Junk my Car Blog

Every generation has it's dance culture. From early swing to 70s disco, people just had to get their dance on. My generation is no different. Out of the 80s from disco and the hippy movement came the rave scene. Sometimes called Techno Hippies, Ravers have created a scene that is more than a DJ and some kids looking for a good time. Ravers have a sense of style, culture, lingo, and sociology all their own.

There is a huge perception that raves are just drug filled rooms w/ a bunch of sketchy kids. Anyone that has gone to one of these all night electronic music fests will tell you it more than that. People go for the community. No where else can you meet a person and not see them for months, only to see them on some random dance floor to be friends all over again. There is a tradition among the "candy kids" that entails swapping bracelets to new friends. These new type of friendship bracelets are called Candy, (hence that's what gives these kids, who wear them up to their elbow with pride, their name). I myself have hundreds of candy and can tell you the name, face, or place where I got it.

Most people who hear techno think of car commercials with their heavy bass background sound or what is heard in the background of any bar. On the contrary, there are as many types of techno as there is rock and roll. Not all hip hop is the same and techno is no different. With the speed of the bass also comes a style all of its own. If your into deeper psychedelic flow there is trance. For your hiphop orinated, there is jungle and drum and bass. Even for those that thrive for a hard hitting jump out of your skull speed to your music, we have happy hardcore. There is a flavor for all of your potential tastes and it all can converge under one roof. Walking from one room to another will send certainly send you from one sensory experience to an other. One thing is for sure, you will leave liking something new and different.

There is no typical raver but you can certainly pick one out if you know what to look for. There are the blatant candy kids with their pikachu backpacks w/ colorful bracelets up to their arm pits to the the more dressed up wearing a buttoned up dress shirt untucked w/ khaki wind pants. The scene is also responsible for creating signature clothing such as UFO and Caffeine clothing lines which are a staple to any raver closet. Graphitte artists have even been able to find a voice by promoting the scene and the scene doing the same by creating shirt lines such as MethodNYC.

This brings me to one of the most important concepts that is the rave scene. P.L.U.R.: Peace, Love, Unity, Respect. This is more than the mantra but the essence of the lifestyle. There are several urban legands on where the motto originated. One thing that all agree on is it's simple meaning. These four things are more than the root of our community. It's something we carry with us in our everyday live. The party can be as small as a one room weekly to a outdoor 5 tent massive, this motto reverberates clearly no matter the size of the crowd. Raving is more that something you do on your weekends but a full on life style. I've been a part of this scene since the mid 1990s and have seen the evolution of the styles of music and dance. But P.L.U.R is fundementally the same regardless if your new or old skool. If you love to dance, meet new people, and a get sense of community rarely seen in a club or concert, I recommend giving one a shot. Who knows how many bracelets you you will walk out with.

Labels: Candy, Junk my Car, Rave

What has technology done to the music industry?

Labels: Junk my Car, music industry, technology

Labels: dance, Junk my Car, rain

Labels: earthquake, fund, haiti, relief

Junk my Car recently helped out our team in the Philippines. They endured a natural disaster and lost many of their possessions. To help give back, employees raised as many donations within the company as we could, so that they could restore the necessities that they had lost. We knew that the contribution would not restore all the memorable items that they had, but it would restore what they needed to live and move on with. To add to the generosity the company matched all the donations we had contributed for this unfortunate event. They were very pleased at how giving and caring we were to their situation.

This holiday season a couple of the Junk my Car employees held a food drive. Once again we were lending that helping hand to families in need of a decent Thanksgiving dinner. As a company we donated 2 boxes filled with food so that others may enjoy their holiday meal as anyone should.

Junk my Car has also recently participated to help donate to the Special Olympics. There was a charitable event called the Penguin Plunge held in East Haven Town Beach, CT on December 5th, 2009. Every person that participated would bring in $50 towards the charity. Everyone would have to dive into the frigid cold beach water then come right out. Many of us at Junk my Car joined in this event, and all dived in with much pride. Personally, this had to be the most exhilarating thing I have done yet. Yes, it was crazy, but something that I will always have as an exciting story and has been an experience that I will forever cherish because it was for a great cause.

We are a vehicle removal and recycling service, but we want to touch lives as well. Our company wants to set an example, opening the eyes of people so that they may all help go that extra mile with their customers, the community, and the world so we can look back and be proud of what we have accomplished. With great dignity and pride I can say that I work for a company that goes that extra mile.

Labels: charity, Extra Mile, Junk my Car

What is Company Culture? Certainly it is a complex subject, I mean, a Google search returns 127,000,000 results.

According to businessdictionary.com, "Organizational culture is the sum total of an organization's past and current assumptions, experiences, philosophy, and values that hold it together, and are expressed in its self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world, and future expectations."

Many believe that this culture begins with an understanding of the stories, folklore, symbols, and rituals that implicitly direct employees, partners, and even customers about “the right way”, “how things really work”, and “what’s really valued”.

Recently we JMCers received the "Story of Junk my Car" in our email boxes. As one of the people who can say that I lived through some of those early years, it suddenly dawned on me that we were beginning the groundwork towards publishing our company culture in written form for the first time.

So what's the big deal? Well, one writer goes so far as to say that "...[Culture] can make or break your company... and companies with an adaptive culture... routinely outperform their competitors with some studies reporting a difference at 200% or more." (Company Culture What It Is And How To Change It)

Take an amazingly innovative company like Google whose "commitment to innovation depends on everyone being comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. Every employee is a hands-on contributor, and everyone wears several hats." (http://www.google.com/corporate/culture.html) As a result, Google employees give the company a 4.0 (satisfied) rating, meaning employees generally like the company, like the leadership, and like their jobs.

Take a look at another innovative company like Zappos who take it a step further. The Zappos' Blog provides remarkable insight into their "Work hard, play hard" culture.

There are several other examples that we can seek out, but these two companies make it pretty clear that successful business cultures of today are not only about passion, but also about creating and as a result, they are fun. A point not missed by Edward O. Welles in The Fun Factor where he writes, "What's really driving the new economy – and confounding the grand pooh-bahs of the old one – is that individuals are having a huge impact. And an awful lot of fun"

This vantage point paints a clear picture that to have fun and more-so to be successful, the next generation of businesses require a winning team of people. It makes having the "right players on the bus" as Jim Collins puts it in "Good to Great", vital to a high productivity workplace.

The "right players on the bus" translates to a basic understanding that while the company takes great strides to create the culture, it is ultimately the employees and their actions that bring the company's culture to life.

This is why culture has to be worked on from all angles and from each employee within the company. It is also why the culture must evolve as the company grows, even if slightly, because each new employee brings their own values and practices to the group and thus into the culture.

Proper orientation, training and instilling your company's culture is no small feat. Neither is ensuring that your present day employees all "get it". I suppose this is a direct correlation to my previous google search regarding the subject matter.

Regardless, I believe it is clear that from job seekers to high level representatives, business culture is an ever evolving, ever changing life form. And while it is not as easy to obtain as something you can just get at your local pharmacy or grocery, the biggest and best companies prove that it is exactly what the proverbial doctor ordered to ensure the healthy success of a company.

Labels: Company Culture, Junk my Car

"There are two kinds of people in the world: those who make excuses and those who get results. An excuse person will find any excuse for why a job was not done, and a results person will find any reason why it can be done. Be a creator, not a reactor."

The above quote by Alan Cohen, says a lot about the kind of people that the environment we work in at Junk my Car requires.

Prior to joining the Junk my Car team, I worked in your average “Corporate America” style call center for about 4 years. It did not take me so long to realize how rigid this call center environment was, as if a constant game of micro-managing and “babysitting” adults was the real job of managers and supervisors.

After proving to be able to contribute to the company as a whole, I found I was still being scrutinized for signing into my phone 20 seconds late, and threatened with being fired for being out sick because I did not pre-plan my “time off”. As absurd as this seemed, it very quickly became part of my normal life. I soon became accustomed to the constant whirlwind of work-related stresses, referring to them as the “norm” for all call center employees.

At that time, I remember talking to an employee of “Junk my Car” and being completely perplexed that this call center he worked for took into consideration the fact that he had children and a family, and was complete with bonuses, growth opportunities, and a bunch of co-workers who were actually EXCITED to come to work every day!

Still I kept drudging along, until somehow my resume crossed the path of the owner of this company. I came in for an interview, and was surprised that I sat, not with some supervisor who had never even met the CEO of the company,but with the owner himself. There was something different about this place…The break room had video games, popcorn machines, and actually looked inviting. Was this for real?

A year and a half later, I can tell you it IS real. I've been working at Junk my Car since March of 2008, and can tell you, I am STILL excited to come into work every day.

In February of 2009, The CEO rolled out this new and even more exciting reason to come to work – R.O.W.E.—the Results Only Work Environment. What did this mean? This meant that the era for micro-managing and baby sitting was GONE… I would actually be working for a company that treated adults like adults. No more rigid schedules or getting written up for being a minute late. ROWE meant that if I wanted to come in at 8am today, and at 11am tomorrow, I could do that! All that mattered was that my customers were serviced, my tasks were completed, and I did everything in my power to see to it that no one was falling off the “boat”. This was a dream come true.

Right now, the R.O.W.E. principles are starting to be used in companies like GAP, Best Buy, and each day more and more companies are turning to this new-world approach to work.

What I’ve learned since Junk my Car went “ROWE” is that it takes more than one motivated person to make R.O.W.E. possible. It takes a bunch of employees that believe 2 things: First, That they work in what is, hands down, THE best company there is to work in, and second, that what they do matters.

You see, Corporate America teaches people to make excuses—R.O.W.E. teaches people to GET RESULTS. I encourage every person reading this to adopt a R.O.W.E. attitude. Not just for work, but for life. Don’t focus on how you can explain why you didn't measure up, find a way to get where you need to be. If you want something from your life, go for it full force, and MAKE it happen. It’s not those who have good dreams that get us far in life, it’s those who are willing to do what it takes to turn those dreams into reality.

Be a creator, not a reactor.

It’s more than what it takes to be a R.O.W.E. employee, it’s what it takes to grab hold of your own destiny. I don’t know about you, but I want to be a results person!

Labels: Call Center, Corporate America, How to Junk my Car, Results, ROWE