Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, but I was catching-up with my Forearm. It’s not hard to see why I’d choose the ulna-based appendage’s company over yours (he has well-groomed hair, looks great in sleeves, and always knows the time), but I swear: it was only because our reunion was so long overdue. Yep, yesterday marked my first short-sleeve work experiences since my tenure began at DailyMe. The experience was liberating, but significant solely because it made me realize that there has never been a mention of dress policy in the 1-3-5.

Still, I have to think that my uniform male colleagues follow some set of guidelines, for how else would one explain their daily synchronicity? The impulsive teenage intern would jump to emulate the obvious dress code of his co-workers on the second day, but I knew better when the time came. Though any male other representative of the DailyMe staff will be found in a Lacoste shirt and fashionable jeans on a normal day (the female equivalent is more diverse), I stayed true to the monotony of my “pleated khaki n’ Oxford” collection until my laundry cycle prohibited it. Here are three reasons why I didn’t let down my guard until yesterday:

1. Ever heard the phrase “dress to impress”? Me neither, but I know someone who has. Quoting it may make me a poet (who didn’t even know it!), but I’m following simple transitive logic: one cannot overdress for anything besides a pool party, and a day of work is (usually) not a pool party; thus, it’s better to play it safe with some cuffs and a button-down collar for a new job.
2. My teenager-esque jeans are less acceptable than those of my superiors. While DailyMe executives enrich their lower halves with dark, well-fitting denim, I sport material that is inconsistent, coarse, and pre-frayed. It hasn’t’ ever bothered me before, but I now curse myself for buying pants that already had holes and rips. I mean, what message are my peers and I trying to casually get across? “Yeah…I had some extra time during my lunch break, so I wrestled with a bone saw. Don’t worry about me, though—I like the way the wind feels on my bare kneecap.”I’ve always been reluctant to follow the never-ending trend of ripped jeans, but I think my first big-boy job has inspired me to move on.
3. Self-preservation. Long-sleeves and stain-resistant slacks help my cause.

Have a great weekend readers, and don’t be afraid to send some “adult” jean brand suggestions this way!

-John the Intern

It’s 11:45, and I’m beginning to feel uneasy. My concern is one that our “hunt-and-gather” ancestors would call modern and jaded, but I imagine it haunts many a Working Joe (and Joanna): “What am I going to do for lunch today?”. It may seem like a simple part of the 9-to-5 stretch, but--unless you hit up the Chinese buffet on 46th—this mid-day meal is in no way a free-for-all.

Let’s define the two most obvious insecurities that plague you and many like you by high noon:

1. The early battle between your sense of stick-to-itiveness and….well, your craving to merely stick two pieces of rye bread together. No one wants to be the first in the office to announce recess, but I’ll bet every suit is ready to chow down once that clock chimes 12*. It’s seldom upheld in DailyMe’s casual, progressive environment, but I generally suggest that the highest-ranking employee pioneers the move to the mess hall. The strategy holds little practical value, but it’s the first step towards a lowly intern’s guilt-free lunch (the second step: no Trans fats).
2. The Solidarity Question—you and colleagues may “ride together and die together”, but does that necessarily mean you must eat together? In large corporations, this is hardly an issue: the group is big enough to allow everyone to comfortably go their own way. This is a greater concern for small startups like DailyMe, where six employees inhabit the office per day. This gang is small enough to make singular lunch break-offs awkward, but sizable enough to make a meal en masse too drawn-out and clunky; after all, a half-dozen guests is the cut-off for the average restaurant’s automatic gratuity charge.

Setting aside my stated compulsions, I think an office worker should go with the flow during lunch. Some days you’ll eat with the group, and on others you’ll take company in a magazine and a corner table; occasionally, you’ll even choose to microwave a meal in the office. But beware—lasagna burns easily.

Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.

-John the Intern

They say the best things in life are free, and I’ve never been one to disagree. After all, aren’t amenities like oxygen, public-access radio, and Happy Meal toys what keep us going each day? Nonetheless, I didn’t fully comprehend the value of freebies until joining DailyMe. In modern-day media, EVERYONE has something to give away, and our company is far from exempt. But let me tell you—these employers of mine really put the “pro” back in “promotional give-away items”.

Just look back to the media convention where we first featured our goodies: we didn’t cater to Mr.“Walk-into-a-hotel-convention-en-route-to-the-continental-breakfast-only-to-get-a-pen-
sponsored-by-some-random-pharma-product-that-may-or-may-not-cause-dry-mouth”…because we also sought to bring class to our table.

At DailyMe, we’ve strategically planned for both in-office promotion (perfectly-weighted, gel-gripped pens), as well as some items for the great outdoors (5-panel, collapsible, twill, black baseball caps); we even provided some tote bags for every occasion in-between! The strategy behind this last promo has unclear origins, but remains logical: if dozens of unmemorable companies are going to provide their visitors with the generic coffee mug, then why not outfit convention nomads with something to carry their cumulative coffee mugs? Don’t answer that question, it was rhetorical.

Many long-term readers may wonder why we didn’t add any time-keepers to our promotional laundry list. After all, this is an office that boasts three atomic clocks, seven Gregorian calendars, and even a view of the sun. We, unfortunately, could not come to consensus in time for the convention, but have received a shipment since. I was lobbying for an analog design that featured faces of DailyMe staffers at each hour, but we instead went with a conservatively hip digital look. This was just as well, because I was unwilling to arm wrestle the CEO for face-placement under the 12:00 spot.

At the end of the day, I think freebies are important for capturing the essence of a company like DailyMe…or at least for getting some quality face-time with all of those advertising types. Plus, everyone looks good in the colors we chose.

-John the Intern

People involved with startup companies tend to be very high-energy, but no harnessing of human vigor could have prevented yesterday’s office power-outage. It may have been bad weather, or perhaps just a brush with the ninth plague; only one thing is for certain, though--it really hurt my Wednesday afternoon efficiency.

Without an opportunity to do my usual interactive media intern thang, I was quickly relegated to an afternoon of pen, paper, and physical interaction. Looking over important papers by lantern was fine for my colleagues (P.C. for “superiors”), but my work strictly involves competitive research and analysis…on the computer…on the computer that needs electricity.

I suppose I could have lightened up my dark afternoon by leaving work early, but somebody wise once warned me about “idle hands”. Plus, I wanted to stick around to see if anyone would start telling ghost stories. To my amazement, though, the DailyMe staff sustained its bright intensity on a day when most businesspeople would have simply taken a mulligan.

With a restored power supply, I hope next week’s events will provide some more substantial fodder for those interested in small-company life. For now, however, all I can give you is advice: don’t take electricity for granted. It may be hard to appreciate something that’s (literally) everywhere, but Benjamin Franklin’s second biggest discovery (behind the glass harmonica) definitely fills a void. Without it, how would we ever read online news?* These answers and more—tomorrow, on the blog.

-John the Intern

I was excited to graduate from high school, because it marked the end of what many liken to a “four-year popularity contest”. My parents seconded my relief, stating that most adult life situations discourage the “seemingly arbitrary social ranking” famous of the teenage years. Evidently, they’ve never managed a search engine before.

At DailyMe, I was quickly introduced to the process behind making one’s company a high priority on sites like Google, Yahoo, and AskJeeves. What I’ve realized: nabbing the #1 spot for various keyword searches is no easier than winning prom king (but at least it’s not a black tie event). Much of an online company’s fortune is determined by its site’s use of particular words and how they compare with, say, a Google-user’s search terms. Such random relevancy determines a site’s position on what is referred to as an “organic” search. There, search result rankings are entirely content-and-programming based (not paid for), and Silicon Valley executives have denied that it has anything to do with the California’s granola tendencies.

Not unlike prep school, though, search engines make it possible for the proverbial rich kid with the beach house to ensure his popularity…even if it doesn’t come naturally. You may at some point have noticed the paid search results at screen-right entitled “Sponsored Links”, and this is what I’m talking about. This short-cut isn’t as easy as it sounds for sought-after terms, however, and bidding wars over keyword-ranking have been known to consume the lives of many (including this writer’s boss).

It’s probably not a subject that concerns the pure consumers out there, but it’s interesting to know that such method exists behind the perceived madness. And even though DailyMe has landed some excellent real estate on both paid and organic searches, the company’s experience has taught me a valuable lesson: popularity contests will continue to prevail in the busy digital age.

Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.

-John the Intern