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Slick the cat

You may think I’m a crazy cat lady, who is going to go off on a pet-tangent, but I invite you to stay here with me for a moment. I’ll “purr-suade” you with my story.

I’m actually more of a crazy-about-Cisco employee. It’s because of Cisco and it’s flexible workplace technology that allowed my cat, Slick to defy the odds of a Lymphoma diagnosis.

Even if you’re not a cat person, you could replace the word “cat” with parent, sibling, dog, unicorn, narwhal, friend – whatever. The same flexibility that saved my cat could apply to anything or anyone in need of assistance.

Slick’s Lymphoma diagnosis resulted in a 16.5% chance of him seeing the year 2016.  Could you imagine not being around for Cisco’s #neverbetter campaign? Neither could I. The treatment options were lengthy and of course could only occur doing the workweek. Most people would’ve had to face defeat, which would only have devastating results for Slick, and for me.

Luckily for my adorably bratty cat, I am employed by Cisco, one of the very best tech companies to work for in America according to Business Insider. Fun Fact: We have the highest rated workplace flexibility, 67% of employees are able to work remotely.

This is how we made it happen:

  • Weekly chemo appointments were scheduled so I could drive the hour-long commute before working hours or within lunch breaks.
  • UC Davis Veterinary Hospital kindly “allowed” (I kind of just took over) me to transform their waiting room into my mobile office.
    • Using LIFE SAVING Cisco technology like Webex, Jabber and VPN to seamlessly and securely continue my workday.
  • With that same Cisco technology, I was able to catch up on anything I missed outside of regular office hours, ensuring I kept my fabulous job and had a paycheck to hand over to those miracle-working veterinarians.

I am thrilled and beyond appreciative that Cisco enables me to work anytime, anywhere on any device.

Want to work for a company that empowers employees? See Cisco’s openings here.