Rob Canales: First Winner of VSBrooks’ Day Off.

Today was our Monday morning all-company meeting, a monthly breakfast meeting where we were expecting the usual announcements and reports—both the good and not-so-good ones. But people had been asked to bring their business cards to this meeting…. Was it some kind of raffle? A parking space? We had no idea.

Then Vivian, Partner and head creative, read a line from her favorite philosopher of fun, Ferris Bueller:

“Life moves pretty fast! If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.”

She announced that she was going to draw a card from the bowl and the employee whose name was on that card would be given the rest of the day off, starting NOW, to do whatever he/she wanted. She then paused, grinned and explained that this was not simply a day to go home and catch up on neglected laundry, this was a day to “Live and do whatever you want — the one caveat: Post at least one photo of your fun day on social media and tag it #VSBrooksDayOff.” Then reaching into her back pocket, she pulled out $50 and tossed them into the bowl as an added incentive for the winner to enjoy this momentous fling at unrestrained freedom.

Forget the coffee, everyone’s eyes were now fully awake, open and fixed on the bowl as her hand reached inside and picked the card. She turned it over and read “Roberto Canales.” Rob, our newest member of Client Services, didn’t believe us—so we had to practically push him out the door.

We’ll keep you posted on his escapades.  Let’s watch @robotocan go!