"And the award goes to..."
For anyone who didn't see me spazzing about this all over Facebook and Twitter already. It was our work Christmas party on Wednesday night. As well as a meal, drinks, dancing etc, there is also an award ceremony. Everyone gets to nominate for the different award categories, the manager in each department puts their nominations forward, the directors and senior management choose the shortlist and the MD chooses the final winners.
In the past, my department (Production) has always been part of Development as far as nominations are concerned. This year we've had the Creative team made officially part of Development so overall it was too big a department to keep as one for the awards. Now there are three separate departments: Software Engineering (the programmers), Software Production (QA testing, installs, documentation, translations) and Product Creative (creative content that goes in the programs).
I was very touched to find I'd been put forward as the nomination for the Leadership Award by Software Production. When each award is given out, the top three nominees as decided by senior management are read out and then there's a sealed envelope with the winner as chosen by the MD. There were a lot of strong nominees so I really didn't think I'd get it and wasn't surprised that I didn't make the top three (there were about 11 nominees in total I think). Still, it was lovely to be nominated and I was very touched.
For the Department of the Year award, obviously every department is a nominee but each manager puts together a pitch as to why theirs should win (contributed to by everyone from their department). The top three were read out and I was completely stunned to find that we were on the list. As the first time we've been listed as a separate department from Development, it was really special to me to get recognised for what we do separate from the programming work. Ash who does the presentations doesn't really understand what our department does that well (hardly anyone does, really) but did his best to explain how freakin hard we've worked this year. I was honestly a little bit teary that we'd made the top three. The other two departments were Business Development (they look for new ways to make more money, usually through various partner and retail deals) and Gizoo (our gadget website sister brand). I was convinced that Gizoo were a shoe-in because they've made £2 million for the first time ever this year and have started a very lucrative new push selling our goods through Amazon Marketplace. Bus Dev have done some pretty good work too, so I was sure we'd just be happy with an honourable mention. I almost fell off my chair when Ash opened the envelope and announced that we'd won! The sound people at the venue had been given music to use when people were going up to collect their awards and as my boss shooed us all up on stage to go collect our award and bottle of champagne, we were hailed by the A Team theme tune. Awesome!
Here's our shiny award.
My boss was nominated as the Software Production Employee of the year so he got an award too. All the department winners are put forward for overall Employee of the Year (there's a Sales and Non-Sales award). Sadly he didn't win overall, but it was great that he was recognised within the department because he works insanely hard all the time.
I'm still brimming with happiness that we won, it really means a lot to me.
In the past, my department (Production) has always been part of Development as far as nominations are concerned. This year we've had the Creative team made officially part of Development so overall it was too big a department to keep as one for the awards. Now there are three separate departments: Software Engineering (the programmers), Software Production (QA testing, installs, documentation, translations) and Product Creative (creative content that goes in the programs).
I was very touched to find I'd been put forward as the nomination for the Leadership Award by Software Production. When each award is given out, the top three nominees as decided by senior management are read out and then there's a sealed envelope with the winner as chosen by the MD. There were a lot of strong nominees so I really didn't think I'd get it and wasn't surprised that I didn't make the top three (there were about 11 nominees in total I think). Still, it was lovely to be nominated and I was very touched.
For the Department of the Year award, obviously every department is a nominee but each manager puts together a pitch as to why theirs should win (contributed to by everyone from their department). The top three were read out and I was completely stunned to find that we were on the list. As the first time we've been listed as a separate department from Development, it was really special to me to get recognised for what we do separate from the programming work. Ash who does the presentations doesn't really understand what our department does that well (hardly anyone does, really) but did his best to explain how freakin hard we've worked this year. I was honestly a little bit teary that we'd made the top three. The other two departments were Business Development (they look for new ways to make more money, usually through various partner and retail deals) and Gizoo (our gadget website sister brand). I was convinced that Gizoo were a shoe-in because they've made £2 million for the first time ever this year and have started a very lucrative new push selling our goods through Amazon Marketplace. Bus Dev have done some pretty good work too, so I was sure we'd just be happy with an honourable mention. I almost fell off my chair when Ash opened the envelope and announced that we'd won! The sound people at the venue had been given music to use when people were going up to collect their awards and as my boss shooed us all up on stage to go collect our award and bottle of champagne, we were hailed by the A Team theme tune. Awesome!
Here's our shiny award.
My boss was nominated as the Software Production Employee of the year so he got an award too. All the department winners are put forward for overall Employee of the Year (there's a Sales and Non-Sales award). Sadly he didn't win overall, but it was great that he was recognised within the department because he works insanely hard all the time.
I'm still brimming with happiness that we won, it really means a lot to me.