To celebrate Red Door’s 10^th anniversary this year (double digits!), we would like to share our personality, core values, and overall excitement through a series of “top 10” blog posts on the 10^th each month. To kick things off, we want to focus on one of our most popular core values that really sets the bar for the kind of people we hire and the way our teams interact with each other and communicate with clients – 100% Jerk Free.   

When deadlines are tight, workloads are full, and beer:30 is far away, here are 10 ways to still show R-E-S-P-E-C-T and remain jerk free.  

1. Don’t Be Too Busy to Lend a Hand

• Even if it means getting your hands dirty…

 2. Give Thanks Where It’s Due

• Notes, shout-outs, smiles—a small phrase goes a long way.

Nothing says, “We’re thankful for you” like a public announcement and even a sweet prize. That’s why we believe in our “Mad Props” peer recognition program. Check out a post about one of our winners here. 

3. Think Before You Post

• Be respectful, not regretful.

We all know what happened when disgruntled Domino’s employees posted a video prank on YouTube.  

4. Get Outside the Cubicle

•  Let the walls down. Take a break.

Eating Lunch Outside the Cubicle, RDI Office, Downtown San Diego

5. Let your Personality Shine

• Be the human you are.

Director of Social Media Crosby Noricks isn’t afraid to let her personality shine. Whether she’s wearing a princess tiara, sharing her expertise, or sitting pretty at her very decorated desk, Crosby reminds us that it’s cool to be yourself (and not just your job title).  

The Fabulous Desk of Crosby Noricks, Director of Social Media

 6. Do Your Part

• Don’t let your food rot in the fridge.

Sounds gross—that’s because it is. Sharing a fridge with 50 people can get pretty crazy. But with kitchen duty and weekly fridge clear-outs, we can count on each other to be accountable for keeping the kitchen clean and the fridge fresh. Or whatever the duties may be in your office.  

Kitchen Duty Notice, Downtown San Diego Office

7. Enjoy the View

• Tear your eyes away from the screen… and breathe!

View from RDI Office, Petco Park, Downtown San Diego

8. Pay it Forward

• Imagine a world of shared progress.

Associate Creative Director Patrick Cinco reached out to a new Red Door employee and aspiring copywriter by lending his favorite book on ad concept and copy. His explanation? “I’m just stoked on what people did for me in the past and want to pay it forward.”    

9. Have a Caring Heart

• Serve seniors. Walk for a cause. Give.

RDI Caring Hearts, Serving Seniors @ Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center

10. Be Present

• Listen and pay attention. You might surprise yourself.

The Morale and Culture Committee is pleased to announce Mikael Greenlief as the most nominated employee of September for Mad Props.

Mikael is an Online Media Planner at Red Door and joined our team in February of this year.  In addition to working with clients such as Cricket, Vistage & Rubio’s, Mikael is bringing valuable experience and recommendations to new business research efforts. Mikael is constantly going above and beyond and exceeding expectations of both clients and our internal teams and has become a valuable member of the Red Door team!

What is Mad Props?
Mad Props is a peer recognition program at Red Door where employees can nominate a fellow co-worker who represents one or more of Red Door’s Core Values. The employee with the most nominations each month is awarded a prize (and high fives) for his or her hard work.

Red Door’s Got Talent!… or at least we like to think we do. This summer has really blown by and the Red Door Interns have completely settled-in, staying busy with client meetings, internal projects and day-to-day tasks. We’ve come all the way from nervous newbies to pulling off a full-blown takeover of Red Door’s social media platforms. And in the midst of this coup, we’re organizing the first annual Red Door Variety Show! This internal event will give us a chance to showcase the experience and knowledge we’ve gained so far—from planning, organizing and creating the event to promoting it online through social media, measuring the response and finally participating in the actual show! Okay that last part doesn’t have anything to do with what we have learned at Red Door per se, but we wanna have fun too! And yes – Reid is already VERY nervous… But the even more important question is: What will his performance be?!

The show will take place on Monday, August 22 from 4-5pm, with a happy hour to follow. Doorie’s, our specially created awards, will be given out to winners in three separate categories. What’s a Doorie you ask? Well, let’s just say it’s a borderline fantastic prize that will allow you to picture your wonderful 2011 Summer Interns whenever you miss us in the future. Hint, Hint. Nudge, Nudge. Wink, Wink. The best overall performance will be given the Grand Prize—a $50 pre-paid Visa card. Winners will be determined by our high-tech, patented Plause-O-Meter, a.k.a. Lexi’s arm moving up-and-down according to the decibel level of each contestant’s applause from the crowd and passers-by.

So, calling all Red Door employees – what’s your talent? Singing and dancing? Holding your breath? How about juggling? Whatever it is, start practicing and get ready to show it off in a few weeks! We can’t wait to see it. Stay tuned for videos of the show.

The Morale and Culture Committee is pleased to announce Azenith Salenga as the most nominated employee of the quarter for Mad Props.

Azenith Salenga, or as we like to call her “Zee”, is Red Door Interactive’s Junior Designer. Her day-to-day tasks include designing emails, banners, and subpages for clients like Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes, Cricket, California Avocados, and PETCO. She is the go-to person for any immediate creative requests and she always gets the job done well. Zee is quick, efficient, and has outstanding attention to detail.

Zee represents our Core Values by exceeding expectations. When the creative team gets busy, Zee helps relieve the pressure and stress with her positive attitude and willingness to take on extra work. She is always offering her help, even if that means staying an hour late. In addition, Zee continually pleases clients, such as New Leaders for New Schools, with her design work and we all see her growing immensely in the process.

What is Mad Props?

Mad Props is a peer recognition program at Red Door where employees can nominate a fellow co-worker who represents one or more of Red Door’s Core Values. The employee with the most nominations each quarter is awarded an extra paid day off for his or her hard work.

Find out more about Mad Props.

The Morale and Culture Committee is pleased to announce Maggie Francisco as the most nominated employee of the quarter for Mad Props.

Maggie Francisco is Red Door Interactive’s Operations Coordinator. She is the first person who greets you when you enter or call the Denver office, and she’s one of the first people new hires meet when starting a job at Red Door. In the past three months, Maggie has coordinated numerous events such as the Denver Speaker Series, a company go-kart racing day (a reward for meeting our Q1 goal), and a Morale Committee “make your own” sandwich lunch to celebrate the launch of the Milton’s and California Avocado Commission Websites. Maggie also successfully tackled issues relating to the new IT infrastructure in Denver and went above and beyond to ensure a smooth and personalized open enrollment process for the company’s new health benefit options.

Maggie represents the Red Door Interactive Core Values by inspiring others to take the extra step needed in order to solve problems quickly and efficiently. Maggie continues to exceed expectations and help others—always with a positive attitude.  She is 100% jerk free and brings a smile to our faces each day.

What is Mad Props?

Mad Props is a peer recognition program at Red Door where employees can nominate a fellow co-worker who represents one or more of Red Door’s Core Values. The employee with the most nominations each quarter is awarded an extra paid day off for his or her hard work.

Find out more about Mad Props.

The Morale and Culture Committee is pleased to announce Ron Hadler as the most nominated employee of the quarter for Mad Props.

Ron Hadler is Red Door Interactive’s Technology Supervisor. His role at Red Door includes managing a team of Web Developers and ensuring technical development runs smoothly. During the last few months, Ron has proved to be a huge asset to the Garden Fresh project team. He successfully launched the new Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes Website including a new and improved gift card shopping cart. Ron devoted many late nights and weekends to guarantee the launch would be seamless. Ron’s teammates have recognized his dedication to this project and continuously praise him for a job well done.

Ron represents our Core Values by remaining 100% jerk free and inspiring others on his team. He’s been referred to as a rockstar, and if you see the new Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes Website, I am sure you will agree.

What is Mad Props?

Mad Props is a peer recognition program at Red Door where employees can nominate a fellow co-worker who represents one or more of Red Door’s Core Values. The employee with the most nominations each quarter is awarded an extra paid day off for his or her hard work.

Find out more about Mad Props.

The Morale and Culture Committee is pleased to announce Lindsay Estrada as the most nominated employee of the quarter for Mad Props.

Lindsay is a Senior Project Manager at Red Door Interactive. During the last few months, she has received well-deserved props for leading the Cricket Communications Website redesign project team. Lindsay brought the team of strategists, creatives, and developers together with daily collaborative meetings to keep the team on track. And by introducing agile development methodology to the process, it lead to increased flexibility and communication throughout the entire project.

Lindsay represents Red Door’s Core Values by showing passion and pride in the work of the team. She’s very encouraging and supportive which keeps the team focused with the end goal in mind. Lindsay’s passion shows in the new Cricket Website, which launched in November—just in time for holiday shopping.

What is Mad Props?

Mad Props is a peer recognition program at Red Door where employees can nominate a fellow co-worker who represents one or more of Red Door’s Core Values. The employee with the most nominations each quarter is awarded an extra paid day off for his or her hard work.

Find out more about Mad Props

The Morale and Culture Committee is pleased to announce Lindsay Estrada as the most nominated employee of the quarter for Mad Props.

Lindsay is a Senior Project Manager at Red Door Interactive. During the last few months, she has received well-deserved props for leading the Cricket Communications Website redesign project team. Lindsay brought the team of strategists, creatives, and developers together with daily collaborative meetings to keep the team on track. And by introducing agile development methodology to the process, it lead to increased flexibility and communication throughout the entire project.

Lindsay represents Red Door’s Core Values by showing passion and pride in the work of the team. She’s very encouraging and supportive which keeps the team focused with the end goal in mind. Lindsay’s passion shows in the new Cricket Website, which launched in November—just in time for holiday shopping.

What is Mad Props?

Mad Props is a peer recognition program at Red Door where employees can nominate a fellow co-worker who represents one or more of Red Door’s Core Values. The employee with the most nominations each quarter is awarded an extra paid day off for his or her hard work.

Find out more about Mad Props

Being recognized as one of the best places to work in San Diego has a lot to do with the amazing people who work here. We are extremely passionate about our work and embrace a number of “Core Values.” To recognize dedicated individuals who go above and beyond we developed a program called “Mad Props.”

“Mad Props” was created and implemented by Red Door’s “Morale and Culture Committee” back in 2006. It lives on the home page of our intranet and gives employees the opportunity to nominate their peers whom they feel embody the company’s core values. A nomination lives on the home page for 2 weeks and includes his or her picture, description of what was done to receive the nomination, and how it relates to our core values.

In addition to individual nominations, the employee who has accumulated the most nods each quarter gets an extra day of PTO (Paid Time Off) to use whenever they like! We announce the winner at the end of the quarter in a public fashion by ringing our celebratory bell (definitely gets people’s attention) in the office and congratulating that individual.

With that being said…..we would like to congratulate Kim Weinstein for being the most nominated employee of the quarter!!!

Kim is Red Door’s Online Acquisition Coordinator and has been with the company since last November. Some of Kim’s “Mad Props” include preparing last minute presentations, demonstrating expertise in PPC campaigns, and providing excellent customer service. She consistently demonstrates many of the Red Door core values such as “Goal-oriented Multi-disciplinary Collaboration” and “Treating customers like they’re at The Ritz.”

We look forward to sharing more of these announcements to showcase the hard work and dedication behind the team at Red Door Interactive.

With opening day being less then two weeks away, the Padres’ downtown San Diego Stadium, PETCO Park, is buzzing with excitement. Being PETCO’s next-door neighbor, all of us in the office are looking forward to baseball season.

To kick off the season, Red Door’s Morale and Culture Committee planed a behind the scenes tour of the stadium. Inspirational outings are held quarterly to encourage employees to get out of the office and experience some of San Diego’s culture. We met at PETCO Park during our lunch hour and joined tourists from around the country to get a taste of the Padres experience.

Red Door employees (Will, Brian, Michelle, Robin and Brooks) enjoying the tour.

Our tour guide took us all around the park, from the season ticket holders’ private boxes and the press room (aka the best view in the house) to the Padres field and dugout. We even got to tour the exclusive Clubhouse and locker room. We learned many interesting facts about the Padres such as if it wasn’t for McDonalds, and Ray Kroc, San Diego would not have a team at all. And because of the stadium, East Village has blossomed into what it is today…a booming destination for people from around the globe.

The view of the park and Red Door Interactive’s office from home plate.

So, come stop by Red Door Interactive on game day for our 11th floor view into the outfield. We are located in the DiamondView Towers, which is the blue and gray Comerica building you see out to the right while watching a game. Speaking of DiamondView, one of our favorite facts we learned on the tour is that DiamondView Towers is “just an attachment” to the historical brick building known as the Showely Bros. Candy Factory (which was restored and moved 280 feet during the construction of PETCO Park).

See more images from the tour on Flickr.