Four Years at FISPAN: A Coffee Table Book and Colleagues' Messages

It has been four years since I started at FISPAN as part of a FISPAN tradition, when you reach four years at the company, you receive a coffee table book signed with messages from your team and other people you know at the company.

According to our CEO, the idea is that family members, and maybe even your children many years from now, can open the book and read the messages from coworkers. They will see how much of a difference their parent made at the company and in other people’s lives.

It is a really nice idea, because the team has to actually know the colleague well enough to choose a coffee table book that matches their interests. Everyone’s book is different. It is also a form of formal recognition, because people write what they think of you and why they enjoy working with you.

Receiving this book and reading the messages left by my friends prompted me to reflect and write this post. We sometimes think that work is just work, and there is nothing wrong with that, but when we are at work we are interacting with other people for a long time. Making work a better place is up to all of us, and little gestures like this definitely make the work environment a lot better.

My team’s choice of book for me was kind of unexpected. My book is about simple recipes from a famous chef.

I am not entirely sure why they chose it. Maybe they think I like cooking (I kind of do, but only on weekends). It is probably more because I usually bring the same food from home every single day for almost the whole year. I guess it is their way of telling me I need to learn how to cook new dishes. And that is the spirit that I like.

I actually like the book more than I initially expected. As you can see in this blog, I love travelling and have written about adventures like my safari in Africa, so I would have guessed they would pick a travel coffee table book. But a recipe book is actually more interesting, because my travel choices are already very thoughtful, while I am always struggling to come up with healthy and varied meals to cook on weekends with my family. The Pillars of Health framework I follow emphasizes nutrition, and learning to cook new dishes from this book is a direct way to improve that pillar.

But the most important part of the book is not the recipes themselves. It is the messages from my colleagues. From what they wrote, it seems people enjoy working with me because I laugh a lot and help make the work environment a bit lighter and more fun.

Highlights from the Messages

Reading through the messages, it is clear the team sees me as a mix of a “Spring wizard” and the office’s “best troll.” They describe a high-impact engineer who acts as a “security savior” and prioritizes quality and reliability (while apparently deleting code faster than I write it). Beyond the technical skills, the messages highlight a warm and positive presence that keeps the atmosphere light, whether I am answering “dumb backend questions” or leading the charge during an incident call. It is humbling to see that my colleagues value me not just for the problems I solve, but for the laughter and energy I bring to the office every day.

A Few Highlights:

• The Technical Magician: One colleague praised my “wizardcraft” with Spring Boot, while another noted that seeing me typing in the incident channel gives the team an immediate sense of confidence during a crisis.

• The Culture Catalyst: The frequent mentions of “scarecrow jokes,” “Pokey Okey” lunch runs, and being a “wonderful friend” show that my impact goes beyond the code, helping to make the work environment a bit friendlier and more vibrant.

Recipes I’ve Cooked

The book that I got was the Ottolenghi Simple, which is a collection of recipes from the famous chef Yotam Ottolenghi. The book is really nice. I was surprised to see how many ingredients I never knew about. For example, harissa, tahini, or even pine nuts that I had never used.

So the fun process started with the research and the shopping. I had to find the ingredients, which was a fun way to discover new products and new stores. I also had to learn how to cook the dishes, which was a fun way to improve my cooking skills and try new recipes.

Lamb siniyah

This was the first recipe I cooked from the book. It is a lamb dish with a lot of spices and flavors. It had a very unique taste that I was not used to, so I really enjoyed it. I may have ended up adding too much lemon, so it was a bit strong, but from all the recipes I cooked, this was the one that I enjoyed the most. I will definitely cook it again. But one thing it was not: simple.

Harissa beef sirloin & roasted asparagus

Here I did two recipes together, both were easy to cook.

The harissa beef sirloin with pepper and lemon sauce had the new taste of harissa which I have never tried before. It was a bit spicy but I really enjoyed it.

The other was roasted asparagus with almonds, capers, and dill. I have never used capers before, and I really liked them. I even started putting capers on other dishes now. It is a really nice ingredient that adds a lot of flavor.

Coconut-crusted fish fingers & Chickpea and swiss chard

I never thought about combining coconut with fish, but it gave a good taste. The chickpea and swiss chard was also really good. It is a simple dish, but it has a lot of flavor.

Orzo with shrimp, tomato, and marinated feta

I never knew there was a pasta that looked like rice. It was not that great actually. I didn’t like the consistency of it. But it was a good experience. The best was the shrimp which I bought and peeled myself.

Why This Matters

I guess this post is really about how companies can celebrate and thank people in a very personal way. Every message in the book is targeted specifically to the person being celebrated, which makes it meaningful.

Nowadays, staying at a company for years is not as common as it used to be. So in a way it is a kind of trophy for loyalty, resilience, or maybe just stubbornness.

Either way, I enjoy my book and I will use it for cooking. I will also read the messages from time to time to remind myself of the impact I am having during my working hours.

Cheers to many more years at FISPAN!