The Conference Coach™

Carolyn Bradfield

It’s awkward when you first join a company.  You spend as much time learning the people as you do learning the job because it’s important to fit in and be accepted into the group.  When Copper Conferencing hired our new salesperson Jonah Carney, I knew that the corporate bonding experience would be different.

Jonah comes to the table with a lot of energy, a strong sense of himself, and an incredible sense of humor.  Just for fun, he takes his big personality and translates that into a weekly stand up comic routine at The Punch Line in Atlanta.  He’s pretty funny and maybe one day you will see him on Leno.

Copper’s bonding ritual is to test out that sense of humor with a practical joke.  Usually we don’t do that on the first day you come to work, but with Jonah it was different.  Kathleen Thompson, our head of customer care, is the queen of practical jokes and is always a threat to move your car to a new location, rearrange your office or find a fun way to get your attention.  She was the perfect person to manage the “Jonah project.”

Being high energy, Kathleen jumped on this new initiative as if it were a major account rolling out Copper to 1000 moderators.  Before Jonah came to work, she sent him a new employment form asking him to elect what Copper clubs he would belong to…..choir, bowling, trivia, etc.  He walked in to find his picture all over the office, only with his name misspelled.  He had to go to Kathleen for a hall pass, participate in morning yoga with the afternoon culminating in a truth and sharing circle.   Everyone was waiting to see if Jonah would crack.

However, Kathleen, as good as she is, is an amateur prankster.  I, on the other hand, am the professional.  My jokes are elaborate, involve pulling in people you least suspect, have a strong ring of something that might really happen.  I’ve convinced people that I’ve hid a dead body in the office, that all our technology failed exactly at the same moment, that we had the mob planning a revenge murder over conferencing….you get the picture.

So of course, it seemed much more fun to reverse the prank and bring Jonah in on the joke.  Now Jonah could really fill out that form and join all those non-existent Copper clubs, sheepishly reveal that he needed to keep the hall pass for his irritable bowel syndrome, lead the yoga class with a song and dance routine.  It was perfect…..until Jonah told someone innocuous about the joke who then told Kathleen.  Rule one of practical jokes….don’t trust anyone!

We work hard, but we play hard as well.  Copper’s people are bonded as a family…..they work together, take care of the customer, and don’t take themselves too seriously.  I’m glad people like Kathleen and Jonah are with us.  It keeps life interesting!

For more information about Copper Conferencing’s audio conferencing and web conferencing services, contact a Conference Coach today.