I am not just at work....

Exactly a year ago I walked into these doors like I do today – at the time not knowing how working here would change my life.

As a start into something new is always full of uncertainty and all beginnings are always tough; I was nervous and scared if I had made the right choice and was wondering if I was the right option for Workday. I did not know much about HR, let alone finance software-as-a -service. I was not convinced, that what I knew was going to be of value for the people I was supposed to lead.

Just over year ago I was mainly just looking for a more local job with less travel and not really was I expecting a second family, which Workday truly has become.

I had my hopes that the Core Values Workday promotes are not only marketing slogans. Most people around me and former peers were suspicious and said that Workday is just a selling machine, just a ‘doorstep brigade’, growth no matter the cost as most American companies supposedly are – how wrong they did turn out to be!

From day one Workday welcomes it employee with open hearts and minds – clear focusing on the now and not on the past. The first day in our Dublin headquarters was overwhelming. Not that is was very different in terms of schedule (we got an intro to Workday, were handed our hardware and had some activities in our European headquarter) but in regards to the HOW we were treated by everyone we met was substantial different from anything I knew from before. Doors were hold open, ‘thank you’ was heard so many times throughout the day and people SMILED at you when you passed. It seemed so little, but it was so much to me! I felt that no matter who I was, or what job-title I held I was being welcome no matter what.

It is NOT just a slogan ‘happy employees make happy customers’ – it is lived and breathed by everyone here, especially from the Top Management down to every single person in this growing company. It is NOT just a slogan it is our way of working.

In my first year I had the opportunity and honor to meet amazing leaders such as @ashley.goldsmith, @petros.dermetzis, @carolyn.horn, @chris.byrne, @rogerio.almeida and so many more. All of them have one thing in common: they put people first! They have not only inspired me, but they have taught me how to be a better person and leader.

Workday has become this past year not only a second home to me, it made me want to improve myself every day. It made me a person who cares even more than before, a person that is listening more carefully and a person that does not assume but now always asks and who does not take things anymore for granted ever.

I am so fortunate to work with talented and innovative people who only want the best for others, who truly care and who know that “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

Don’t get me wrong it has not been always easy this year: achieving quota is also at Workday a challenge and a stretch, fighting against stereotypes in the German market and winning against dumping prices from some of the market followers was not always a walk in the park, but with the right people by your side, the right customers and the common love for this organisation and an its incredible, innovative and mind-blowing software as a service offering, it has been by far THE best year in my twenty years in sales.

Thank you Workday, for making that possible, thank you my team for supporting me and for everyone that made this year so amazingly successful.

Today walking through these doors in Dublin I am not just at work: I am at Workday, and that hopefully for many more successful years to come.