If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody. ~Chinese Proverb Psst! Want to know the secret to happiness? It’s not a mani-pedi. It’s not a […]
On June 12th, FULL team members within driving distance of Portland, Oregon (including visiting Client Account Manager Srikanth Devaraj from Chennai, India), met up at the Oregon Food Bank to bag locally-sourced produce for the 270,000 Oregonians who visit a food pantry every month. In as little as two hours, the team of twenty-seven bagged […]
Have you heard about remote working (or, as we like to call it, working Anywhere) but thought it was only for rockstar ninja software engineers at the latest Silicon Valley startups? Think again. One of the greatest benefits of working Anywhere, if you ask us, is the way it can open up job opportunities for […]
Experience Anywhere is a new program we’re launching designed to give amazing employees a chance to have an equally amazing experience. Working remotely has already freed us from the office building, we’d like to take it even further and free our teammates to get out and explore the world. We’ve been asking around for the […]
We received a lovely surprise from Client Experience Associate Nancy Lane. Nancy was the winner of something we called FULL51. It came to our attention that the average United States worker commutes fifty-one minutes a day. Since our team mostly works from home, we thought we’d encourage everyone to take the fifty-one minutes they would […]
FULL Creative is thrilled to announce we’ve been included in Oregon Business Magazine’s 100 Best Green Workplaces! Oregon Business Magazine compiles this annual list through a combination of anonymous employee surveys and an independent assessment of each company and their sustainability practices. Last year, 434 companies and nonprofits were considered, and a whopping 17,000 employees […]
The Internet is increasingly important for business and daily life in the United States. However, access is not evenly distributed across the country (and even less so when you consider the world as a whole). According to a June 2013 White House report on broadband access, almost 100% of urban residents had access to speeds […]
At FULL Creative, we believe Anywhere Works—reducing automobile emissions by empowering people to work where they are—is a great strategy to fight climate change. If more companies and organizations adopt remote working, we’ll all be much better off. In the meantime, this ingenious project from Geneva, Switzerland might help us deal with some of the […]
Gasoline prices have been falling at the pump. At first glance, this may seem like a good thing—more money in our pockets. However, cheaper gas might encourage people to drive more, creating more pollution and an even more severe greenhouse gas effect on our atmosphere. Now, scientists are asking how much that gallon (or liter) […]
As the capital of Texas, Austin is home to many of the Lone Star State’s 311,000 state employees. Those drivers contribute to gridlock on I-35, a major highway that runs north-south through the state. Representative Celia Israel has introduced a bill in the Texas legislature to help, by making it easier for state agencies to […]
In 2007, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of every study of remote working ever done to that point—46 studies covering 12,883 employees altogether. The analysis was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. So what did they find? The researchers found that remote working resulted in greater perceived autonomy among workers, leading to greater job satisfaction. Remote […]
India has announced it’s leaping into the solar top spot with the largest solar plant in the world, set to open on the nation’s Independence Day of August 15, 2016. The 750 megawatt array, slated for the central state of Madhya Pradesh, is part of India’s planned 100 gigawatts of solar power by 2022. The […]
You’ve probably heard of global warming or climate change. But the people at CICERO, the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research—Oslo, suggest that a better term might be Global Weirding. Why? Because climate change can produce a wide variety of strange (and dangerous) effects, from hotter high temperatures to colder cold spells to jellyfish […]
The Northeast part of the US is getting pounded by winter storms. It’s gotten so bad that the Boston Yeti has returned from wherever he lives when there isn’t three feet of snow on the ground. Apparently this is a friendly yeti, who helps shovel people’s cars out of the snow banks. But depending on […]
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is a landmark and tourist attraction. It’s also full of trash. But maybe not for long. The city has a garbage-collecting contraption that looks like a hermit crab from outer space. The current from the Jones Falls River turns a water wheel, which moves a conveyor belt, which lifts trash out of […]
Brittni Lopez knows the value of a flexible work environment first-hand. She’s been with FULL since October 2013, first as a Bilingual CX Specialist, then in sales, and now as a CX Engineer. (She was referred by her cousin, Rachel Gomez, who is also still with us.) Before coming to FULL, she struggled to find […]
We’ve talked about the 3 P’s of sustainability: People, Planet, and Profit. Here’s another set of letters for your motivational alphabet: the 3 C’s of giving.When you get right down to it, FULL Creative is in the customer service business. So it makes sense that the first C of giving stands for Customer. We help our […]
In January, two of our favorite nations announced a new agreement on climate and clean energy cooperation.The two big democracies said they’ll work together (and with other countries) on renewable energy research and financing, air quality, efficient off-grid appliances, transportation fuels, and more.“India’s voice is very important on this issue,” said US President Barack Obama. “Perhaps no […]
We know how many of our CX employees get to work—they walk down the hall or into the next room of their own houses. Our team in the Portland office bike, drive, or take the bus. In Chennai, our team tends to rely on motorcycles, trains, and taxis. Overall, FULL Creative is quite a bit different […]
In a joint announcement, NASA and NOAA declared 2014 the hottest year on record. Last year’s average global temperatures were warmer than any year since 1880, when modern measurement began. Previous records were set in 2005 and 2010. In fact, all ten hottest years on record happened since 1997, and nineteen of the twenty hottest years have […]
About this time last year, Bridget Hostetler was working for two friends who had a chocolate business near her home in Emmet, Idaho. Sounds great, right? But Bridget found there was a problem: if eating chocolate were an Olympic sport, she says, “I’d have a gold medal.” She decided to send out some resumes and […]
Often when we talk about being environmentally responsible, it’s about less. Driving less, buying less, consuming less. We might start feeling like we’re giving up a lot and resent the loss. But maybe that’s the wrong way to think about it.Consider the following, from designer John Maeda’s book The Laws of Simplicity: “The opportunity lost by increasing the amount of […]
We’ve managed to eliminate a lot of commuting simply by allowing much of our team to work at home. But we’re under no illusions—the vast majority of people still commute to work, emitting carbon into the atmosphere all the way. Design studio IDEO (the people behind one of our favorite books, Creative Confidence) has a vision […]
As ice melts in the arctic, animals such as polar bears are gradually moving north—trying to stay ahead of the warming temperatures. Meanwhile, the annual Christmas Bird Count, a huge amateur effort to track avian migration and population, shows that birds are shifting their movements in response to climate change, too. Polar bears and migrating birds can’t stop climate […]
More than 2.5 billion people around the world have no access to safe sanitation. As a result, a million and a half children die every year from contaminated food and water.The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working on a solution. The Janicki Omniprocessor, made by Janicki Bioenergy, takes sewer sludge and turns it into clean drinking […]
Sitting too much is bad for you. Luckily, there’s something you can do about it: Stand up.You don’t necessarily have to stand all day, like James sometimes does. Just five minutes every hour might be enough! Check out the videos for some more information about the harmful effects of too much sitting and some simple things […]
In 1996, an estimated one billion monarch butterflies made the annual migration to their wintering grounds in Mexico. Less than twenty years later, in 2014, the number was down to a record low of 33 million. That may still seem like a lot of butterflies, but it’s a 96.7% decrease. The reason, scientists say, is the […]
What’s the bottom line? Literally speaking, it’s the last entry on a business’ profit and loss statement, what’s left over when you add up all the revenue and subtract expenses. The bottom line is such a fundamental part of business that it’s crossed over into everyday language: when you want someone to get to the […]
What is FULL CORE? In a way, it’s our answer to Google’s celebrated 20 percent time practice. Google’s informal policy (which may or may not still exist at the tech giant) encourages engineers and others to devote approximately one day a week to a company-related passion project. For FULL’s operation in Chennai (which includes software development, IT, HR, and other […]
What would the world’s cities look like if sea levels rose about 80 meters, as scientists predict would happen if today’s glaciers melted completely? Seattle mapmaker and urban planner Jeffrey Linn gives us a look at the answer in his blog series Sea Rise Maps, inspired by a similar map of San Francisco. The U.S. Geological Survey says a much […]
Katharine Zaleski and Milena Berry founded Power to Fly to help connect women around the world to tech jobs they could do remotely. Power to Fly vets its talent with three interviews (and code checks for relevant positions). The startup has connected women in 55 countries with companies like BuzzFeed and the Washington Post.Though they’re not focused exclusively […]
In February 2014, Noeme’s doctor gave her some sobering news: she was on the path to getting diabetes. “I was worried about my kids and scared that if I continued the lifestyle I had become accustomed to that it would lead to much more serious health issues,” she says. “So I decided to do something […]
Calista spends her days as a CX Team Leader. When she’s not working, she helps out with another kind of team: Boy Scout Troop 1 in Salem, Oregon (established in 1912, it’s the oldest troop in the state, as far as we know). As the troop’s merit badge counselor, Calista teaches the scouts what they […]
Back in August, the FULL community shared ideas for volunteering as part of the Great Give Back initiative. Laurie Thom recently shared her story of working with the Redmond, Oregon, fire department’s annual Toy and Food Drive. She’s the drive’s volunteer coordinator, while her husband serves as warehouse commander.The effort started in the late 1940s […]
Mel, one of our Team Leads, shared this video about people working to protect the Amazon rain forest from oil drilling. “I saw this recently and couldn’t help but think about our company motto and how we are trying in our own way to make the world a better place one step at a time,” she […]
Yerdle has a mission: to reduce how many new things we buy by 25 percent. The free smartphone app gives you credits for donating items you don’t want. You can spend your credits in Yerdle’s online marketplace to get things other people gave away. One of Yerdle’s supporters is outdoor clothing company Patagonia. With its Worn Wear program, Patagonia […]
Charity Miles is a free phone app that lets you earn money for charity by running, walking, or biking. The funds are donated by corporate sponsors like Humana and Johnson & Johnson. The app won SXSW’s 2013 People’s Choice Award.Trina, one of our FULL Creative trainers, discovered Charity Miles and signed up to support AIDS organization (RED) and Stand Up […]
There’s a message in this bottle. Actually, more than one.First, there’s a message of Season’s Greetings. And second, a message that things don’t have to be discarded when they’ve fulfilled their original function. Our team lead Marcia transformed an empty wine bottle, some Christmas lights, and some vinyl into a lovely FULL holiday light. (She […]
Back in June, the Environmental Protection Agency released its Clean Power Plan, a proposal to cut emissions from U.S. power plants by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030. Power plants are the single largest source of global warming gases in the U.S., accounting for 40% of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s more than every car, truck, and […]
Our Chennai team is here to pump you up! There’s no end of exercises you can do at (or near) your desk. Start with just a few minutes and we think you’ll feel better. Post your favorite deskercise in the comments on Facebook or Google+. Here’s the original list of 33 exercises to do at […]
Why is Shaw so happy as he types away? Maybe he’s just an upbeat guy. Or maybe it’s the flexibility he has at FULL Creative to work wherever he can get the job done.A recent study by psychologists, physiologists, economists, and public health scholars from the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and […]
Yes, that is a wall of trash near the entrance to FULL Creative’s Portland office. What is it doing there? Good question.We’ve been getting into walking meetings. Walkie-talkies, as we sometimes call them, are a great way to get some exercise and a new perspective on things at the same time. While we were out there […]
Computers and the Internet have given us the ability to be more productive than ever and to work from just about anywhere. But a recent study shows that the transition to more sedentary jobs over the last fifty years has contributed to an epidemic of obesity. Those of us who work at a desk might have to get […]
Climate change is a global issue, and it can be hard to wrap your head around. This supercomputer model from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, a major space research lab, shows a year of our planet’s carbon dioxide emissions in just a few minutes.The swirling colors are strangely beautiful. But the underlying reality is not. […]
Our recruiting team is a great example of how people in different places can work together. Led by People Operations Manager Lorissa in Portland, team members Ursula, Tanya, and Amanda are all based in Texas, while Sarah lives and works in Idaho. As a group, they collaborate with support staff in Chennai as they recruit […]
A building in Mexico City sports a wall with a shape inspired by ocean coral and a coating that breaks down smog into less harmful substances. FULL Creative designer Brooke Barnhardt spotted the building on National Geographic. (This photo via Euronews.) “I loved the design of the tiles covering the building,” she says. “Then I realized […]
If this office looks a little empty, you’re not wrong. Forecasters predicted a big snowstorm for Portland (and extreme cold for much of the USA), so we made the call to work from home. Of course, because of our Anywhere Works model, this decision only affected a few FULL employees—the rest were happily working away […]
CX Mentor Abbey Savoie has lived most of her life in Idaho, most recently in Caldwell. About a year ago, she decided to move closer to her family in Texas. “The fact that I could keep doing a job that I enjoy made the decision that much easier,” she says. In early October, she packed […]
Like all our team leaders, Marcia meets virtually twice a month with each member of her team. “We talk about what’s going on, and I keep them motivated on their stats,” she says. During a recent Hive Day in Boise, she led a walking meeting and tour of the downtown riverfront for FULL visitors Vikram, Sri, […]
We hear a lot about how carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are changing our climate. But where does that carbon come from? It’s emitted by industry and internal combustion engines…but how much do you personally contribute?The first step to understanding a problem is measurement. When you know where you are, you can start to […]
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its latest report. In this report, the world’s top scientists warn that continuing our emission of greenhouse gases “will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems.”Greenhouse […]
Gay Stockdale came to FULL Creative as a CX Specialist in 2012 and is now a mentor. “I enjoy coaching other agents and helping them improve their own skills,” she says.When she isn’t mentoring for us, Gay takes photographs, writes, and paints (her pastel work “Buddies” appears below). Her interest in art, she says, started when her […]
Amanda joined FULL Creative in October 2013 as a CX Specialist and is now a CX Talent Scout. She is also studying to become a paralegal at her local community college in Texas. Her ultimate goal is to become a court reporter. “I love words, office work, and typing,” she says. “As a CX Specialist […]
This picture is ridiculous. Or is it? Yes, this guy’s contraption is made out of lumber and duct tape (photo via). But on the other hand, he clearly wanted to work outside. And he is outside.Sometimes when you try to do things differently, people call you stupid or make fun of your cobbled-together early efforts. That […]
When you’re part of an Anywhere Works team, or even just work with one person in a different location, it can be tough to stay connected. Over the summer, teams on one of our biggest dedicated accounts took part in a contest both to learn new things and have fun together.For the competition, called AdaptiveYou Summer […]
Want to know what’s going on here? Check out this amazing image collection from the Audubon Society. We can have our planet and our quality of life, too. We just need to be smart about it. Using the Internet instead of combustion engine technology to connect people and work is one way forward.(Photo by Olivier Maire, EPA/Corbis)
Jay Vasquez attends Arizona State University online from her home in Coahoma, Texas. With a major in psychology and a minor in criminal justice, Jay hopes to work in the criminal courts as a forensic psychologist.“I’ve always had an interest in the human mind, why it feels the way it feels and what drives it […]
Virginia Dickinson lives and works in Prineville, near in central Oregon. The chance to work from home drew her to FULL Creative. “I love the five step commute and the quiet,” she says. “This is the job for me, always and forever.”With flexible scheduling, Virginia can easily take a few days off to pursue one […]
Britney, who lives and works in Salem, Oregon, just finished up her program in massage therapy at University of Western States, learning massage techniques for medical, sports, and trauma situations. Next, she plans to finish her bachelor’s degree at either Pacific University or Portland State. FULL Creative’s choose-your-own shift system helps. “Scheduling here is really […]
On Sunday, September 21st, more than 300,000 people marched in New York City to show their commitment to solving climate change. Thousands more marched in other cities around the world. August 2014 was the hottest August on record, going back to 1880. We can’t solve the problem by ourselves as one company, but we can […]
Supervisors noticed that CX Engineer Zac Amsden always schedules a two-hour lunch. What is he doing during that time? No one knew…until now. “The first thing I do is take my corgi and best friend, Conan the Destroyer, on a walk at the large park outside my house,” Zac says. Sometimes the walk ends with […]
From her home in Terrebonne, Oregon, about twenty-five miles north of Bend, Laurie avails herself of our flexible scheduling system to have more time with her husband, who works 48 hours on and 96 hours off as a firefighter on the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs reservation. When they’re not working, Laurie and her husband […]
Did you know FULL Creative sends out up to 12,000 notices to our clients each month? That’s a stack of paper five feet tall, every month. Too much paper! So, a few months back, we went paperless for client notices and switched to electronic messages. It’s FULL Creative’s latest step on the Paperless Trail. The […]
Bambi Butler, who has been with FULL Creative as a CX Specialist for two and a half years, welcomed baby Jayda Luv to the world on July 17th (Bambi also has a six-year-old stepson). “I call her our angel because I’m 39 years old and this is my first biological child,” Bambi says. Bambi and […]
Since 1969, geologist Bruce Molina has visited Alaska about 300 times. On each trip, he’s reproduced historical photographs originally taken by naturalists and explorers like John Muir—pictures that date back as far as the 1880s. (Photo: Bruce Molnia/USGS) By standing in the same spot as the original photographer, Molina is able to show how the […]
Amanda and Jason Paulin live in Sheridan, Oregon, about an hour and a half drive southwest of Portland. Both of them have been with FULL Creative for about two years, most of that time as CX Engineers (Amanda was recently promoted to CX Engineer Team Leader.)The couple also has another job—raising daughters Harper (pictured above) […]
In India and other nations, hundreds of millions of people lack access to electricity. By 2035, global demand for electricity is expected to rise by one third. As the developing world electrifies it is a great opportunity to rethink a more sustainable solution. (Photo: Martin Wright.) It is very possible that the next step of […]
Boise architect Macy Miller built herself a 196-square-foot tiny house, and now lives in it with her partner, their baby, and a Great Dane named Denver. The house has gotten international attention and has been featured in TIME magazine, among other media outlets. Living in a tiny house can be a departure from the typical American lifestyle, […]
In March 2013, CX Mentor Robin Murphy was celebrating her husband’s 46th birthday when a dance floor mishap left her with six stitches in her forehead and a kneecap fractured in three places. Eight weeks later she had healed up, but didn’t have insurance coverage for physical therapy. As a result, she couldn’t bend her […]
On September 30, 2014, National Geographic will release the 10th edition of its Atlas of the World. This time around, the atlas’ map of the Arctic will show dramatic changes in the extent of sea ice. Since the 1970s, according to NASA, the ice-covered area has shrunk by 12 percent per decade. A “feedback loop”—thin ice […]
In the weeks leading up to the March 2014 birth of her son Caleb, CX Specialist Melissa Murphy worried about how she’d juggle childcare with the job she spent an hour commuting to from her home in Nampa, Idaho. “I cried and cried thinking of leaving my baby boy with someone else for the day, […]
Elon Musk is the entrepreneur behind PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX. Standing in the shower one day when he was in college, Musk asked himself what things would be most likely to affect the future of humanity in a positive way. In this video interview at Stanford, Musk talks about the five things he came […]
Kori Lester, a CX Mentor based in Idaho, says she’s the “greenie” in her family. Her husband Sam “would have a bumper sticker that says ‘I Love Big Oil’ on his suburban if he could,” she says.Still, when a 2013 Nissan Leaf came up for auction online, the low price caught Sam’s eye (the electric […]
The way we build our cities reflects our values. The image above shows two places at the same scale: the city of Florence, Italy on the left and a single Atlanta, Georgia-area freeway cloverleaf on the right. (See link below for image source.) That’s right. This one freeway intersection is about the same size as […]
Intake Advisor Jessica Schmidt has not had access to a car for ten years. “I have never had the desire to own a vehicle,” she says. “It is getting easier all the time to continue to live car-free.” Now living in Eugene, Oregon, Jessica first started getting around by bicycle when she lived in Washington, […]
When Alisa Davis was a banker at Wells Fargo, she’d drive fifteen miles to work in the morning and another forty miles every afternoon to pick up her infant daughter Angel at daycare. “I took a leap of faith by leaving the bank,” she says, “because I saw how it was affecting my most important […]
Cities like New York, Portland, and Austin have long had their share of people without cars. Density, public transportation, and bicycle infrastructure help people find other ways to get around. But what about less urban places, like Southern Oregon?Our own CX Consultant Elizabeth McCleary lives car-free in Sutherlin, Oregon. Elizabeth says she used to drive […]
Master recycler Betty Shelley and her husband Jon have gotten their garbage down to one can a year. “Once you start reducing your household garbage,” Shelley says, “it can become like a game. You get more creative.” Are you ready to play? Whatever we do, it’s worth asking—how little can we use? How efficient can we be? […]
Climate change threatens our natural ecosystems and built environment—the photo above shows the Jet Star roller coaster underwater in Seaside Heights, New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. (Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images.) A new study called Risky Business details the impact global warming is likely to have on the U.S. economy. Funded by […]
Karen Booze has been with FULL Creative for five years. In late 2013, she took her Ford F-250 pickup to Jiffy Lube for an oil change. The truck had about 200,000 miles on it. “When it was finally my turn,” she says, “the tech told me I had not been there since the previous November. […]
The West Antarctica Ice Sheet contains enough water to raise global sea level by 4 feet, and it’s melting. Eric Rignot, author of a joint study released by NASA and the University of California at Irvine, said the increasing meltdown of these glaciers “appears unstoppable.”That kind of rise in sea level could displace tens of millions of […]
We need abundant energy. We have to take care of our environment. Could this technology do both? Here’s the Indiegogo campaign to fund the project, based in Idaho.
In December 2010, a team from Stanford University began a nine-month study of workers at a NASDAQ-listed, $5 billion Shanghai-based travel agency with 16,000 employees.