Spotlight: The Transportation Team Engineers Fun

With more work than ever before, we’re adding to our transportation team almost every month, but they always make time for fun (and make sure the newbies do too!)

In between designing your new downtown streetscape and thousands of ADA curb ramps, our team makes time for excerise, a good laugh, and presents. Walk past our transportation department in the Portland office and there’s a good chance you’ll run into one of their daily rituals…

Joke time: Inspired by learning from a Joke-A-Day calendar that Chuck Norris can divide by zero, the group now meets once a day in the afternoon to groan at bad jokes. Several others will venture over from around the office to listen to the joke of the day, tell a joke they heard recently, and get a social recharge. While there aren’t any real prizes, you can “win” Joke Time!

10 and 2 exercises: They’ve appropriately borrowed the proper steering position for a daily workout routine that started as a way to get ready for a 5K obstacle race they completed in June.  However, the energy boost they got from pushups, lunges, wall sits, etc. at 10am and 2pm has stuck, and the team still looks forward to these 2-minute workouts twice a day.

The Dice Game: From the simple Greek notion of Platonic solids to describe the building blocks of the universe sprouted a carnival dice game where throwing a “critical roll” can net one a Rubik’s Cube or an origami bird, complete with nest. Participants get to roll once each day and the prizes are similar to a White Elephant structure. It’s all for fun and even involves a Dice Council to settle disputes.

Coming Up … Organized by the transportation group, Murraysmith will compete in its inaugural Kickball Without Borders Tournament on August 12!