Unsung Heroes & Office Legends

We realize that when you support a small organization, you might want to get to know a little more about the people making the magic happen. Sometimes getting to know the people is just as important as getting to know the mission. With that in mind, our staff completed a silly superlative survey to help you get to know us just a little bit more. Whether it’s who is going to respond to your emails at 4am (86% Brian) or who is most likely to have a banana in their lunch (77% Alex), we hope this gives you a little lighthearted peek into our office cubicles.

We’ll start with a few classics & provide our interpretations as needed, so keep scrolling!

It’s a good time to say that we asked not only staff, but also some of our partners that regularly interact with our staff to complete the form. Some folks took it more seriously than others. Emily and Beth received the most votes for those who actually have hair, and Brian and Alex split the cake on who has the best horseshoe cut. 

This question was designed to ruffle some feathers, but it also made us laugh. With the recent build of Beth’s “catio,” she managed to take the prize as her two pampered kitties spend their days lounging in an outdoor tunnel and porch. In a fascinating twist, Emily and Alex managed to gain a few votes even though neither of them even have pets.

The question of musical taste produced the most divisiveness, and honestly we’re not sure what to take from that. At Celebrate the Rogue this year, one of our trivia questions involved matching the staff member to their favorite artists, so perhaps the love of Miles Davis really pushed John & Brian to the top of the pack. Craig keeps it classy with picks including the Beatles and Mozart, and the rest of our eclectic tastes fall somewhere else in the mix. It’s anyone’s game.

Now we’re starting to get into some more work related questions, from communications to long term career paths. Starting off strong, people seem to think that Emily & Craig will never retire, as they aren’t even represented in the graph below. 

Sometimes, there are right answers and wrong answers to these questions. For example, Beth & Alex won the majority of the vote (85% combined) on who is most likely to respond to an email within 45 seconds. Emily cleared the floor on “most likely to look for hot sauce in the fridge” (65%) and most likely to bike to work (61%). Those answers are correct. 

We were all shocked to see John take a significant portion of the vote in “least likely to lose their keys” but not as surprised to see him in the running for “Black Hole: most likely to lose things on their desk” (43%). If he has that much credibility towards losing things on his desk, wouldn’t keys be included in the chaos? John also won the “phone tag award” (38.5%) although staff agrees that it should certainly be Beth, who came in close second (30.8%).

This is a question most offices don’t get to ask, but most of our staff agreed there is a clear answer… John. On one of our recent dam removal projects, John fell in multiple times… on the same day. Even he says “my balance isn’t what it once was” and he also took 72% of the vote on “most likely to throw out their back.” As Beth and Emily are the other two staff members predominantly out at project sites, the odds are indeed higher that they fall in (compared to Brian and Alex), although it may also be by choice on a hot summer day.

Some of our staff are more social than others, and that is evident in these responses. Not only is John the most likely person you’d run to in public, but he’s also the most likely person you’d find eating out…anywhere. John supports local businesses like a champ, and he won “most likely to suggest eating lunch in Trail/Shady Cove” (50%) and “most likely to ask to meet at Sweet Beet” (85%). During our Bear Creek River Mile 19 project in Talent, Beth and John met nearly every day at Sweet Beet for coffee before going out to the site. John lives a life where everyone knows his name.

This question held a bit of suspense for staff, wondering who would be our personality hire. Craig, our (supposedly retired) part time Water Quality specialist, brought in the most votes with his neverending supply of stories and fun personality in and out of the office. It was a dogfight for everyone else.

These two can be contextualized together. One of these individuals came from corporate America, and navigating professional emails and finding solutions is second nature (Alex). Emily and Brian also received significant credit for their ability to balance organizational needs with diplomacy, and it’s nice to see that our ability to collaborate (even when we’re not thrilled about it) extends to quite a few individuals. 

Last, but certainly not least, we had our Loch Ness Award. The question was ambiguous on whether this applied for folks inside the office or on their offtime, so there’s a bit of room for interpretation. Alex is a steady desk-worker, and you can almost always find him in the office, but in his free time, he’s off in the woods staying away from all humans. Craig & John are a bit more scattered in their office and personal life, but Craig has been taking a lot of trips/vacations in his camper recently, so that tracks. Beth spends a lot of time working in different places- home, the catio, coffee shops, the floor of her office… It’s anyone’s guess where she might be. She also won the supermajority on “least likely to go out in the summer” (70%) and “most likely to be flipping over rocks in the creek” (75%). So yes, in the spring and fall Beth could also be found out looking for bugs at various project sites.

Some of our other favorite questions included “most likely to cry in the office” (Beth) and most likely to fall off a mountain (a very even split between everyone). We highly recommend this as a staff activity, and we hope if you know any of us, at least one of these made you laugh. We may be a staff of only 6, but we’re not short on personality.