(empo-plaaybizz) If a company were run like a Zynga game

As I walked into the conference room, a woman rose to greet me.

"You must be John Bredehoft," she said.

I replied. "And you must be Ms. Johnson."

"Please," she said. "Call me Amelia. We're all on a first name basis here. Welcome to your first day at NewCorp."

"Thank you, Amelia," I replied. "I'm ready to get started."

"OK," Amelia said. "We'll start you in one of our groups. Would you like to start in telemarketing?"

I tried to conceal my disappointment. "Hmm, telemarketing. What options are available?"

"Numerous options," replied Amelia, smiling. "You can also start in finance, marketing, engineering, purchasing...the list is endless."

I thought for a moment. "Could I start in finance?"

"Certainly," replied Amelia. "Right this way."

We walked down several halls, then entered a room in which a bunch of people were sitting at banks of phones.

After a moment, I said, "This looks like telemarketing."

"Actually, it's finance," replied Amelia. "Getting our customers to FINANCE our continued profitability." She let this sink in. "You see, at NewCorp, our chief business is business. We need our customers to purchase products from us, and therefore we must constantly contact our customers and give them opportunities to purchase things from us." She walked toward a desk in the back. "You'll be based right here. Any questions?"

"I have one," I replied. "No one has ever told me the specific duties of my job. Do I have one or two goals that I should fulfill?"

"Good question," replied Amelia. "NewCorp believes that goals are important, and we constantly give our employees goals to strive for. Now if you look at the left side of your computer screen right here, you can see that you already have one goal that you need to meet. As you progress in your employment, you will be provided with additional goals. For example..." Amelia said as she gestured at another computer "...Joe here has been with NewCorp for two weeks already. As you can see, Joe has so many goals that they don't all fit on the left side of the screen any more. But if you click on this icon at the bottom, you can see that Joe has many additional goals that he needs to meet. NewCorp clearly believes in the importance of goals, and we try to give our employees as many goals as possible."

While Amelia was talking, I was keeping an eye on Joe. He was furiously contacting customers by clicking at icons on his screen. When customers replied positively, "Task Achieved!" messages would appear next to the goals on his left. Joe could then choose to share his accomplishments with other employees, and the other employees could then click on his accomplishment notices and use them to achieve their own goals.

I need to befriend Joe, I thought to myself; that should help me advance...