Customer Service Week 2016

A week-long celebration for a team who goes the extra mile for you.

From games and voting to decorations and dressing up, there is never a dull moment. Check out how we celebrated this year!

A Cushing Tradition

Cushing has been celebrating Customer Service Week for over ten years, and each year is more exciting than the last. Departments come together, break into teams, and compete to play games throughout the week. Each year we have a theme, and this year we chose Movie Marathon. Each team named itself after a favorite movie, and each day of the week was deemed a different movie-related theme. The week ends with our annual party, where we celebrate another year, laugh (and sometimes cry) with each other, and give out awards to our deserving co-workers.

Netflix and Chill Day

The week kicked off with Netflix and Chill Day where co-workers were encouraged to come in sweats and pajamas. Since no Netflix binge would be complete without snacks, we also held a bake-off! All the baked goods were delicious, but Cushing has spoken and here were our top three:

1st place: Jen’s Sweet Potato Bacon Blondies

2nd place: Sharika’s Caramel Cheesecake

3rd place: Jennie’s Oatmeal Raisin and M&M Cookies

Honorable mentions to Julia’s Banana Cheesecake Bread, Rachel’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, Brian’s Apple Bread, Diane’s Butter Cookies, and more – YUM!

“Working with Cushing has been a great experience and the personal touch really stuck with me – Mike personally took measurements at the school and was very responsive. Michelle was easy to work and came up with a great design our boosters loved.”
See More From Last Year's Celebration!

You are invited to browse last year’s celebration!

Field of Dreams Day

It’s still baseball season here in Chicago (no we are not rubbing it in – Go Cubs!), the second day of Customer Service Week was deemed Field of Dreams Day, where everyone came to work in their favorite baseball team’s gear.

Even co-workers who couldn’t make it celebrated in cardboard cutout form!

Red Carpet Day

On Wednesday, staff celebrated Red Carpet Day. Cushing employees who work on the shop floor are usually dressed casually, working on flatbeds to the new Indigo Press.

Today, however, everyone had the opportunity to dress to impress (and it was a huge success)!

Animated Day

On the final day before the party (and team spirit day), employees dressed as their favorite animated characters. We had a minion, Kim Possible, Bambi, TWO Pocahontases, Pokemon masters, Cinderella, and shout-outs to films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Such a diverse group of characters!

Team Spirit Day

On Team Spirit Day, the final day of Customer Service Week, teams dressed in spirit gear. Since this year was movie themed, many chose to dress as a character from famous films (a.k.a fun puns based on movie names), while others used team flags to design t-shirts.

Check out these creative team names:

A Fistful of Prints
Printers of the Caribbean
The Fifth Laminate
Willy Wonka and the Printing Factory
50 Shades of CMYK

Most Valuable Co-Worker

Annually, through a secret ballot, Cushing team members vote for Most Valuable Co-Worker. We award points and acknowledge those who work hard and help out the most! This year the winners were:

Julia Kaufman
Sarah Brookhart
Amanda Bridges
Fernando Duran
The Mike Duff Award

The Mike Duff award is given to an employee who anticipates what customers want next and innovative with technology we already have at the shop. An award named for our own late Mike Duff, this team member is enthusiastic, creative and leads by example. This year, Julia Kaufman proved (at least ten times over) that she fit this description.

The significance of the bonsai tree?

Duff always had a bonsai tree on display in his office! 

“We had some pretty big ideas for the Truck Show, and needed help bringing them to life. Cushing's team talked through all aspects of our project, including the best products for a temporary event and installation. I am looking forward to our next project together.”
The Carl Hansen Award

Regardless of company position or title, Carl was known for being a thoughtful co-worker, incredible listener, and calm adviser to his colleagues. The Carl Hansen award is given to a Cushing employee who displays all of these characteristics, and this year, that employee is Sarah Brookhart.

A wonderful painter, each year we give one of Carl’s creations to the winner of this award.

Rookie of the Year

Matt Hausler

Frank Jimenez

Karen Mooney

The Celebration Doesn't Have to Stop!

Please visit the 2015 Customer Service Week Page