Genesys Casual

The first one sounds like the plot of "My Life in Ruins" - Awesome Movie

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Wayde Masters
Demand Forecasting & Resource Officer
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Hi @Tracy Vickers,

We might need a community for sharing our 'Epic Employee Experience' stories I believe. After 15+ years of experience a person has a lot to share...
Your stories were great.

Story- 
Back when I was fresh into job-hunting-six months of experience and a hopeful heart-I had an interview that felt straight out of a tragic comedy. It was a group discussion round, and I was absolutely crushing it (or so I thought). The weird experience, I had was a  post the discussion round, my friends were selected for the next round and I was not.
Even my friends looked at me, wide-eyed, because even they knew-I was the better communicator among us. So when the interviewer's assistant handed me "We'll get back to you," Oh, I was in pure denial. I couldn't let it go. Fueled by pure confusion, I walked straight up to the interviewer to double-check.
I took a breath of relief when he confirmed, "Yes, that was a mistake and you're in." He use to narrate this story to everyone in our team later. #Gold.

Hi @Tracy Vickers,

We might need a community for sharing our 'Epic Employee Experience' stories I believe. After 15+ years of experience a person has a lot to share...
Your stories were great.

Story- 
Back when I was fresh into job-hunting-six months of experience and a hopeful heart-I had an interview that felt straight out of a tragic comedy. It was a group discussion round, and I was absolutely crushing it (or so I thought). The weird experience, I had was a  post the discussion round, my friends were selected for the next round and I was not.
Even my friends looked at me, wide-eyed, because even they knew-I was the better communicator among us. So when the interviewer's assistant handed me "We'll get back to you," Oh, I was in pure denial. I couldn't let it go. Fueled by pure confusion, I walked straight up to the interviewer to double-check.
I took a breath of relief when he confirmed, "Yes, that was a mistake and you're in." He use to narrate this story to everyone in our team later. #Gold.

@Tracy Vickers your stories are truly epic, mine is the typical hazing plus a bit of Morphie's Law, a few years ago on my first day as a resident where a client apart from being new, a communications link goes down and when I investigate they tell me it is the first time in many years that this service has gone down, in fact it had never gone down before, I met Jesus, Jehovah, Buddha, the Justice League, the Avengers and many more with those words and solving the fault hahaha

#CoffeeTalk

I'm not sure how epic this will sound unless you're a fellow Disney nerd, but for me, it was pure magic - with a dash of humiliation.

Years ago, I was a bright-eyed new leader attending the annual Disney Leadership Convention, eager to soak up wisdom from anyone who'd talk to me. It was held at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, and I had packed my schedule with every breakout session, panel, and keynote I could possibly attend. I was determined to squeeze every drop of pixie dust out of the experience.

But here's the thing: I cannot be late. Like, it's a deep physiological response. So there I was, racing through the convention center, eyes glued to my itinerary, speed-walking like the fate of the free world depended on it. In my haste, I forgot the first tenet of Disney cast safety: "Safe-D begins with Me."

And that's when it happened.
I plowed full force into someone - actually knocked them down - papers flying, bag askew, a human whirlwind of apologies. Flustered and mortified, I helped him up, apologized about a thousand times, and dashed off to my next session. There was a speaker I couldn't miss: a Disney legend. The last living connection to Walt himself.

I made it just in time, slightly winded, and took a seat in the front row, still shaken but excited.

Then the speaker walked in.
It was him. The man I bulldozed minutes earlier.

Marty. Freaking. Sklar.

My stomach dropped. My face flushed. He spotted me instantly, gave me a grin, and with perfect showmanship said, "Well, I'm honored that you were so excited to hear me speak," and winked.

I wanted to crawl under my chair.

But instead, I sat up straight, took a breath, and hung on his every word. I don't remember what sessions I missed that day, but I remember everything Marty taught me - about creativity, legacy, leadership, and yes… remembering to slow down and breathe.

I'm not sure how epic this will sound unless you're a fellow Disney nerd, but for me, it was pure magic - with a dash of humiliation.

Years ago, I was a bright-eyed new leader attending the annual Disney Leadership Convention, eager to soak up wisdom from anyone who'd talk to me. It was held at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, and I had packed my schedule with every breakout session, panel, and keynote I could possibly attend. I was determined to squeeze every drop of pixie dust out of the experience.

But here's the thing: I cannot be late. Like, it's a deep physiological response. So there I was, racing through the convention center, eyes glued to my itinerary, speed-walking like the fate of the free world depended on it. In my haste, I forgot the first tenet of Disney cast safety: "Safe-D begins with Me."

And that's when it happened.
I plowed full force into someone - actually knocked them down - papers flying, bag askew, a human whirlwind of apologies. Flustered and mortified, I helped him up, apologized about a thousand times, and dashed off to my next session. There was a speaker I couldn't miss: a Disney legend. The last living connection to Walt himself.

I made it just in time, slightly winded, and took a seat in the front row, still shaken but excited.

Then the speaker walked in.
It was him. The man I bulldozed minutes earlier.

Marty. Freaking. Sklar.

My stomach dropped. My face flushed. He spotted me instantly, gave me a grin, and with perfect showmanship said, "Well, I'm honored that you were so excited to hear me speak," and winked.

I wanted to crawl under my chair.

But instead, I sat up straight, took a breath, and hung on his every word. I don't remember what sessions I missed that day, but I remember everything Marty taught me - about creativity, legacy, leadership, and yes… remembering to slow down and breathe.

I have one that will probably seem a bit infantile...but it changed my life and career.

I started with Interactive Intelligence March 8, 1999 (EIC 1.2f for those counting).

My background was Microsoft networking working as an MCT teaching the MCSE track, so I didn't even know what ACD or IVR or Tip and Ring meant when I interviewed to be come an instructor...I got hired on potential.

At the time there was a developer who loved egging new hires into trying the Milk Challenge (drink a gallon of milk in under an hour, then hold everything in for another hour). Many had tried, all had gloriously failed. Not knowing any better, I thought, "Seems easy enough," so...I did it. Beat the challenge. Ruined his fun for a bit (though quite a few tried in the years after and all failed, so he got to enjoy the fun again).

The main reason it is memorable is that it opened the door of every developer in the company; everyone knew me, and I could walk into any office and ask questions about any aspect of the platform, and get all the answers I needed. Even to this day at least one of the developers still with Genesys calls me "Milkman". I honestly don't think I would be where I am today had I not participated in the "game" (and won).

I had a special profile pic in the system for a good while :-)

Many decades ago my company offered a white-water rafting experience where you could bring friends, family, etc. I went with a a couple friends and there were 6 people to a raft. So it was me, my supervisor, a co-worker and spouse, as well as 2 of my friends in our raft. Those who went from my organization were very competitive and decided to race.

The guide (in kayaks) took us on the medium-level paths with some breaks of calmer waters. During the calmer waters, some of us had super-soakers and we proceeded to ambush other rafts until getting back into the rapids. While we were racing our other co-workers, in the faster-moving rapids, my co-worker fell out of the raft and his wife paddled harder onward and yelled, "Keep going; he's insured!". We lost the race because we couldn't stop laughing so hard, but we knew he safe because we saw one of the kayak guides pick him up and later returned them to us. Best time...

When I was young in my career, I was the chair of the Employee Engagement Committee. A year into the role, The Company I worked for was nominated for local industry awards, and the C-Suite was invited to a local award show and banquet where they would announce the winners. The night of the event, my VP was sick and asked if I wanted his ticket. I got to attend the show with the CEO, CFO, head of HR, and a few VPs.

It was a cool experience. The event was fun and it was nice getting to know some of the colleagues and leaders I normally don't get to engage with.

Towards the end of the night, we ended up winning the award for "Best Workplace Culture," which was unexpected, but it really highlighted the impactful work the committee and I were doing! 

I bet that was a great night, did you have to be on your best behavior all evening?

When I was young in my career, I was the chair of the Employee Engagement Committee. A year into the role, The Company I worked for was nominated for local industry awards, and the C-Suite was invited to a local award show and banquet where they would announce the winners. The night of the event, my VP was sick and asked if I wanted his ticket. I got to attend the show with the CEO, CFO, head of HR, and a few VPs.

It was a cool experience. The event was fun and it was nice getting to know some of the colleagues and leaders I normally don't get to engage with.

Towards the end of the night, we ended up winning the award for "Best Workplace Culture," which was unexpected, but it really highlighted the impactful work the committee and I were doing! 

It's not much of a story, but I met my husband at work so that takes top billing of all employee experiences for sure. 

Setting that aside, when I was promoted to manager, I received a congratulatory email from the then-president of the company. This was a BIG deal. While he's one of those types that unassumingly drops comedic gold now and then, he's not exactly what one would call a people person. It held extra meaning for me, because over the years I've somehow cross paths with him in the middle of the worst moments a handful of times. This one was probably the worst of the worst: One afternoon a meeting ran long and I had to run out the door to pick up my kids before the pickup deadline. I got to the car, which was parked two lots over, and realized my keys were still sitting on my desk. I proceeded to run back to the building, releasing of stream of colorful expletives along the way. About half way there I looked over and lo and behold, there he was, about to get into his car and just staring at me. I wanted to disappear. I ran inside, got the keys, ran back out... he was still there to watch my less than graceful sprint back to the car. 

I've only been at Genesys for 11 months, but we had an offsite it Orlando that was really fun. I was able to meet everyone in person, participate in various activities and learn more about Genesys overall.

Hello all

In these 16 years of work, I've encountered many challenges. While I've had many challenges, I believe the greatest challenge will be the one yet to come.

Regards

Almost 30 years later and I still get a buzz from simply providing a fix for a complex customer requirement... sad I know but it is what it is