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We've written some insightful, entertaining articles that span topics from support to design to content management and beyond!
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We are excited to announce that effective this February we will be moving toward a 4-day work week! This is to provide a better work life balance for our staff.
Our office will not be open on Fridays starting February 4, 2022.
Support requests that come in on Friday will be answered on Monday.
Thanks for your understanding and feel free to reach out with any questions you may have.
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We’re very excited and overjoyed to welcome Haley Burton to the REM Team as a Graphic Designer! Get to know more about Haley, and her likes & dislikes below.
Role at REM: Graphic Designer
Education: Advanced Diploma for Graphic Design at Conestoga College.
Something That Makes Me Smile at Work: Working with creative people in a positive atmosphere!
Web site: Spotify! Im always listening to a podcast!
Movie: I love comedies. I can probably quote any movie with Will Ferrel in it!
Food: I always want sushi! I love cooking and trying different foods!
TV Show: I love sitcoms! I've watched How I Met your Mother completely three times through! I also enjoy a good thriller.
Musical Artists: I listen to a plethora of different music, from 70s rock, 90s alternative, to current rock and bubblegum pop. I love Jack White (+ The Raconteurs), Peach Pit, Black Keys, etc.
Time of Day: Evenings.
Season: Summer! Summer! Summer!
Places in the World: St. John's, Newfoundland. Such a beautiful place with very kind people. I would love to travel out west next!
Recreational Activities/Hobbies: Taking care of my plants! Going to the gym, spending time with friends/family, and painting/crafts. I'm also a foodie!
Sport: Pitcher for girls fastpitch, hockey.
App: Tiktok. It's not my fault.
Food: Canned tuna! Ew! I'm a huge texture person. Sometimes I decide I don't like something halfway through eating it.
Activity: Carrying things.
Time of Day: Anytime before my body naturally wakes up.
Season: Winter. Except if it's Christmas. But the day after I'm over it.
Place: Crowded places.
Best Thing Someone Said to You: Shoulders back, chin up. You're beautiful. Be confident in yourself and you can do anything.
Life Motto: Take it easy.
My Hero: My grandmother. She was such a huge support and a strong woman!
One of the Things I Find Fascinating: Afterlife.
Most People Don’t Know This About Me: I have half of a rib!
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We’re super thrilled to welcome Colleen Legge to the REM Team as a Customer Success Manager! Get to know more about her in her own words below.
Role at REM: Customer Success Manager
Work Experience: I have many years of customer service experience under my belt, being a Sales Associate and a Manager. I would say I wear many hats when it comes to assisting customers and my strongest skill is working with people.
Something That Makes Me Smile at Work: The thing that makes me smile at work is getting little thank you emails back from clients. Guaranteed. It makes me feel good knowing we're able to help our clients. So, when they take the time to send us that small acknowledgement back, it makes smile.
.... or when my co workers come by my desk to say hello. I'm a people person, what can I say. :)
Web Site: I'm an artist, so I love supporting my favourite artists on whatever platform they're on. Tattoo artists, digital artists, potters, etc. if it's creative and interesting, I'm probably following. Twitter, ArtStation, Tumblr, Instagram. The whole gambit.
Books: My favourite books are more so how to/informative art books. "Anatomy for Artists: Simplified Forms" by Michel Lauricella and others in this series are excellent break downs of the human form.
Food: I am a simple lady, I love chicken strips, good French fries, and a Coke to drink. I'm also a sucker for a good green smoothie.
TV Show: I would say trying to pick one or two favourite shows is pretty hard considering how much I've watched over the years. I generally like sci fi/fantasy or thriller/horror. I recently have been enjoying that new Netflix show Arcane, which has beautiful animation and a super unique art style! It’s stunning! Next on my watching schedule is Midnight Mass and The Wheel of Time!
Musical Artists: My musical taste is all over the place, from full cast recordings of musicals to Billie Holiday to Chet Faker. I usually don't get control of the AUX cable because of this lol
Time of Day: Evening. I'm a night owl. 100%
Season: I love Fall and Winter. All the bugs are gone, and I can layer up and actually be fashionable. Where in the summer I struggle to survive in the heat and humidity.
Place in the World: my home
Recreational Activities/Hobbies: Currently my fiancée and I have taken up model/kit building as a good "no screens" hobby. Besides that, I also enjoy drawing/character design/story boarding and video games!
Sport: I don't really watch or play any sports, I used to enjoy rock climbing and volley ball. I will get VERY into sports during the Olympics and suddenly think I know everything about the sport and know more than the judges to pass my own judgments and scores on the athletes haha
App: Unfortunately, TikTok has become a favourite pass time. All those catchy song trends and hilarious meme videos.
Food: Shrimp... I don't like the look of them and I don't like the texture. Nope. That's a hard pass.
Activity: Folding and putting away laundry.
Time of Day: Morning or when the sun just starts going down and you get blinded by the sun when you're driving anywhere.
Season: Summer. All the bugs, the heat, the humidity. Hate it all.
Place: Dentist. I think that's pretty self explanatory.
Best Thing Someone Said to You: You have to be kind to yourself, and treat yourself as you would treat your closest friend. The world will be unkind to you, you don't need to be unkind to yourself.
Life Motto: Be kind. That's it.
My Hero: I've never really had a hero? I have lots of artists I look up to as creative inspiration, but never a hero per say.
One of the Things I Find Fascinating: The ocean and outer space. What exactly is going on above and below us? Interesting AND scary.
Most People Don't Know This About Me: Most people don't know that I hadn't seen any of the Star Wars films until I was in my 20's.
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We had an awesome time at Four Fathers Brewing playing disc golf and taking a brewery tour at REM’s October Quarterly event!
See below for more photos.
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Last month for our July Quarterly event, we had a fun, team-building afternoon of playing foosball and Mario Kart!
See below for more photos.
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We’re looking for a Graphic Designer! If you prefer to work as part of a high performing Web Design team that puts bold ideas in front of hundreds of customers each year then REM wants to talk to you.
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We have a new team member and he’s pretty great! Sanj has joined our team and has already brought an abundant amount of knowledge, character and laughter to our REM family. We can’t wait for you to meet him too! In true REM fashion, Sanj has provided us some details about who he is and we thought we’d share!
Role at REM: Business Development & Digital Marketing.
Education: B.A. Sociology from the University of Waterloo. Several marketing, web design, and digital marketing certifications.
Work Experience: Built my first website from scratch in 1999. Worked for PriceWaterhouseCooopers in London, England as the team leader for the IT training department. Worked for RIM in Technical Support. Worked for TRUX Route Management Systems in Cambridge, ON as Technical support then transitioned to web design and marketing. Owner and Creative Director at Jelly Triangle for web design and digital marketing.
Something That Makes Me Smile at Work: I am weird in that I get as much joy from manipulating data and code as I do from drawing and designing. But my favourite part is working with clients. Each new business is a whole new opportunity with different challenges so it never gets boring. What makes me smile is watching a client’s face when we overcome those challenges, especially the ones they thought were insurmountable.
Web site: I spend a lot of time on dndbeyond.com as I play and DM, but I also have several Nerf modification sites I visit regularly. Also, I love to browse Etsy for painted Nerf guns for inspiration for my own designs and mods.
Books: All time favourite book is Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, but I love Feist, Gemmell, and other fantasy writers as well.
Food: I love to cook and I love a lot of different kinds of food. My signature dish is egg-yolk ravioli in a burnt butter and sage sauce. My favorite foods to eat are Vietnamese (vermicelli bowls), Japanese (sushi), and then Mexican (fish tacos).
TV Show: I have watched a lot of TV over the years, for example I have watched the Friends seasons HUNDREDS of times over. But my favorite show of all time is still probably Parks & Recreation (I wish I was Ron Swanson).
Musical Artists: I was asked this recently and because I have such eclectic tastes, it was all over the place. Favourite bands: Metallica, Sun60 and Wilson Phillips. Favourite artists: Prince, Cher, and probably too many others. I currently am into listening to Tuvan Throat Singing, specifically a band called Yhat-Ke.
Time of Day: Morning. The earlier the better!
Season: Spring and Fall. Love watching the world change.
Places in the World: New Orleans, Chicago, Mexico.
Recreational Activities/Hobbies: Being ADHD, I have about 1100 hobbies…Drawing, Nerf, R/C Cars, Wood working, Zombie Survival Training and Prep, and so many more. But my favourite activity is spending time with my dog Pakora.
Sport: Ball hockey, Archery, MMA
App: Match 3 games (Puzzle Combat is my current addiction)
Food: Lentils and Beans (the texture…ugh)
Activity: Singing or dancing in front of people
Time of Day: Late evening
Season: Summer (damn you mosquitoes!)
Place: Wedding Receptions (don’t care where they are held lol)
Best Thing Someone Said to You: Fear and Excitement have the exact same physical responses (increased heart rate, blood pressure, adrenaline, etc.) the only difference is your attitude.
Life Motto: Make sure you can live with the decisions you make. Make those decisions with a good heart and good intentions.
My Hero: Steve Yzerman (Captain of the Detroit Red Wings for decades). He never changed teams, always put the team ahead of himself, never held out over money, and worked hard both on and off the ice to win multiple championships. One of the most respected players (especially by other players) to ever play the game. I hope someday the people in my life feel the same way about me.
One of the Things I Find Fascinating: I’m an empath and I am always fascinated by the number of negative emotions people carry around with them on any given day and how unaware they are that they are carrying that weight.
Most People Don’t Know This About Me: I like to work on bio control skills. For example, I never get a song stuck in my head because I know a hack to make it stop. I never get the hiccups because I can stop them at will. I’m only ticklish when I allow myself to be ticklish, otherwise tickling has no effect on me. I used to be a late-night person and trained myself to become an early riser.
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After undergoing what feels like numerous lockdowns, I think our team has really thrived in the socializing department. We all do miss each other in the office but I honestly believe being apart has brought us closer together. Cheesy I know… it’s all Gouda.
Personally, I try to have face-to-face conversations with each one of my colleagues on a weekly basis. Whether I’m asking a question about a project, or just a quick call to say “hi,” my teammates always answer when I call – this is something I’m truly grateful for because the team at REM is comprised of some of the funniest individuals I know.
In addition to our virtual face-to-face chats, at REM our entire team gathers on a call and collectively plays a game on Wednesdays! This weekly gathering is always filled with laughter and is the meeting I look forward to every week. I highly suggest implementing this “virtual fun time” with your teams, it boosts comradery, and pauses the stresses we all are facing right now.
In an effort to get you started here are some games that we’ve played so far:
This game will truly test your sneak abilities. You’ll strategize together as a team to survive and have fun calling out your team members who hold the keys to your fate in the game.
This game really does bring out our competitive behaviours. It’s a great way to learn each other’s bluffing skills and push each other to our limits. It usually ends in an exciting show down that will have everyone talking.
Although I haven’t played this specific game with the team yet, I hear it’s quite a riveting time. The synopsis – virtual Pictionary – drawing with a mouse leads to everyone having a grand old time.
Have you played any games with your team members lately? If you have, please share them with us! We love trying new things!
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Let me preface this blog with the fact that I cannot play foosball. It’s not that I don’t want to, or I don’t care to it’s simply just one of those games that I cannot succeed at. I’m a klutz by nature with absolutely no hand-eye coordination so playing the game of foosball just never fared well for me.
However, I do love how much joy it brings my teammates, I desperately miss the sounds and laughter of my colleagues over lunch challenging each other. Whether or not each individual chooses to play, it’s an important part of our culture at REM and gives us a little bit more than just a lunch hour break.
When asked why Foosball is such an important part of the REM culture our designer Christine had a lot to say:
“Foosball at REM builds comradery between coworkers and teaches us good sportsmanship, friendly competition and owning up to mistakes, while being silly and goofing around. It adds excitement in our office, we cheer loudly for our coworkers when we compete, which builds confidence in other areas of our lives, like our jobs. Foosball gives us an opportunity to laugh and witness aspects of each other’s personality we don’t normally see and is a great way to 'break the ice' and welcome a new team member into the group. It encourages us to create strategies and 'think outside the box,' thereby stimulating the innovative, problem solving parts of our brain.
"Besides the emotional and mental benefits, it’s also physically good for us and here’s why – Foosball encourages us to get up and move, even if it’s mostly our arms that are moving. We use quick, powerful motions with our arms and wrists during the game, which loosens our forearm muscles, helps circulation and relieves tension. It also increases our heart-rate, promoting good health. We’ve proven this by looking at our smart-watches with heartbeat monitors. One time, Sean S. was super dialed into the game and his heartbeat rose to more than 120 beats/minute (that’s in the fat burning zone!).”
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Businesses & non-profit organizations with 50 or more employees should have made their website and web content accessible by January 1st, 2021?
It’s not too late! Make your website AODA compliant.
Visit aodawebsites.ca!
