Interviewing Award Nominees: Goofy Awards and Questions Needed

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A small part of my company (20 salespeople, including 4 managers) is having a little “Ra-Ra We’re great!” event with an Oscars theme. They’re going to give away goofy fake awards like “Jokester Extraordinaire” and “Best Smile” along with faux Oscar statuettes. The awards will be surprises; all the employees will know is that they’ve been nominated for an award of some kind.

I’ve been asked to brainstorm a list of awards and the manager of the group has asked me, El Hammo Numero Uno, to interview each employee on videotape. The tape will be played at the beginning of their event evening. So, this request is a two-parter.

  1. What kind of funny, non-insulting, appropriate-for-work awards can we give out?
  2. What kind of funny, non-insulting, appropriate-for-work questions can I ask the award winners?

Short, brainstormed lists appear below.

Award Ideas:[ul]
[li]Best Smile[/li][li]Best Dressed[/li][li]Most Likely to Nap[/li][li]Cleanest Desk[/li][li]Longest Commute[/li][/ul]One Lame Question Idea[ul]
[li]So you’ve been nominated for “Most Likely to Nap.” Tell us why.[/li][/ul]

2

Question: “We know you’d like to thank all the little people – who are the little people, and how little are they?”

3

Ummm…

Most creative use of paper clips

Most eloquent voicemail message

Most likely to refill copier paper (or any group office commodity that runs out of stuff)

4

Thanks twickster and IrreverentTone, I’ll use all of those. :slight_smile:

Wow, I’m surprised there aren’t more replies. I thought y’all Dopers would be all over this one.

5

Tidiest middle drawer

Least typo-prone emails

Best/ Most Appropriate posted cartoon

As for questions:

If you could be any office supply, which would you be and why?

What’s your secret of chair adjustment?

What should the next office party theme be and why?

6

Thank you, FairyChatMom! Shall utilize promptly.

7

Gazelle,

What type of work do you do? It might help to put some framework around your company. I have a bit of experience in this and may be able to help. Is your office salespeople, management, what?

8

Ok,

I’m an idiot…I just reread the op. You have salespeople in your office. What are you selling?

9

Hi everyone… Okay, here’s the deal. I work for an insurance company. The people I’ll be interviewing work in the call center as customer service representatives and agents.

They’re videotaping me this Thursday. The primary goal would be to get a funny answer, reaction, or something from each interviewee. The secondary goal is for it to be funny, not stupid and boring. The event itself is scheduled for March 1. I will, mercifully, be cruising the Caribbean Sea at the time of airing. So if it sucks, I won’t be there. I’ll just hear the backlash upon my return.

Can ya tell I’m a little nervous about this?

Please, dearest Dopers… Any and all ideas for questions would be great.

My plan is to have two questions per interviewee; there are twenty of them. I’d love to have forty to choose from, but I don’t mind repeating questions. I think it would be funny to see how different people react to the same question…

Man, I’m nervous about this.

10

How about giving each a Zen koan and asking for their thoughts on it? Way deep man.

Alternatively I used to do the office newsletter and had an interview each month in which I would pick a random person and ask them to tell me about anything we may not know about them. I got some very surprising answers. It is always nice to highlight the person behind the job I think.

I do not suggest taking anyone out of their comfort zone, it is work after all, no need to take the piss too much either, they need to show up again.

11

I’m sure you share stories about customers from hell. How about a “Grace under pressure” award for the person with the most boneheaded callers?

12

C’mon, guys… Help me out here.

Here’s what I have so far:

What award do you think you were nominated for?

Do you dream about insurance?

What’s the funniest or strangest experience you have had on the telephone at work?

What’s the most unusual thing about you?

Can you do any stupid human tricks?

What is your most embarrassing moment?

You’ve been nominated for “Most Likely to Nap.” Tell us why.

We know you’d like to thank all the little people – who are the little people, and how little are they?"

If you could be any office supply, which would you be and why?

What’s your secret of chair adjustment?

What should the next office party theme be and why?

Why do you save the earwax from your telephone headset?

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Tell us something about yourself that we’d never guess by looking at you.

14

Fastest walker around the office.

Most beautiful signature/handwriting.

Most coiled-up telephone cord (do you still have cords?).

Most amazing/incomprehensible screensaver/ screen background.

Something with the lunch. Do you have collective lunch, or does everyone bring in their own stuff? Most exotic food consumed? Or most diverse selection of lunch items?

What’s your favority color pen and why? (or even better: order four colors in preference, with explanation)

Have you ever sold insurance in a dream? (variation on earlier question)

Do you sing in the shower? If so, which song?

15

Maybe something really odd: Why do you suppose all beauty pagent contestants are so obsessed with world peace?