fool you! Even when the sky is overcast, UV rays can still get through to damage your skin. • Use sunscreen consistently. Applying the lotion just once doesn’t protect as well as using it often. You can easily rub or sweat off the protection so play it safe and reapply every 2-3 hours. Qu wa frie an an els No the Ho she live I se rea to de wh sen do for 71037pg001-004 5/14/07 4:47 PM Page 3 An Agency You Should Know: Noah’s Ark ould o ory d What began as a chance encounter while walking their dogs became a love match between Nancy and Bob Rasnick. Their love of animals would not only start a new union, but an entirely new way of life. “A couple of years after we got married,” explained Nancy Rasnick, “we moved to the country and soon found that people were dumping animals – mostly dogs – near our house. We helped find homes for them but soon our home got to be so crowded, we had to decide whether to stop [taking them in] or if one of us would stay home with the animals. Our hearts wouldn’t let us stop.” Bob decided to stay home so they could open a no-kill shelter for abandoned animals in Midland, Texas. Nancy took a full-time job and helps her husband with the animals each evening and on weekends. With a passionate resolve, they work to save as many animals as possible from needless pain and death, providing food, shelter, medical care and love for countless homeless creatures. As a result of their hard work and commitment, Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary became a not-for-profit organization in 1999. The Rasnicks believe the problem stems from too many people letting the animals produce offspring that become unwanted and abandoned. They estimate that a staggering 5,000 animals are destroyed by the local pound annually. As a result, they consistently increase their efforts to raise the funds that enable them to grow their facilities and tend to the animals in Quote n if as ay “The work is demanding and hard,” said Nancy, admitting that they have not taken a vacation in 12 years. “We are always growing and looking for ways to save the lives of more animals. Over the past 17 years, we have rescued and saved the lives of hundreds of animals. Today, we have mostly dogs, chickens and turkeys, but as our name indicates, our dream is to be able to offer a safe haven to any animal that needs a refuge. Ours is the largest non-profit animal group in the area.” want to see how they care for those animals.” The couple allows their animals to go with the potential new family for a weekend trial. “After the weekend, if everyone seems happy – and I can tell if a dog is happy – we’ll complete the adoption. This includes spaying or neutering and shots,” explained Nancy. “I’ll check with them from time to time to see how the animal is doing. We will always take any animal back as long as they live.” Due to the March canned food recall, Noah’s Ark is most in need of food donations. If you’d like to donate, please see their Web site, www.noahsarkmidland.com for donation details. The Rasnicks are happy to find homes for their animals, however their standards are pretty rigid when it comes to pairing the animals with potential owners. “We are very picky about the homes we review,” said Nancy. “Anyone wanting to adopt from us must have a stable home life and a fenced yard. If they have pets, I of the Month: “Insist on yourself. Never imitate.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Dear Pen Pal Reader, t their care. To do this, they create interest in their work through a quarterly newsletter they publish along with their Web site (www.noahsarkmidland.com). Local television stations and other local media have provided generous coverage of their selfless mission. Question: How many of you find yourself waiting and waiting AND WAITING for your friends to respond to an e-mail you sent them and then once the e-mail does arrive it lacks any hint of effort? Is it just me or does anyone else also experience this digital dismiss? Not so recently, I wrote one of my girlfriends, the same girlfriend who was the Matron of Honor at my wedding, an e-mail asking how she was and how things were going. She lives out of state so we don’t get to talk much. I sent it to her work address, so I know she read is right away, but she waited two weeks to respond. I could have looked past the delay if her e-mail was full of details of what’s going on in her life. Instead I got four sentences. “My parents are doing fine. They don’t see us as much as they’d like. No plans for vacations now. Talk to you later.” I haven’t seen this girl in almost two years. I’m sure there is more going on in her life than that. This just makes me wonder if we all need a little friendship 101. What does it mean to be a good friend? What does it take to be a better friend? When we were all young being a good friend meant asking Mom to let your friend sleep over, swapping secrets and sharing your PB&J during lunch. As adults we have to realize keeping a friend takes more effort— though the same principles apply. Ask them over for dinner, share your treasures and listen and offer advice when they need it. You can’t call yourself a friend if the meaning isn’t behind it. I did some searching on the Internet and the consensus on how to be a better friend seems to fall into these 4 categories: 1. A good friend is there for the good and the bad. A fair-weather friend is no friend at all. 2. Stop judging. A friend doesn’t want you to criticize their life. Offer support and encouragement, not negativity. 3. Call, write and visit. Don’t wait for someone else to seek you out. A true friend is someone you share your life with. Take the initiative! 4. Listen. It’s not always about you. Step back, listen and allow your friend to be the center of attention. Next time you can be the center of attention. I think the best way we can all be better friends with our friends is to live the golden rule: treat your friends the way you’d want to be treated. And for heaven’s sake…respond to e-mail! Christy Wolf Editor 71037pg001-004 5/14/07 4:46 PM Page 4 Larry’s Letter By Larry Morse, President, Quill Corporation What a great idea! How many times have you heard that one, or even thought it to yourself? What about the idea whose time has come? Jack Miller, Quill’s former president and founder, had a great quote; “a good idea should be like sitting on a pin, it should make you jump up and do something about it.” Going through airports recently I have noticed a series of ads from a consulting company, Accenture, focusing on the importance of ideas. They have big wall signs depicting everyday scenes with slogans like, “I am your idea, take care of me or I may go away.” So what is the big deal with ideas, why do we all covet and admire them so? Ideas make things happen for organizations and for all of us as individuals. Without a steady stream of new and exciting ideas we would not move ahead quickly. As I look back on the last five or six years in our own business a steady stream of ideas have allowed us to progress and grow in our industry. If we were doing things exactly the same way we were six years ago, we would be extinct in a world that changes rapidly. Five years ago we mailed lots of catalogs and tried to give great service to our customers and we were successful. Today we use the Internet extensively to make buying office products even more convenient for our customers. We have hundreds of sales people on the street looking for customers and we reach several hundreds of customers a day through our outbound telemarketing efforts. The basics of our business didn’t change—great service, selection and price—but we have learned how to reach and service our customers who are busier and more time pressed. We all need to keep growing and learning new skills to stay up with our jobs, etc. Ideas get us up in the morning and help shape our dreams for our lives. People start businesses, go back to school, take new jobs or join organizations because they have had an idea that gives them vision of what life could be. Ideas stimulate and give us great reason for hope. An idea can be a powerful motivator and tool for achieving aspirations that make us happy. When I meet with new employees at Quill, I tell them we want to be a company of ideas. Everyone is responsible for coming up with and floating new ideas. New ideas keep us vibrant and moving forward and the people who create them are the most powerful forces in our business. To be a “company of ideas” you have to not only state that goal, but also more importantly encourage and reward that type of behavior. When you convince people to open up their creativity and think about making the business better, good things usually happen. One of the best approaches is to let everyone have their say and input and be gentle with the “bad” or unusable ideas. We as a company are at our best when everyone is actively engaged in the idea generation process as a natural way of doing business. That’s how an organization gets stronger and stays strong. There is nothing I like better than when someone comes forward with an idea that will solve a problem he or she has been wrestling with to improve the business. If ideas are embraced within the organization, people use them most to make their work better. While the suggestion box ideas for saving a million dollars are few and far between, it is the “company of ideas” theory that is most valuable. For leaders in an organization it is very important to have a central idea where they envision the organization heading over a long period of time. The best leaders can think through and articulate the vision to others clearly and often to get everyone focused in the same direction. The central idea may be a passionate focus on customers or patients or even creation of new products but whatever it is, a central idea can be a great starting point. What I like most about ideas is the power they have to make things better if we let them. Using ideas to envision a better way or a better future is so powerful. The key is to create the environment and desire and be persistent about finding that better way. What is your vision? I would love to hear what you think. Email your thoughts to me at [email protected]. And, if you have not yet received a copy of our special edition book, The Really Useful Guide to Working Smarter, Not Harder, email me and I’ll be happy to send you a complimentary copy. This letter was reprinted from a previous edition of PenPal. National Day p o p is July 20 Lolli As a child, nothing healed a boo-boo quite like a lollipop. After a nasty fall or a trip to the doctor’s office, these tasty little treats on a stick were offered, and like magic, everything was better. Even though we may be past the age of receiving lollipops in the doctor’s office, we’re never too old to enjoy these delicious treats. And in honor of the candy, July 20 is National Lollipop Day! Lollipops date back to 1908, when George Smith first invented what we have come to know as the modern lollipop. He designed this candy on a stick as a way to make hard candy easier to eat. He named the treat after his favorite racing horse, Lolly Pop, and later trademarked the name. Ever wonder how a lollipop is made? It’s actually a simple process. First, sugar and There's so much more to our Ju Vo H W s M if ti Y Y Contributing Writers Katie Cole, Alex Fedec, Sue Masaracchia-Roberts, Jen Moran, Amy Soderberg Y Editor corn syrup are mixed and heated. Next, Christy Wolf colors and flavors are added. The mix then goes to a batch roller and press that forms the head of the lollipop and inserts the Tina Druce-Hoffman stick. Once the candy has cooled, it’s The PEN PAL is published monthly as a wrapped, bagged and shipped out for benefit for our Quill customers. PLEASE everyone to enjoy! WRITE! Send us your comments, Designer Over the years the lollipop has taken many questions, problems. To reprint articles from the PEN PAL, please write for forms. What was once just a hard candy details. For catalogs, call 800/789on a stick has evolved into something 1331, visit our Web site at much more. Your average lollipop now www.quill.com or contact: comes filled with gum or chocolate, or The Quill PEN PAL comes in the shape of a ring. Some glow c/o Sue Masaracchia-Roberts, in the dark and spin. And if you dare, you PR Manager can even find them with an insect Quill Corporation, 100 Schelter Rd. Lincolnshire, IL 60069 sealed inside! In whatever form you choose to enjoy this confection, be sure to enjoy one this July and pay homage to the 99-yearold lollipop! customers than ordering office supplies. See what makes them fax: 847-876-4531 e-mail: [email protected] © 2007, Quill Lincolnshire, Inc. All rights reserved. Y T Click o other Q •W •T tick at www.quill.com/stories •J Find e