We were going to do some cute post about the 15 things we love most about Hammock Publishing to commemorate Hammock’s 15th anniversary this month. But when we started the list of our favorite parts of working here, we could tell we would pass the 15 mark several times over.
It the simplest terms in boils down to this: We love working at Hammock because of the:
But not necessarily in that order. Here are a few things that could be heard around the water cooler when the topic of the anniversary came up recently.
Bill Hudgins: “From a selfish employee perspective: I have worked in large and small organizations, including a unionized place, and none of them ever offered benefits as generous or working conditions as friendly and caring as Hammock. If this is your first ‘real’ job, you don’t have any way to compare, unlike those of us who have worked other places. The only other place I worked that encouraged creativity, self-improvement and initiative as much as Hammock was the PR agency where Rex originally hired me.”
Barbara Greenfield: “Rex and Patrick R. keep me ‘technologically hip’ so I don’t feel like an idiot in public when I hear people talking about Apple’s new innovation and RSS feeds. And people here love what they do. It’s not ‘just a job.'”
Jamie Roberts: “Hammock has the best Christmas parties — and after-parties.”
Megan Goodchild: “A work-life balance is definitely supported at Hammock, and it’s not the end of the world if you get sick or have to go to the doctor during the day. Also, being an Apple/technology nerd is pretty much encouraged.
Summer Huggins: “To anyone in the blogosphere, Rex is a celebrity! (So to steal words from Heather Armstrong:) Working for Rex is like working for Brad Pitt’s cousin. Say the words ‘Rex Hammock’ in some circles and people are impressed and a little verklempt!”
Shannon McRae: “I love working at Hammock because I learn about things like mobile blogging and RSS before most anyone else I know, thanks to Rex’s love of technology. And the laughs we share from recounting stories of Hammock Christmas parties past. And the total lack of micromanaging.”
Lena Basha: “That pour-your-heart-out speeches at Hammock Christmas parties are well-received with responses like, ‘Oh my goodness, you almost made me cry,’ and ‘I was thinking the same thing.’ And that celebrity gossip is encouraged.”
Lynne Boyer: “The Hammock Publishing office experience. You have to be a part of it to understand. And we actually have fun office Christmas parties, ones that employees/significant others want to attend.”
No amount of jet lag or intense desire to sleep late could keep Rex, Jamie, Susie and I from waking up early this past Saturday, putting on the work clothes and taking part in Hands on Nashville Day, a day of volunteering that brings together more than 1,500 volunteers each year to spruce up some of Metro Nashville’s public schools (more on the sprucing later).
The four of us joined up with a team of local bloggers — officially named Mr. Roboto’s Team Blogger Sponsored by Hammock Publishing and Amerigo’s, which was led by my favorite blogger of all time, Mr. Roboto (Sorry, Rex) — at Percy Priest Elementary School. Our objective: to clean, construct, mulch, prune, paint and organize.
Sure, there was chit chat and excessive donut consumption, but there was also hard work. Susie and Jamie mulched and pruned. Rex put together a corner cabinet for a classroom. I cleaned doorknobs and helped install shelves. The principal of the school was even there to help us find the tools we needed (and to make sure all the tools were returned) and to tell us how much she appreciated the work.
Overall, a good–and feel-good–time was had by all.
Recently, I attended the 8th annual reunion of folks who worked at the Nashville (Tenn.) Banner, a storied (no pun meant) afternoon daily that folded in 1998. I left the Banner in 1987 after five years as a reporter and editorﾑI changed careers by going into public relations. As it happened, Rex Hammock hired me at that other company. Aug. 31, was the 19th anniversary of my first day working with Rex (I’m going on 13 years here, so do the math). We worked together for about four years before he started Hammock Publishing, and here are some recollections of that era:
The office was a remodeled car wash on 8th Avenue South. Itﾕs still there. When they opened it, they threw a party with invitations printed on hand-size highly compressed sponges, and everyone who came got a red plastic bucket and a towel. I still have my bucket.
Guys wore suits or coats and ties, except for the designers. Women wore dresses or suits and whatever kinds of shoes they wear with that kind of an outfit.
Our computers were the tiny Apple Classicsﾑif you visit Hammock Publishing today, you will find a couple still going, displaying the vintage black and white aquarium screensaver. In 1987, there was no email, no Internet as we know it today, and no CompuServe, Prodigy or AOL available to us. When I left that company in late 1993, two years after Hammock Publishing started, the company had a CompuServe account, and you had to get permission to use it.
I had left the Nashville Banner newspaper, where we worked on computer terminals that were tied into a mainframe. During the couple of weeks I took off before starting in PR, Rex let me have one of the Apples to play with. It came in a bag that was about the size of a cooler ﾐ you had to carry a keyboard, too, of course. That was all the training I ever had, or needed.
We did have a primitive internal network eventually that let us move files around. There was a rudimentary interoffice email or messaging system, that didnﾕt always work.
Rex, however, was already looking into the Internet. So his interest goes way back, and when he started Hammock Publishing, everyone had access and was encouraged to use it. What we take for granted today in finding images and writers and so on, was heady stuff in those days.
Cell phones were huge and hugely expensive. Our VP drove off one day with the office cell phone ﾐ yes, that is right, the office cell phone ﾐ on top of his car. It was never heard from again.
Of course, no PDAs or Treos or anything like that. Lots of Franklin Covey DayRunners. Those of you who know him, just pause for a moment and imagine, if you can, an unwired Rexﾉ
Our PR clients were mostly also clients of our advertising agency parent company. We did a lot of press release and event stuff, along with custom publishing. Eventually it was about half and half. Advertising, public relations and custom publishing do not all play by the same rules and expectations, which created some tension.
I started out as an account executive. After a while, the editorial director left, and I gratefully accepted the offer to fill that post. I still had to wear coat and tie. I still have some of the ties and two pair of Johnston-Murphy wingtips I bought around 1990 for the job.
Rex and I had met before, when he was the press guy for a former Nashville Congressman. After he started his PR career, I ran into him doing consumer intercepts on the street taste tests for New Coke. When we worked together at the PR firm, we had some unusual uh, opportunities. He and I once visited the Savannah River Nuclear Plant in S.C. (ﾒPrince of Tidesﾓ territory) for a DuPont spinoff company that made a herbicide-laced industrial fabric it claimed could keep roots from invading radioactive waste burial sites for many years. A good thing, unless you want your geraniums to be as tall and mean as Godzilla.
The same fabric was also marketed to the cemetery industry as a protective covering for burial vaults and coffins, thus earning it our internal nickname, ﾒCasket Gasket.ﾓ I sent a story about it to a cemetery mangement trade magazine, and, when I followed up a couple weeks later to see if they would use it, was told the editor had ﾒpassed.ﾓ So, too, did the idea of capturing that market.
Although we no longer do traditional public relations, a lot of what we do in publishing today goes back to that time, in terms of how we think about stories and design and reader relationships. I can’t begin to count the number of times over 19 years I’ve heard Rex quote Osmo Wiio’s commentaries on communication, on how to approach communication. Ultimately, the quality and integrity of our work has to be strong enough to stand on its own, and we have to serve the readers interests.
The Rex we know today is very much the Rex of 19 years ago, with the wisdom (and scars) of building several businesses on a foundation of creativity, inspiration, fun and treating everyone with respect and decency.
He even kept his office at 50 degrees back then.
Everyone at Hammock Publishing knows what today is. Listed on the company calendar, among the various meetings and we all have today, is this: International Talk Like a Pirate Day. (Yeah, we have a huge Jack Sparrow fan in the office.)
In celebration, we’re taking a few minutes to bring out the swashbucklers in us. I’m not feeling well today, but it hasn’t stopped me from exclaiming the occasional “Aargh!”
Not the least bit surprising, Bill Hudgins, one of Hammock’s editorial directors, is really getting into it. I sent him an e-mail earlier and got this in response: “Arrr, poppet, then ye are doomed!” Thanks, Bill.
Jamie Roberts, the aforementioned Jack Sparrow fan and another one of our editorial directors, says she’s too busy for a proper celebration, but did manage to find the time to figure out what her pirate name would be. “It’s Red Jenny Rackhamﾉpassion is a big part of my life,” she says.
As for Production Director Barbara Mathieson, well, she asked if she could sail away with Johnny Depp. I told her she’d have to ask Johnny Depp. And her husband, probably.
Finally, Editorial Director Laura Creekmore, who’s never one to not say something, had this to say: “I dislike made up holidays. I’m also not fond of non-Irish people who celebrate St. Patrick’s day or non-Mexican people who celebrate Cinco de Mayo, particularly since no one seems to know the true meaning of the day and seems to think it’s Mexican Independence Day, which it’s not. I think that’s Sept. 16th, right?”
A simple ‘Aargh!’ would have done just fine, Laura.
So there you have it. From our office (except Laura Creekmore, apparently) to yours, have a happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
For the last several months, we’ve been marking the days on the calendar that commemorate the starting date of each of the members of the Hammock Publishing crew. Today, we caught Patrick Ragsdale at the single-serving coffee maker, again, and asked him about his first year with Hammock. We wish him many more…
1. July 11 is Hammock Day for you. How long have you been with Hammock Publishing? 1 short year.
2. What do you remember most about your first day at Hammock? The single-serving coffee machine. We’ve spent many minutes together since that first day.
3. If you didn’t work at Hammock Publishing, what do you think you would be doing? I would probably be working at a large company like Dell and traveling a lot for their sales department. I had great interviews with both Dell and Hammock. Choosing Hammock was pretty much a no-brainer.
4. What is your favorite movie of all time? That would be toss up between the narrated version of Blade Runner and Zentropa. The directors cut of Blade Runner removed Harrison Ford’s narration, which was a mistake. Zentropa was the first Lars von Trier film that I saw. It’s a very cool film. Multiple languages and interesting exchanges between cinematography and graphic arts.
5. If you could own a sports team, which one would it be? I’d like to own the Nashville Predators but still have plenty of money to spare. That way I could subsidize the high cost of tickets for the fans.
6. What was your most memorable day at Hammock? Out of all the great days I’ve had at Hammock, the one that stands out as the most memorable here would be the day you all held that baby shower for Lorraine and me. We hadn’t been in town very long and you all were so thoughtful with your gifts. We really felt welcomed and overwhelmed. I can’t imagine having a more memorable day at any job I’ve had!
7. What is the last musical act/group you saw live? This is pathetic. I can’t remember the band’s name since they were mediocre, but I enjoyed the last venue I was at. It was The Middle East Restaurant and Night Club in Cambridge, Mass., on Mass. Ave. Great place.
8. If you were to win the lottery this week, what is the first purchase you would make? I’d probably buy a bottle of wine on the way home. There’s this $25 bottle of Ravenswood Merlot that I think is great.
9. What is your favorite summertime vacation destination? Holden’s Beach, N.C. Lorraine and I have been going there since childhood.
10. If you could switch places with any other Hammock employee for one day, who would it be and why? I enjoy what I do so much that the thought never occurred to me before.
15-minute pause.
I think it would be nice to have the ability to do Natalie’s work since she knows so much about contracts and business law. So, if I were to switch places with someone, would that mean that I gained their knowledge permanently or just for that one day?
Some ‘internal’ messages at Hammock (we have a cool intranet) should be shared with a bigger audience. Here’s one that was posted this morning:
In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court today decreed that Hammock Publishing must immediately free up to 50 percent of the contents of its office refrigerator to make room for refreshments currently in a cooler in the back of Bill’s car.
Writing the majority opinion for the court, Justice Antonin Scalia-Lite – sorry, Joseph Alito – opined that nearly empty containers of hummus and cottage cheese, as well as browning pieces of celery and wilting fruit “may well be at substantial risk of further decay and after a long weekend will present an increasing level of grossness to others who must occupy this same environment.”
The case has been handed back to local authorities to take prompt action if the offending material is not removed “within a reasonable number of hours.”
We’re a day late wishing Julia Boklage a happy Hammock Day. But that doesn’t mean our good wishes of celebration are any less. Even during the craziness that has been this week, Julia took a few minutes to answer some random questions about her time here at Hammock, hateful cats and the Rolling Stones.
1. June 21 was Hammock Day for you. How long have you been with Hammock Publishing? I have been with Hammock seven years.
2. What do you remember most about your first day at Hammock? I remember feeling totally overwhelmed. My predecessor was passing down a lot of rules on how to do things, particularly in our accounting software. I kept thinking that I would never remember it all! Turns out, much of it was not necessary, but it took me a while to figure that out.
3. If you didn’t work at Hammock Publishing, what do you think you would be doing? Something very similar. It’s what I like to do.
4. What is your favorite movie of all time? I have a lot of favorites but the one I watch most and never tire of is “Overboard” with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Totally silly and very entertaining to me.
5. Do you have any pets? That’s hard to answer. My daughter, who lives with me, has a crazy cat named Target. So, she’s not really mine but I get to reap the benefits as well as the drawbacks of having a paranoid, sometimes loving, often hateful odd little cat.
6. What was your most memorable day at Hammock? Probably 9/11. I am most often the last to arrive, and when I got here that morning, totally unaware of what was unfolding, I could almost sense the tension. A complete horror that I’m sure none of us will forget.
7. What is the last musical act/group you saw live? Oh my! Most recently, I saw Michael W. Smith in his Christmas performance with the Nashville Symphony. The last great performer that I saw was Ray Charles, not too long before his death. Highlights of my younger days would include The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and many more. Attending concerts was the “thing to do” back in the day. We would drive hundreds of miles!
8. If you were to win the lottery this week, what is the first purchase you would make? I would buy a large piece of land and build a wonderful house. It has been a dream for a very long time.
9. Where do you hope to retire someday? I really don’t know. I guess I think I’ll be working forever.
10. If you could switch places with any other Hammock employee for one day, who would it be and why? This question gave me the most pause! As I said, I really love what I do, it suits me. But, if I have to choose, I think it would be Kerri. It would be a lot of fun to enjoy her creative talent for a day.
This is one of those times every couple of years that some of us just live for. It’s no secret that our office is chock-full of political junkies and small-business fans ﾑ and what better place to celebrate either persuasion than at the NFIB National Small-Business Summit? The biennial gathering of small-business owner/activists from around the country always attracts heavy-hitters from the political and business-speaker circuit; this year the agenda is strong.
Hammock’s MyBusiness and NFIB.com staff were in force at the Summit, working with our client, the National Federation of Independent Business. It’s a great showcase of their power and strength on Capitol Hill, and we’re glad to be a part of the event. Below are the Hammoratians there: (L-R) Rex, Barbara, Emily, Lena, Summer and Jamie.
Spring is a time for baseball, rain and celebrating Hammock Days around here. The sixth member of the Hammock team to celebrate her Hammock Day in less than a month, Lena Basha sat down with me over margaritas to answers a few questions about dating, movies and being chased in the parking garage…
1. June 2 is Hammock Day for you. How long have you been with Hammock Publishing? Three years.
2. What do you remember most about your first day at Hammock? Barbara Mathieson. In the parking lot. Riding my tail. Honking her horn. Flashing her lights. Yelling, “Park, you slow poke!” I embellish, but it’s not far from the truth. Our relationship has since improved.
3. If you didn’t work at Hammock Publishing, what do you think you would be doing? Hopefully a similar job, but not nearly as fabulous.
4. What is the last movie you saw in the theatre? “Ice Age 2,” but I’m more of a renter. Last night, I watched “Winter Passing.” It stars Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel. I was all, “Oh, I loved them in ‘Elf,’ I bet this will be great!” I was wrong. It was horrible. Don’t rent it.
5. Do you have any pets? No.
6. What was your most memorable day at Hammock? That day Rex stopped by my desk and asked me if I was dating Mr. Roboto.
7. What’s your favorite reality TV show? Would you ever participate? Oh goodness, where to start? “The Real World,” “Laguna Beach,” “The Hills” (premieres this week!), “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” the list goes on. I don’t think I’d participate, though. Despite appearances, I am shy. I think it took me at least a year and a half to speak without spoken to here at the office.
8. If you were to win the lottery this week, what is the first purchase you would make? A trip to New York.
9. Where do you hope to retire someday? I feel uncomfortable answering a question that suggests I am already thinking about retirement three years into my job. I love Hammock Publishing.
10. If you could switch places with any other Hammock employee for one day, who would it be and why? Lynne Boyer, as long as I get to keep her lockerﾑand the key that goes to it. I think she has 18 million snacks locked up in there. Also, she is an exceptionally fast and skilled designer.
On May 21, Kerry Davis celebrated “Hammock Day,” marking 11 years with the company. I bribed her to answer a few questions for us; terms of our agreement will not be disclosed.
1. May 21 was Hammock Day for you. How long have you been with Hammock Publishing? 11 years
2. What do you remember most about your first day at Hammock? That I don’t think some of the partners even knew that the creative director hired me.
3. If you didn’t work at Hammock Publishing, what do you think you would be doing? I’d probably try to pursue an interior design degree. I love looking at and thinking about interiors.
4. What is the last movie you saw in the theatre? Friends With Money
5. What did you have for lunch today? Hummus, pretzels and a Zone bar
6. What was your most memorable day at Hammock? There have been a few that we don’t talk about. Other than that, the O.J. Simpson trial (everyone jammed in the kitchen watching TV) and 9/11 (same scenario).
7. What’s your favorite reality TV show? Basically, I’m sick of them and don’t really watch them that much. Back in the day, I was a huge Real World fan. I remember watching the Sunday marathon of New York and San Fran. Loved Puck! Would you ever participate? Never.
8. If you were to win the lottery this week, what is the first purchase you would make? Plane tickets! Lots of them!
9. Where did you grow up? Aberdeen, Miss.
10. If you could switch places with any other Hammock employee for one day, who would it be and why? Probably Bill Hudgins. I’d love to spend a day with all the words in his head. He can drop a two-word headline on you in seconds… a designer’s dream!