KYLE-AM .. Kyle In The Morning

By Michael Breckenridge

MENLO PARK, Calif. — While many companies plan summer picnics and softball games to boost camaraderie, creative organizations may choose more challenging or inventive methods of building rapport. The Creative Group, a specialized staffing service providing marketing, advertising, creative and web professionals on a project basis, recently asked 250 U.S. advertising and marketing executives to describe unusual team-building activities they have heard of or taken part in.

Those surveyed were asked, “What is the wackiest or most unusual team-building activity you’ve ever heard of a firm participating in?” Here are some of their responses:

• “Team skydiving.”
• “A group Segway tour.”
• “Line dancing on the beach in matching outfits.” 
• “We had to navigate a maze through a cornfield.”

Then again, misery loves company, which may have been the thought behind these next group outings:

• “We shoveled horse manure in a stable.”
• “We went camping 9,000 feet up and it rained for two days.” 

Some activities required employees to take a leap of faith:

• “People would fall out of a tree and hope their team would catch them.”
• “We created a human bridge to cross a small stream.”

“Teamwork and innovation are essential in the creative field, so firms are always looking for ways to enhance morale and spark the imagination,” said Dave Willmer, executive director of The Creative Group. “Because industry professionals are innovative, it’s only natural that their group activities sometimes stray from the beaten path.”

When choosing a fun group outing, for example, why go bowling or have a barbecue? KYLE-AM conducted its own survey of insane companies and discovered a harrowing array of death-defying team-building choices:

• “Our company baited shark-infested waters and then asked employees to swim naked to a floating platform half a mile out.”
• “The boss said it would demonstrate our company’s commitment to multicultural values if one of us ‘appeased the fire god’ and jump into a live volcano on our trip to Hawaii.”
• “I was part of a BASE jumping team who first had to stand waist-deep in a vat of cement. My pants fell off from the weight. Otherwise, I’d have ended up like the others.”
• “My girlfriend said her boss wanted to have a ‘Fear Factor’ contest that included kissing a live rattlesnake, eating poisonous mushrooms and something called ‘putting our heads together’ — with a bucket of superglue.”
• “My office brought in one of those money machines, except that for every dollar we caught, the amount was multiplied by ten and deducted from our paycheck. The money was supposed to be given to charity.”
• “We drew cards from a hat to determine what our team would do. My team had to set cars on fire in our competitor’s parking lot across town.”
• “My department head fired everyone and stipulated that if we divided into two teams and played tug-of-war across a swimming pool filled with sewage, the winning team could return to work with a 25 cent per hour raise.” 
• “Our company sponsored an enterprise-wide truth-or-dare contest. The winning entrant was dared to join a gang and go through the hazing ceremony.”
• “My office was divided into teams and had to act out scenes from pop songs. One of the teams used live ammunition to act out the scene from the Soul Coughing song Screenwriter’s Blues where lovers murder each other. It was very exciting.”

But the award for the most tragic company team-building event went to infamous call center conglomerate Telehell, Inc. in North Wackoff, Virginia. A fire broke out in the basement of the building. Following an employee productivity study last year, the fire alarms had been deactivated. Everyone stayed at their desks as the building became a towering inferno. By the time someone noticed flames and smoke coming up the elevator shafts and the stairwells, it was too late. Everyone broke the windows with office chairs and jumped to their deaths.

The sprinklers came on and put out the fire before the security camera tapes were consumed. Playing them back revealed the orderly participation of the employees in their last moments of life.

“I’m proud of what our previous team building efforts had accomplished,” Telehell CEO Jack Azwhol said. “When the going got tough, they worked together and remained cohesive and that’s really what team building is all about.”

By Michael Breckenridge

It’s hard enough to apply for jobs these days; it takes writing a good cover letter, filling out an application, and of course, submitting a good resume.

Competition is fierce. How can one stand out from the crowd? Showing creativity is the number one way to get noticed in today’s intense marketplace.

CareerBuilder.com conducted a survey of human resources managers across the country for their new resume building service and found there are several important steps to take to be sure the resume looks exactly like everyone elses. KYLE-AM demonstrates how to take these same points and make an impact that will make an applicant stand out and possibly become the source of conversation around the watercooler:

• Your personal life is just that — personal. Show the hiring manager you have no secrets by discussing your waistline measurement or where you spend your summer vacations.

• Simple. Bold. Professional. Use flashy formatting and stationery with borders or graphics. For areas of special emphasis, try unconventional fonts or colored text.

• One size does not fit all. Showing what a jack-of-all-trades you are is sure to impress the boss. The world is full of specialists. Specialists may be special, but generalists become Generals.

• Two sets of eyes are better than one. If you wear contacts, be sure to mention that glasses are available whenever the boss needs you to “look smart”. If you actually have four eyes, be sure to send a photo. Check this image if you need one quickly.

In the event these four pillars of creativity are insufficiently inspiring, CareerBuilder.com has graciously provided a list of twelve resume enhancements that hiring managers and human resource professionals found most memorable:

1. Candidate included that he spent summers on his family’s yacht in Grand Cayman.
2. Candidate attached a letter from her mother.
3. Candidate used pale blue paper with teddy bears around the border.
4. Candidate explained a gap in employment by saying it was because he was getting over the death of his cat for three months.
5. Candidate specified that his availability was limited because Friday, Saturday and Sunday was “drinking time.”
6. Candidate included a picture of herself in a cheerleading uniform.
7. Candidate drew a picture of a car on the outside of the envelope and said it was the hiring manager’s gift.
8. Candidate’s hobbies included sitting on the levee at night watching alligators.
9. Candidate included the fact that her sister once won a strawberry eating contest.
10. Candidate explained that he works well nude.
11. Candidate included family medical history.

and the final entry, perfect for those with a police record, [drum roll please]…

12. Candidate explained an arrest by stating, “We stole a pig, but it was a really small pig.”

Now there are no more excuses for constructing a resume that will be remembered with cherished memories, and possibly peals of laughter, long after its careful and permanent placement in the round file.