Category Archives: Fun

The team at CQL would like to congratulate Catholic Charities West Michigan on their achievement of raising nearly $115,000 for God’s Kitchen at the 2012 Soup’s On For All event.  

For the past 9 years, CQL has been proud to be a Gold Sponsor supporter of Catholic Charities in helping them accomplish their mission of helping individuals and families that come to God’s Kitchen looking for care and food assistance. Their food and pantry programs provide vital services such as food delivered to the homebound, drop in lunch and dinner sites, food pantries, and meal outreach in many communities.

The annual Soup’s On event is definitely a staff favorite for us. For years, our employees, and their significant others, have attended this event, which features various local restaurants serving soup as a way to demonstrate ‘soup lines’ from years past. It is a special evening.

Personally, I love picking a custom made soup bowl to take home.  Hundreds of volunteers, including schools, church groups, aspiring artists, etc. hand paint bowls that are given away to attendees at the event.  Picking just the right one is an art form all in itself as I have a display in my home that reminds me all year of the great work Catholic Charities is doing.   To get an idea of the fun, whimsical pieces I’m talking about, click here:

Soup’s On Bowls!

We’re already looking forward to next year’s event and hope to see you there!

Every year at our company Christmas Party, our staff presents thank you gifts to our owners.  This year, I was in charge of giving that speech so I really got to thinking about what’s so special at CQL.  Of course, the obvious things jumped out first:

1. Employee massages.  Yeah, we get ½ hour massages every other week and it’s definitely something that I think differentiates us from other companies.  At a time when so many companies are cutting back, we’re still getting hooked up.  As the HR person, I love seeing new employee’s faces when massage day comes and they can hardly believe it’s actually true.  I guess when we tell them initially, they think we’re kidding??
2. Free coffee.  GOOD coffee.  No generic distributor beans for us.  Ferris Coffee is the only way to go.
3. Pizza, pizza and more pizza.  Yes, we eat a ton of pizza in these parts.  Some actually grumble that we order it for every meeting.  WTH?

My next thought was about the great work-life balance we have here. How many companies do you know of where (almost) the entire staff participates in P90X?  We have 2 “shifts” that go downstairs each day and get their fitness on.  Yes, while at work.  We also have a bunch of bikers and runners.  In fact, I was out for a run this past summer around 3:00 in the afternoon and was thinking to myself how nice it is to be able to do this without having to worry about whether or not I’m in my designated seat at all times; aside from the hour between noon and 1:00p.

Oh, and I just happen to be the only female here at CQL.  I also have a 3 year old son, who’s always been plagued with ear infections, so I probably appreciate the work-life balance around here more than the average.  When family duty calls, I’m all over it and there’s none of the famous Mommy Guilt.  I can take care of what I need to, and have a real sense of calm about not being in the office.  Talk to any working Mom and they’ll tell you there’s always a twinge of apprehension about being at home with their kid instead of sitting at their desk.   Not me, because I KNOW how important family is to everyone here; it’s not just something was say to make us look good.

But even after all the things mentioned above, I just didn’t feel like the main reason this place is so great is because we get massaged, fed and worked out.   The thing that sticks out the most is the everyday comradery and light-hearted atmosphere of the office.  We actually LIKE each other’s company.   Everyone here is very approachable and the general air is that you can be comfortable in your own skin and your own ideas.  Practical jokes are an everyday occurrence, and actually, our President is the main culprit of most of the jokes.  I start to wonder if everything’s ok with him if he doesn’t come up with something off the wall every day.  If you’re a fan of Founder’s Brewing Company, you’re likely to run in to our guys and you’ll see first-hand what I’m talking about.  No Steve Jobs types here.  You won’t find anyone pounding desks or throwing out threats.

As I go back and read through this, I’m well aware that so far I’ve painted the perfect picture and I sure don’t want to sugar coat anything.  So, do we have our tiffs?  Of course we do.  When you’re working this hard and dealing with this much passion, there’s bound to be some blow outs, and trust me, there are.  We absolutely have our breakdowns in communication, our bottlenecks in process and situations where the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing.  But the great thing is that we can get it out, get over it and move on.

So this year I want to just say thank you to my bosses, my co-workers and most importantly, my friends.  It’s a pleasure to come to work every day.  For real.  Our ideas, passion, patience and support is what I’ve come to expect and love about this place.

For the second year in a row, Michigan based software development company, CQL, was a drop off location for LinkedUp Grand Rapid’s Christmas Project.  This year the non-profit they chose to support was the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans.  A large list of items was collected including new batteries, clothes, socks, and new and used books.   We were very happy that so many of our clients, coworkers, and other LinkedUp Grand Rapids members dropped off items for support.

For year two, we doubled the gifts that were received.  It was exciting to see other non-profits get in this giving opportunity.  One local church near CQL received extra supplies, and dropped off two boxes full of magazines, deodorant, lotion, and chap-stick at our giving location.

At this this time of year, most of us are able to enjoy fellowship with friends and family. We are blessed to be able to help others who are less fortunate.  So, as we wrap up another year, CQL would like to thank all of our clients, vendors, partners, and team for an excellent year.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from CQL!