And the winner is................

To make things a little more fun for work, MedQuist was holding a contest for this past weekend. The goal was to increase motivation and also get the increase in backlog of reports completed before the weekend. This is the busy season for illnesses. Anyway, there were several different ways to earn points, and whoever had the most points at the end wins. We were to answer trivia questions at 2 points for each correct answer, answering the mystery call (someone from MedQuist was going to be calling everyone's home), and if you were working during the call you got 4 extra points. If you were working outside of your shift you got 3 points. For those working on Thursday they would get 5 points for every 3 hours worked. For those working on Friday, for every 3 hours worked they would get 5 points. For those working after 5pm Friday, they received 7 points and for those working from 10p-midnight Friday night would get 10 points. Okay, some of you may not know this, but I am quite competitive. I was all over the contest and having fun with it. I kept tract of my points and was anxiously awaiting the final results today after I found out later this weekend the prize was a $100 American Express gift card!!!!! When the email arrived it said "And the winner is..............STACEY STEPHENS (Okay, I forgive her for spelling my name wrong!) I yelled upstairs to tell Scott as he had just gotten home for lunch. (He wasn't too thrilled that I was doing all this extra work, as I was up well past midnight Friday night working). Anyway, while we were reading the email, she had listed the points that I received. I noticed on the email that she had given me 9 extra points that I didn't actually earn (I wasn't working when the mystery caller called, as I had just clocked out to eat lunch), and I only worked 3 1/2 hours on Thursday and she had listed that I worked 8. She also mentioned the contest was very close. Well, then I started feeling bad. I thought that it wasn't fair if I really didn't win, and it was only by mistake. Scott told me to not worry about it and just keep it, because I deserved it. Well, I didn't feel right doing it. I called 2 friends to see what they would do. One said take it, the other had the same feelings I did. I just knew I wouldn't feel right taking the prize if I really didn't win it. I was torn, because I really really really wanted the prize money, but also knew I wouldn't be happy with myself if I didn't win it fairly. If I wasn't so anal retentive and hadn't kept track of it all, I would never have known. Anyway, I decided to reply to the email and let her know that the points she had given me weren't all correct. I thought that maybe if I really didn't win, that maybe they would give me something for just being honest. I don't know what my Mom did or said when I was growing up, but I cannot tell a lie and feel good about myself. (Good job Mom!) Later when I checked my email, I noticed she had replied. My heart would race every time I would think about it, and then sink when I thought that I might not win afterall. Anyway, she said that she had given everyone the extra points with the mystery caller whether they were working or not, and she said she made a mistake in the email she sent about the number of hours worked on Thursday. She had it counted right in my score, just listed it wrong in the email. So, I WON!!!!! I WON!!!! I was soooooo excited and even MORE excited that I could feel good about it! YIPPEEEE!!!!!! I was thinking about what I was going to do with it, and I believe I'm going to use it to buy Christmas presents. (And maybe I'll buy a little something for myself too?) YEAH!