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United like never before – Cisco Krakow celebrating 9th anniversary

Justyna Kycia
10 June 2021

June is an extraordinary month. Every year for us, here in Krakow, it means one thing – we’re going to celebrate our site’s birthday again! So exciting! I clearly remember the 6th anniversary, soon after I joined Cisco – it was full of joy, festivity, pride, and Ramon Tancinco, our site leader, giving a fiery speech. 🙂 At that time, I had never seen anything like that – I used to imagine the workplace as a place “I’m forced to go to” rather than “I’m thrilled to be in.” I never thought you could celebrate being in a certain place, doing a certain job with certain people around.

That was my ‘aha’ moment.

This week, Cisco’s Krakow campus is celebrating its 9th birthday and almost round anniversary.  So important, so unique, so different than usual. This blog post will be my humble attempt to reflect on what was achieved since the last Cisco Krakow anniversary and how we overcame the challenges we had over the past year.

Looking Back at 2020

Ramon Tancinco, Cisco Krakow site leader

So, about last year…. It challenged us in countless ways. All of a sudden, our vibrant, lively, and crowded office emptied, leaving us with a weird feeling of emptiness because let’s be honest – there was ALWAYS something interesting out there. And suddenly the corridors, canteens and conference rooms became deserted.

Since the beginning of last year, our office grew by more than 400 new Cisconians, so back in March, when mandatory Work-From-Home started, almost 2000 employees (with rare exceptions) faced reality, where home irreversibly mixed with work life.

Lunches could no longer be warmed up or picked up from the ‘Hindus’ food truck and eaten with colleagues. Maintaining a work-life balance? Phew – suddenly we needed to share our space, network connection, time with loved ones and very quickly learn non-spoken rules, like:

• this is my workspace
• do not enter this room
• do not pass in the background when I’m on a call
• do not disturb 🙂

But in my opinion, despite all these changes and challenges, we are all doing great.

New decade, new numbers

Cisco campus in Krakow was proudly called one of the most vibrant, diverse, and noteworthy offices in Europe. Interested in how we developed over the last years?

• We grew constantly, from the very beginning. We started with 80 people in 2012. Today we have 2100 people on board, a community of enthusiasts and talents

• We reached an important milestone in diversity, too – right now, we represent 70 different nationalities at the site, coming from 6 different continents – Ukraine, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Hungry, Turkey, Greece, and Colombia, just to name a few countries of origin of our employees

• We like receiving awards, so this year isn’t an exception, so we’ve been recognized as #2 Great Place to Work in Poland (and we are at the TOP of this ranking for 7 years in a row)

• Our Connected Poland organization, (whose main goal is to connect employees through different volunteering and extracurricular activities) keeps growing and recently announced 3 more Pillars – Green Team (focused on sustainability and being more eco-friendly), Newsletter Team (keeping us informed) and University Pillar (building trusted relationships with universities to attract The Best talents to Cisco!)

• In addition to two ‘old’ buildings (A & C), we opened another one – building E!

Has mandatory Work-From-Home changed us?

Have we become more lonely? Separated?  Have we closed ourselves at home and limited our activities to an Absolute Minimum? Not at all! A popular quote from Jim Rohn says ‘if you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse” – our employees found many ways how to work, live, have fun, help and laugh together (despite being physically apart) during those challenging times.

So… let me tell you what was happening here

“Sitting or lying down for too long increases your risk of…” – not a chance with the Sport Pillar of our Connected Poland organization! From the very beginning, we had the full list of available activities (seemingly impossible to organize online), like Friday-morning pilates sessions, stretching, yoga or meditation. With such support, there’s no chance to overstay at home!

Our team also supports Movember – an annual event raising awareness of men’s health issues (and encouraging gents to grow moustaches!)

Inclusive culture

Having more than 2000 people onsite with 70 different nationalities is something we’re proud of, but how to make sure everyone is informed about recent changes? How do we communicate things smoothly and timely? Emails are not really doing their job (Too long; didn’t read), so our irreplaceable Inclusion & Collaboration Team decided to take a bold step and set up the Expat Support Group on Webex! Right now, we have more than 380 employees there, supported by our team day by day. This is not the first achievement – throughout the year it hosted several sessions, drawing closer attention to Year-End Taxation, Trusted-Profile or National Census and organized the Tolerance Week with a focus on inclusion, LGBT+ community and aware parenting. Go, go, go Team!

Our recipe for developing creativity!

Is there any way to support creativity and individuality these days? Our answer is – yes, please! And we have the recipe for that – challenges and competitions! One of the highlights was referring to the legendary “International Day” we used to celebrate in the office – and organizing a virtual CookBook Competition, based on the culinary book with recipes from around the world submitted to our employees – to bring the spirit of (delicious) competition!

FranCisco

Our employees’ kids artworks.

Spring of 2021 brought us even more surprises… like discovering the new fluffy employee, who sneaked into the office while we were away! The Dragon – the symbol of Krakow – got a new name – FranCisco – and seems to stay with us for longer. He got a really warm welcome… 45 amazing pieces of art painted by kids of our employees!

To be eco

Are you eco in your everyday life? Even if you’re not sure and if everyday choices might seem irrelevant for you, it’s exactly the opposite – choosing consciously means a lot! Cisco Krakow Green Team spent countless hours promoting a sustainable way of living, eco-friendly solutions and eating habits, encouraged us to try gardening, spread awareness about smog and so much more! Everything in favour of Mother Earth – but a real highlight was the story of Gosia, who decided to commit to a cleaner world and created an ideal companion for the everyday rubbish hunt – bags made from recycled materials. Being Green is in Cisco Krakow’s DNA!

Commitment to help others

Delivering food to Krakow families in need.

And of course, during the last few months, our Cisco Krakow employees used many opportunities to help others. During 2020 many of our colleagues used an ob

We have been helping medical workers, teachers and students, social care homes, local suppliers, and restaurants. Some activities included teaming up with Krakow Food Bank, 3D printing of protective shields, and sew face masks for the elderly, which have been donated to local hospitals and Krakow Social Care Homes (DPS), – to name just a few. And Krakow Giving Back pillar of the Connected Poland initiative is constantly looking for new ways to help others.

More United

I shared only a drop in the ocean of activities our stunning employees made happen last year and all of them helped us to hold on and survive those challenging months.

Entering June, Cisco Krakow is passing another magical phase in its history, proudly celebrating not only the 9th site anniversary but much more – stronger and more mature employees, capable of amazing things. We are more united than ever – not because of, but thanks to difficult times that shaped us. We turned a challenge into an opportunity.

I just realized the difference – my another ‘aha’ moment. 🙂

Happy birthday, Cisco Krakow!