employee-list.php

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Employee List
Description: Leverages an existing "employee" custom post type to create a shortcode for a list of employees
Version: 0.1
Author: Mark Jaquith
Author URI: http://coveredwebservices.com/
*/

function tampa_employee_list() {
	global $post;
	$old_globals = $GLOBALS;
	$employees = new WP_Query( 
		array(
			'post_type' => 'employee',
			'posts_per_page' => 50,
			'orderby' => 'post_title',
			'order' => 'ASC'
			)
	);
	$return = '';
	while ( $employees->have_posts() ): $employees->the_post();
		
		$return .= "<div class='employee'>";
		$return .= get_the_post_thumbnail( $post->ID, 'thumbnail' );
		$return .= "<p><strong>";
		$return .= get_the_title();
		$return .= "</strong><br />";
		if ( !empty( $post->post_excerpt ) )
			$return .= "<em>" . $post->post_excerpt . "</em>";
		$return .= "</p>";
		$return .= "</em></p>";
		$return .= get_the_content();
		$return .= "</div>";
	endwhile;
	$GLOBALS = $old_globals;
	return $return;
}

function tampa_css_hack() {
?>
<style>
div.employee { clear: both; margin: 20px auto; float: left; }
div.employee img { float: left; padding-right: 15px; }
</style>
<?php
}


function tampa_init() {
	add_shortcode( 'employees', 'tampa_employee_list' );
}

add_action( 'init', 'tampa_init' );
add_action( 'wp_head', 'tampa_css_hack' );

@markjaquith What's the reason for restoring globals when WP_Query is in use which doesn't touch globals?