Hello IKEANs,

The votes are in for Co-Worker of the Year. And the winner is… drumroll… Illeana! I must admit I was a little surprised, but we did two recounts, and yes, it’s true. Illeana is the winner! And now we are all going to Sweden! It’s tradition that IKEA will fly the Co-Worker of the Year to Sweden to meet the head of the company, but this year Justine (isn’t she fantastic!) has agreed to pay for a bunch of tickets so that the whole team from Burbank can come to Sweden to watch her shoot a Swedish version of her talkshow ”40 and Bitter” at the same time! I’m very proud of both of them and will personally treat the whole team to some real princess cake when we get there.

Safe travels!

Sincerely,
Your boss Erik

Hejsan IKEAns!

In my second inspirational video I dive deeper into my roots as a handball player for Team Sweden and the many positive effects it has had on my life and very successful career. And just to be clear, I’m not talking about the American version that you play against the wall. No, no, I’m talking about the European version that Sweden has excelled at for many years. Since many of you have been asking me about what makes a successful Co-Worker, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of playing Handball for building a strong character. I have told Illeana and Justine that they should play Handball, too, if they one day want to end up in this corner office, but frankly I’ve been a little disappointed by their lack of enthusiasm. Maybe I should organize a little tournament here at the warehouse below the store so that they can experience it first hand. Maybe we can have Team Illeana vs Team Justine. Winner becomes Co-Worker of the Year and/or get a free plate of meatballs… What do you think?

Until next time – I’m Your Boss
Erik

Hello IKEAns!

I haven’t had time to blog much lately because I’ve been busy shooting a number of inspirational videos, bridging two of my favorite subjects, IKEA and Handball. The first one you can watch now, encouraging you to vote for Co-Worker of the Year. You know, I was once Co-Worker of the Year and look at me now in the Corner Office! One reason I was voted Co-Worker of the year is of course because of my excellent team-working skills, something I learned on the Handball court. My Handball-team quickly learned that the best way to win a game was to pass me the ball. Now it’s up to you Co-Workers to pass the ball to either Illeana or Justine. So VOTE, VOTE, VOTE! Now get back to work everybody. Until next time -

Sincerely, Your boss Erik