Honestly, I think the good outweighs the bad and, in this case, it will all get sorted out in the end.

(heart)

And just what is that "good" you speak of? There are schedulers who are among the best that will not be nominated and would receive few votes because not many people have or will have the opportunity to work with them.

I would say the "GOOD" is that people can feel good they are nominated and noticed by shoppers.

If it upsets you that some good schedulers you know of aren't being nominated then by all means nominate them!
Is there are particular reason you're not?

1. I find threads like that to be counter productive.
2. It is beyond obvious KSS or someone associated with them is encouraging people to register and to what purpose?
3. The schedulers I work with know how much I appreciate them and their professionalism. AFAIK, one of my "favorites" has only worked with one other member of this forum.

AustinMom Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------->
> Free advertising. We have several posters who
> signed up literally the same minute they made a
> nomination and immediately exited. Sounds like
> someone might be calling friends and relatives and
> asking them to register to "vote for me."
>
> It would not be the first time a MSC employee
> contacted individuals and asked them to register
> on the forum specifically to post something
> favorable about their company.

Bingo, AustinMom, except, from what I've found out, it's gone a little deeper than that, however, from what I've learned it's just one individual who is initiating this.

Thank you to all who helped solve this puzzle!

(heart)

OK. My other comment, as referenced in the contest thread, where apparently no one can abide by the simple suggestion to keep that thread for the contest itself and post their comments over here.

Anyway.

The nominations/votes where it's *obvious* the poster registered with the forum for the sole & specific purpose of making said nomination or casting said vote, should not be counted.

Nominations/votes from long-time forum members, but who haven't been recently active until the contest... well, I suppose those should stay.

That would be a simple way to fix the problem without everyone getting so god-damned bitchy about it. I mean, it was annoying; but I see no reason for people to get as bent-out-of-shape as they did about it. I mean, there's no money prize, there's really *nothing* that *is* the prize. It's just fun. Or at least it was supposed to be. And, it can easily return to that.

WTF? We are supposed to limit comments to this thread and not the thread in question? Who made that rule and why? And who made the rule nobody else is allowed to express another opinion that doesn't support the idea or we are bitchy?

StormCloud Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> OK. My other comment, as referenced in the
> contest thread, where apparently no one can abide
> by the simple suggestion to keep that thread for
> the contest itself and post their comments over
> here.
>
Oops! :raises hand: Guilty.

You're absolutely right, Storm. That was the request from the original post, to please post only nominations in that thread and comments in this one. I think it got confusing because the comment thread was subsequently moved to General Chat forum from its original spot in the MS forum. Some of us got a little confused. I'll try to keep my comments here from now on to keep it from getting too muddied in the nominations thread. It will make it very hard to vote with a lot of chatter.

The only thing I'm confused about is why there are two threads about the same thing. Since I never read the original post on the other one, it didn't cross my mind someone would even make such a request as to have more than one thread about the same topic running concurrently.

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
And who made the rule nobody
> else is allowed to express another opinion that
> doesn't support the idea or we are bitchy?


Your name didn't really come to mind when I read the comment about "bitchy" as it referred to this thread. But I noticed you said "we" in your response, so you must have recognized yourself. Maybe deep down, you feel like you were being just a wee bit bitchy too?

It's okay to apologize. No one will think you're weak because of it. In fact, you'll only be showing your inner strength.

If that was an attempt at humor, it fell flat. I have no intention of apologizing for expressing my opinion. I've read a few bitchy comments on other threads this evening and consider mine mild in comparison.

Why would making schedulers feel good that they are noticed and appreciated be counter-productive?

Because it is not making schedulers feel good they are noticed and appreciated. It is a contest to see who can get the votes. There have been threads designed to give shout outs to great schedulers that didn't degenerate into some inane contest where KSS is attempting to circumvent all the threads giving more honest feedback. It is misguided, dishonest and downright lazy.

Maybe I'm an idiot, or just not jaded enough.... but I never saw it that way. The thread itself wasn't counter-productive, misguided, dishonest, or lazy. The intentions behind the thread weren't either. What one person with too little scruples and too much time did with it... well, that was, but... why let him/her ruin it?

I never saw it as a contest even though it's called a contest. I thought it WAS basically just a shout-out thread. I mean, Scheduler of the Year.... in September? We're only 3/4 of the way in. No prize, people vote by "liking" but add their own comments underneath about their experiences with the scheduler..... Sounds like a shout-out thread to me.

And it's not making schedulers feel good? So the responses back from some of the schedulers nominated... those didn't sound like they felt good about being recognized? Felt appreciated?

Hi all

I am new here, like first time. I have had about 6 hours sleep in the last three days, first doing 6 shops on Tuesday, and then completing three more into the early morning, so I hope I make sense. I am here to praise a scheduler, not complain about the work she is forcing on me, oops, giving me! And, I can not blame her for the kitty emergency that had me up all last nite (still up because I have to pick kitty up in 45 mins). But enough about me, right.

I am here to praise Kim M from KSS (and sister companies). I love the company (family of MSCs) first and foremost, because of schedulers like Kim, good support and teamwork. If Kim is not available for me, another scheduler pitches in. The clients she schedules for are top of the line, making the work more fun. 98% of my shops are with them (95% with Kim).

Kim has always been special in my mind. It did not take more than a few shops before I began to think of Kim as a friend as well as a colleague. I found myself adding Kim to my friends and family emails, she responded, and we began to share family notes. I have cried on her shoulder (figuratively, not literally) and she on mine.

Many times my emails to her are not only answered in less than an hour, but my occasional calls to her as well. Did I mention that she lives in Southern Cal and I live in NV? She responds whether I send my emails at 5am, 8pm or even 2am. Did I also mention that neither of us sleep much? She makes it so very easy. She is fast to compliment me, shares the joys of my 10 scores, and explains editors giving those nasty lower scores have different reasons to deduct points. She smiled when I suggested those editors be fired!

Hear, hear for Kimmy at KSS.

Hi All,

Here is what I have found out, in case anyone is interested. The original thread of "Scheduler of the Year" sparked quite a lot of excitement in my team. I mean.. really, how often do schedulers get recognized?

So, a few (I'm sure you can tell which) of my team members changed their signature lines to read something like the following:
"Please nominate me for Scheduler of the Year at [www.mysteryshopforum.com];

Apparently, a lot of their shoppers thought it was worth it to do so. I think it is quite flattering, and I have to say that it did make those team members feel good that enough shoppers actually read that in their signature lines and took the time to write flattering comments. I am proud of each of them, and I am saddened to read all of the negativity here about KSS team members that have been with KSS for 3 to 13 years that have worked VERY hard to establish their reputations with their shoppers!

You will notice, of course, that NO ONE has nominated me. I guess I'm just infamous that way.

We are NOT stuffing the ballot box by creating fake shopper names as it seems that some people may be implying. - I am sure Jacob can see that all of the users have unique IP addresses and can quell those rumors. If any of my staff has done anything like that, I would like to know about it and will address it and make sure it does not happen again.

However we ARE the largest, oldest, and best scheduling company in the industry, so we are driving more traffic to this site, which I would think is a GOOD thing for everyone, especially our shoppers since there is a wealth of knowledge to be had here.

I don't think it's unreasonable to see 15 or 20 comments about my team considering we schedule just over 1 million shops per year. Our database has over 700,000 shoppers, so 20 comments is actually a teeny tiny showing. I am hoping that there will be a lot more before this contest ends! I'd like to see all of our schedulers recognized, as I'm sure every other company in this business would too! It's tough work being a scheduler!

But whether shoppers acknowledge them or not, I know that I have the best team in the business and I am incredibly proud of all of them. I am in awe every day when I go to work and get to work with such awesome, fun, hard working people. It's truly a privilege.

Please feel free to email me directly with any concerns that you have. I'm always available for our shoppers!

Lorri Kern
CEO
KSS International, Inc.

I have always liked Kern, and I do work for companies scheduled by Kern. I think some of the Kern schedulers, like many schedulers at several different companies, deserve recognition. But I'm shocked and appalled to hear that Kern schedulers are "campaigning" to win a "contest" and even more shocked to hear that the company condones it. I'm disappointed in the Kern schedulers who have added campaigning signature lines and even more disappointed in the Kern management that supports it. I view it as tacky and opportunistic.

The real "winners" here are the schedulers who were nominated without begging for nominations. Many of the schedulers who were recognized received their nominations from forum members who truly think those schedulers are wonderful and took the step to nominate them (or "like" a nomination) "just because" - not because they were asked to do so.

I'm just rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

Lorri, thank you for being so forthcoming in your explanation. It’s wonderful to hear how excited your schedulers are, since that was the original intent of the contest. Since I don’t think anyone could have predicted that the schedulers’ “good idea” would quickly evolve into a runaway train, I say we all live and we all learn.

And speaking of “good ideas”, never in my wildest dreams would I have predicted that the “Scheduler of the Year” concept would spawn the amount of negativity that I’m seeing. Sigh…

The good news is that since this is a brand-new contest, we are learning as it progresses and will be able to apply those lessons to making next year’s contest even better.

(heart)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2014 03:56PM by stilllearning.

If it came to a vote, I doubt that there would be another such contest. What is it that you have failed to learn here?

Oh, walesmaven, good question! I guess, I haven’t learned why some individuals seem to revel in being so negative; I haven’t learned why these same individuals would take the time to denigrate such a positive endeavor; and I haven’t learned how not to become so excited about being involved in such a positive undertaking.

The good news is that I’ve also learned a lot! I’ve learned how mean-spirited some people can be; I’ve learned that there are many, many more positive than negative people on this forum; and I’ve also learned the effectiveness of campaigning.

(heart)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please, Vote “Yes” for the Second Annual “Scheduler of the Year” Contest.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2014 12:59AM by stilllearning.

I would hazard a guess that you are not 'still learning' fast enough.

All those who find this contest annoying, counterproductive, stupid, a waste of time, or whatever you think it is are free to go on to the next thread where you won't be annoyed.

Yes, just take your ball and go home and leave the rest of us in the sandbox to continue having fun without you. We don't all have to agree on whether this is worthwhile or not. Those who think it is worthwhile can continue to play, the others can just ignore us.

There are many "vote for me" contests on the internet where people deliberately can (and are expected to) stuff the ballot box to garner votes for the cutest baby or whatever. I have participated in such ballot stuffing to try to get the "cutest baby" and "best Halloween decoration" award for friends of mine. Neither made it, but I dutifully cast my vote as many times as allowed and asked other friends to participate too.

This wasn't one of them.

Most of the schedulers nominated probably didn't even know this was going on.

One company thought it was a "see who can solicit the most votes" thing rather than a "see how the shoppers feel about us" thing. They misunderstood. I'm glad they admitted to what happened so at least we know what is going on with the KSS lovefest via all the newbies.

I think stilllearning and Jacob can decide what to do about the resultant skewing of the nominations. It's their contest, their rules, and the decision of the judges will be final -- and for now, she and Jacob are the judges.

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Vlade, you have been proven wrong. There has been
> an influx of votes for KSS schedulers and all are
> from people who have never posted before.


Interesting, indeed.

I was hoping to spark a discussion about why one might say scheduling companies are not be in a position to be great. My first argument would be they don't have 100% control of the job board. For example, KSS has a many MSP clients, at least one of them maintains their own job board on their own website. So when a KSS scheduler sends out an email with a job listing, a shopper could apply for a shop with that scheduler but be beat to the punch by another shopper who went right to the source and took it off the job board from the client MSP. What does the scheduler do then?

Some might respond that some scheduling companies have 100% control of the job board. If there are any please share.

What about when difficulties occur? Locations may have the wrong address. Payment issues can occur. You know the myriad of problems that can arise. In my personal experience, a scheduler with a scheduling company cannot fix a payment issue or get a shop approved that deviates from the plan. They just schedule. Is that right or not?

For that primary reason, I feel the best schedulers are ones who can assist shoppers with any and all issues. I have encountered much good work from many schedulers. Some are Kim Chieu, Carina Harris and John Rodriguez at Bare, Thomas Gall, Marcella Yaniz and Eric Hartman at Mintel, Rob Barry and Sara Rossini at Confero, Eric Baer and Nicole Charron at ICCDS/North Fork, Ryan Stiffler at KSS, Antonia Maurici at Second-to-None, and Sal Mignano at Intellishop. In addition, I was much impressed with Sarah Caddell (KSS SarahC) when she reached out to shoppers on this forum not to long ago.
Beyond self-assigning some of her shops, my contact with her as a scheduler is nil. I reserve my nominations for scheduler of the year goes for people who have worked with me on the mundane and assisted me through problems.

To read about those, you will have to go to the other thread.

I nominate Lori Kern for persuading me a year or so ago to agree to lift my self-deactivation. Now I find Service Sleuth among my top MSC.

Can anyone nominate or vote for a scheduler? I was under the impression that this was a contest in which shoppers would nominate and vote for their favorite scheduler. Now we have company owners voting for their scheduler employees. If this is okay, perhaps we should amend the rules so that all companies know that schedulers can nominate and vote for themselves and that owners and managers can nominate and vote for their employees. Right now the rules say:

2) Each shopper can nominate as many schedulers as they wish; however each
nomination must be in a separate post.

I want to say I have had the best help with Alan Juarez is the best!!!!!

So, if I understand, MSC managers and owners are nominating their companies' schedulers in this contest now? What a fiacso!

And apparently, now that Jacob has notified all forum members, not only are Company Presidents nominating their employee schedulers, but the other employees at companies are nominating their co-workers and Likeing the nominations to add additional votes, which appears not to meet the currently posted rules.

Now that Jacob has e-mailed all forum members and made a formal announcement, more companies are advertising the contest to their shoppers. The below e-mail just received:

========

September 12, 2014


Hello Jancyn Shopper!


Mystery Shop Forum is proud to announce the 2014 Scheduler of the Year contest. Schedulers are often under-appreciated in this business, and the goal of the contest is to give them as much love and appreciation as possible.

If you appreciate the work that our schedulers here at Jancyn do, then we encourage you to participate. The idea is simple: Nominate schedulers that you like, and vote for the best nominations.

To learn more and to participate in the contest, visit the link here:

The 2014 Scheduler of the Year Contest


Thanks you!


Karin Hovdesven

Operations Manager for JANCYN
Karin@jancyn.com

800-339-2861 ext. 602

======

I won't take part in this. It's a joke. I would only consider voting if I got to access the private schedulers' forum .
But there's no oversight on who is voting.

AustinMom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Schedulers are often under-appreciated in this business,
> ======

I dislike this part. I really do. Hate to see it coming from a company.

They ARE under-appreciated. But the best way for a company to appreciate them is to pay them better, not send out an email asking their shoppers to cast votes in a free contest.

That email gives me all sorts of negative feelings towards Jancyn now.