Penang, Malaysia. A beautiful city and an exciting opportunity for the whole Human Resources team in the Asia Pacific, Japan and China regions to come together to learn from each other, grow together and volunteer together.
And I had to miss it.
While the rest of my team was going to be bonding and participating, I was going to be sitting at home nursing wounds, literal and figurative. I had to take care of some medical issues with a pretty major back surgery, but I was gutted that I’d have to miss the offsite.
Cisco has some great benefits to help me with the medical things, but I wasn’t quite sure how to get past my fear of FOMO – or Fear of Missing Out.
What I learned is that when we talk about the power of great teams at Cisco, we’re talking about the power of our “work family.” Just like your biological family helps you get through tough times, your “work family” is there to help as well.
While the HR offsite was taking place, I followed along with their adventures in social media. As a Talent Acquisition Manager, I often use social media to connect with possible candidates. As a Cisco employee, that’s one of the ways I stay connected with my global team. In this case, it was so lovely that I could follow what was going on in Malaysia through Twitter, WhatsApp and other social channels.
But then I saw a Tweet. It had a photo. With me in it! How could that be?
My team was missing me as much as I was missing them, and they had (without my knowledge) printed out pictures of my face and they were all carrying “me” around with them and posting with “me” in photos. Suddenly, there wasn’t just one picture of me, there were loads of nice messages from the team.
I really think Cisco has been amazing on how my “work family” has supported me the past few months. It makes coming back after a break much less stressful. Cisco’s support during my time off is an example of how we care about people and it’s a great way to build employee loyalty. They gave me time to recover without me feeling any pressure but kept connected so I didn’t feel I was forgotten.
Every time I see the pictures of the offsite, and see that I was still there in spirit, it makes me smile. It’s what makes the idea of #WeAreCisco come to life in a real way.
Don’t you want to work at a place like this? See openings and apply on our Careers site.
Why doesn’t CISCO take care of there retiring employees as above? I had to wait 14 months for a final pay check and 6 months for my Pension lump sum, and only after taking Legal action. ‘We are CISCO” a big joke.
Anthony – The team that runs this blog isn’t the same team that would have been involved in your situation (though as fellow employees, we’re sorry you had an issue.) If you’d like to direct message us on Facebook (WeAreCisco) or Twitter (WeAreCisco) we are happy to share your experience with the folks who can make a note of it and a change.
This goes to show Cisco places a high premium on her employees as well as an atmosphere for good camaraderie! Nice story line!
Love our “Work family”
Great blog Nat…! We missed you at the offsite but you were always there in spirit…!!
Just imagine, if they had cardboard cut outs for everyone laid off in the EVERY SUMMER layoff program?
The picture would be a sea of paper.
Yes, it’s a family. A family that once a year disowns a few children.
Actually, the idea of a family still remains. A family sticks with you through good times and in bad. Tough business decisions are not easy, but the way we respond to each other and help each other gets us through.
@Carmen, keep telling yourself and others that the “family” still remains and maybe people will start believing it. Otherwise, stop drinking the company cool-aid.
As you said, a family sticks with you through good times and in bad. Cisco certainly didn’t stick with those let go. And these are not “bad” times.
And, by doing annual lay-offs, Cisco is proving that these are no longer “tough decisions”, but are becoming a purely financial motivated decision by the bean counters and ELT. Even the termination packages are getting smaller and smaller as the years go by. That’s not how you take care of “family”.
So great! 🙂