Vicky Blogs: COVID-19 (& beyond)

One of the final sections of my Gamification course through UPenn touched upon the uses of gamification within enterprise. My professor gave us a list of six areas where there are internal enterprise applications for such thinking: (1) intranet engagement, (2) productivity enhancement, (3) efficiency enhancement, (4) knowledge management, (5) human resources, and (6) innovation. Intranet engagement refers to having leaderboards present to identify and highlight experts in certain areas.  This particular type of gamification can be found on the SAP intranet to make it easier to find an expert when help is needed.  Productivity enhancement, a more popular use of gamification, aims to help or encourage employees to do their jobs better.  Within this area, it is important to pay attention to what type  of employee you are motivating.  An analyst will be motivated differently than a salesperson.  Leaderboards can sometimes be helpful in allowing employees to see...

At the end of last week, I participated in a virtual event with Food & Wine with my fellow foodie friend (see us above).  Their annual event in Aspen, Colorado was cancelled this year and the organization decided to host an online replacement event, complete with food demos and wine tasting to follow along with.  My friend who came to partake with me is someone that I trust very much and therefore felt safe having her come to my home for this special event.  She and I have worked the social media for the past few years for other Food & Wine festivals, such as those in Newport, RI and Nantucket.  If anyone is interested in following her on social media.  Her instagram is @tinita80 and @christinamirraevents, and she has also been doing a super fun weekly cooking class during the coronavirus pandemic with families that she has cooked or nannied for in the past (@cookingwithtinaandthecats). ANYWAYS, We attended the  Food & Wine Classic at Home ...

At the end of last week, I crossed over the threshold of having applied for over 100 jobs.  Some people might say that this number is actually quite low because I've been looking since January.  Others might think this number is high.  I'm not entirely sure which side I stand on myself. The journey of job searching during a pandemic and while recovering from spinal surgery has been a wild ride.  I feel like a broken record sometimes when I tell myself that there are so many others in my position of looking for work right now.  I try to reaffirm that it isn't an easy job market right now.  And then I remind myself that I don't want just any  job.  I want to get into the industry of corporate wellness.  I know that this is where I am supposed to be.   On top of that, I have been so incredibly frustrated with my recovery from the microdisectomy that I went through last November.  The MRI right after surgery was clear, indicating t...

I'm lucky enough to have a few family spots that I've visited since I was born.  I just spent some time at one of them, the jersey shore, before driving up to the another for the 4th of July.  The 4th of July is a big deal in the small upstate NY town where my father and his brothers co-own a house that their father built.  My father and his siblings always came to this spot while they were growing up too.  I've always said that these two areas, the jersey shore and upstate NY, were wildly different.  And it does make sense that they are associated with different sides of the family.  I think about my Mom's side of the family when I imagine the shore and my Dad's side of the family when I imagine the lake.  Even though they are different vibes, I manage to find myself fitting in to each place with ease. This year, most of the the events associated with the 4th were cancelled due to COVID-19.  There are normally tons  of people and it's a big ...

As promised, I'd like to talk about motivation in this post.  I chose this phrasing for the title of this post because the messaging that we often receive about behavior change is that we should just change already.  I found this satirical 'maybe do it' meme on instagram a while back and thought it was just hilarious - I wish I came up with it, but I did not, and am not sure where it truly came from.  The real 'Just do it" is the slogan for the Nike company, which seems to be telling consumers to just exercise.  As someone who has worked in the fitness industry and struggled with changing some of my own bad habits, I actually think that telling someone to 'just do it' is one of the least effective methods to get through to the majority of people.  Now, that's not to say that there aren't individuals that this messaging resonates with.  I will explain later, however, how these individuals differ from the 'average Joe'. Motivation can be a con...