“When we listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become wiser, more inclusive, and better as an organization.” — Pat Wadors
I love where I work, and the work I get to do as a Cisco Sales Supply Chain Manager. But this love goes so much deeper than that – because at Cisco your work isn’t just a job or a title – but a unique, first-hand experience into our global culture and diversity around the world.
Maybe I’m lucky, maybe it’s systemic, but either way – I get to come into a work place each day surrounded by a large, yet intimate, group of global peers. We share much more than work related tasks, too. Together, we have conversations that are more storytelling sessions than water cooler chatter, and revel in personal connections.
Fortunately, it is NEVER routine at Cisco as I seem to learn something new every day.
On just my team alone, our diversity runs deep with different ethnic backgrounds, experiences, passions, and more. What’s even more impressive is that, despite all these unique backgrounds, we’re an unbelievably sociable group that thrives in not only sharing and learning from our differences – but in celebrating them too.
When my cubicle partner Vivienne and I chat, she shares stories with me of her Jamaican lineage. She teaches me so much about her country, more than I could ever learn elsewhere – from where to vacation to a vast array of historical information. She feeds me amazing, picturesque scenes of Jamaica – and even busts out her dormant accent too, which is awesome.
Meanwhile, on my direct team of peers, Alicja, a native of Poland, lets me pick her brain about where she came from and traditions that she holds dear. A lot of the time I also get to learn fun new Polish words, or we talk about cuisines and favorite meals, or what life was like growing up in a town of 1500 people total.
There is also my teammate Priscilla who sits in our Guadalajara office, and my cube neighbor Alejandro who comes from Argentina. Both love to share tons of information about their backgrounds and the different parts of the world they’ve experienced and lived in with me. I also try to speak Spanish from time to time, and they are always so kind to listen to my attempts and guide me with how to improve speaking the language.
I am always encouraged and enlightened when talking to my co-workers from around the world as I learn more about where they are from, and who they are. It gives me a sense of energy and positivity I didn’t know was possible from a work environment!
It is extremely impressive, and we are blessed that Cisco is intentional and capable of identifying such diversity across a pool of colleagues that all so easily share a common passion of working in the technology industry, and more specifically, in supply chain.
There’s a whole world to learn from and share experiences with, and Cisco enables me to do this daily.
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