Giving Reporters the Bird   

Bloomberg's latest recognition tactic is pink, plastic and stands on one leg.

Trailer-park chic has come to roost in Bloomberg L.P.'s New York bureau in the form of a pink plastic flamingo--the bureau's mascot for good reporting since early March.

Bloomberg spokeswoman Chris Taylor says a bureau reporter hatched the idea to give the flamingo--which happened to be sitting around the office already--as a mock trophy to the writers of each week's best story. Bureau Chief Fred Wiegold has the dubious honor of selecting each avian awardee.

A small flock of bloggers weighed in on the issue in March after an account leaked into the New York Post, which called the practice a "new gimmick to raise morale" and commented, "We're not sure if this is a reward or a punishment." Taylor says she and Wiegold were flummoxed by the attention, since nobody expected the casual office practice to become a story.

The award process is "quite informal," Taylor says--essentially passing the bird from one reporter's desk to another. "Nobody gets individual ones to put on shelves or anything."

Taylor doesn't expect the practice to fly in other Bloomberg offices. "It was an idea that was born in the New York bureau, and as far as I know it's staying here," she says. But, she adds, other bureaus are welcome to pick out their own mascots.