Perfect Attendance Double Win

Tonight I read an article about a problem with the original 1st Generation iPod Nano.

Backup the story.

Back in January 2006, my workplace tried an incentive to encourage employees to be at work, on time, and productive at the start of their shifts. Every employee who could do this each workday for the month would be entered into a drawing for a 2GB iPod Nano, the very newest, hippest $200+ product that Apple had to offer.

I was one of the few who qualified. I remember only having one close call toward disqualification. I made it to work, on time and with a couple minutes to spare, but the power had gone out overnight, and my computer was off. To wait for it to fully boot would have taken too long and put me out of the competition, so that morning I logged into my phone and stated taking my first call while my computer was still starting up.

To make a short story long, four employees made it into the drawing. I’m not exactly sure that the incentive produced the results that management was hoping for.

On February 1, the drawing was to be held during my scheduled lunch. I questioned if I should go away from my desk during that time, knowing that I had a 1/4 chance at winning, but I decided that if I waited around for them to deliver a prize to me, I’d seem arrogant and somehow jinks my chances. So I went to the break room.

While I was chowing down, one of the supervisors found me and suggested that I should immediately go back to my desk.

I did so, and about a minute later came all of the supervisors in a grand procession, congratulating me and delivering my reward.

I won the drawing!

I still remember my wife and I trying to figure out the scroll wheel concept. We were frustrated for a while, but once we caught on, we thought it was an ingeniousness idea!

Anyway, now nearly seven years later, that iPod sits long forgotten and rarely used.

Tonight I read an article about a problem with the original 1st Generation iPod Nano. Apple has found that these original devices, manufactured in 2005 and 2006, have a battery flaw. The older the device gets, the more prone they are to overheating and causing injury.

I looked up on the shelf, and picked up the old iPod.

The date matched.

The physical description matched.

I answered the question and typed the serial number on the provided website.

And the results… Apple will be sending me a box with shipping instructions, so that I can get a replacement.

I don’t yet know what that means. A replacement battery in the same model? Or a replacement iPod with a newer generation unit?

I hear Apple has some cash, and they could probably afford to send out a new unit to the few of us who still have our old machines, just as well as they could take the time to repair the old ones.

Oh, what will it be?

Will my perfect attendance win in 2006 become a double win in 2011?