LisaA few months ago I wrote about taking on a stretch assignment with the HR systems team. I’m really enjoying the role and my fun, crazy team and thought I’d give you a taste of what I’ve been up to by writing about our recent morale event.

While planning this St. Patty’s Day morale event, we considered a variety of activities to do together as a team. In the end, we voted to use the time to give back to the community and volunteer at a local food bank. A few weeks prior to the event, our team sought donations from others within our branch of Human Resources so that we could bring gifts with us. I’m happy to say that we ended up raising $460, which in turn bought 904 lbs of food: 30 heads of lettuce, 100 loaves of white bread, 43 lbs of grapes, 240 lbs of bananas, 99 lbs of apples, 50 lbs of onions and 150 lbs of potatoes! My co-worker and her husband had five full grocery carts of food. On the day of the actual event, we had a variety of jobs to keep us busy. This included sorting fruit, canned goods and clothes, stacking full crates and moving them to storage, and putting together mailings. We all felt like we were moving nonstop and my coworker definitely got his workout in from the heavy loads: He was sweating! It was a memorable experience, and as another coworker put it, “my favorite team event to date!”

Sorting cansOne of Microsoft’s benefits is its matching gifts program. In the US, for every $25+ you donate to an eligible nonprofit organization, Microsoft will match 100 percent of it with either cash or Microsoft products (your choice). For every hour you volunteer at a charity (minimum 10 hours per year for that charity), Microsoft will pay the charity $17/hour for your time. There is a maximum quota of $12,000 a year per employee. The company encourages its employees to give and use this matching contribution benefit. I’m happy to say that Microsoft will match the $460 we raised for the food bank to hopefully purchase another 904 lbs of food. So, if you’re a current or future Microsoft employee, don’t forget to take advantage of this benefit and give.

-Lisa

Work at Microsoft!