Does anybody have any info on what's happening?
22 replies (most recent on top)
@e1 HR and management doesnt know wht they are doing
@34r "Looks like they are closing bay area offices. Some were offered transfers to Canada."
Do tell! Is it just San Jose or Petaluma as well?
Looks like they are closing bay area offices. Some were offered transfers to Canada.
Letting go senior American employees who built company and who have few years till retirement is treacherous. All to satisfy vultures at the Wall Street.
Good news is now you see that “belonging”, “inclusiveness”, and DEI are pure BS and actually used against you. Stats on who got laid off? Yeah sure.
Maybe HR can get laid off?
Ooh. That Right Management "perk" sure is about useless. Thanks Gary! Make sure you keep lying to the employees about how much you care. Only care for you is to get a huge payday and cash out.
Overall layoffs were 5% according to the CEO. I don’t know the exact amount of employees pre-Wednesday but based off the numbers from 2014 it’s about 430-ish people.
Everyone was shocked and I believe the termination dates are staggered.
Su-ks that this seems to have come out of nowhere and told us it was tariff related and revenue related but then the next day put out a press release the next day about how they’re having the best earnings ever and that the stock price is soaring.
Seen this before. Every year the cuts get bigger to appease the blood thirsty in the Wall St Coliseum.
Preach "people and culture" while paying at the altar of finance.
The culture will soon turn toxic as people feel less secure in the Ciena "family" as friends get let go and teams get stressed with more work and less manpower.
Executive leadership is getting old and just padding their golden parachute for their exit.
"Position Eliminated" is the modern way to whack those not in favor with no liability. In Ciena, like in most large corporations, it's every man for himself. Anyone that thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.
Did they post a WARN notice? How are they skirting around that? Staggered end dates for all affected employees?
@cb exactly! As one who was shown the door(while Gary states we are being well cared for, newsflash.. That's a lie), it's a huge kick in the nuts. I sent to Ciena on the premise of this huge people first mentality. Instead I got a hump day green we---e. Total bullsh-t and then some.
Americas sales team got hit?
Most of the broadband team is gone, there will be no RnD for broadband anymore, only the support and bug fixes, Shifting Focus to RLS with AI bandwagon.
Ciena had a similar sized RIF last year. In fact, the 2024 annual report spells out the workforce reductions for the last few years:
2022: 60
2023: 120
2024: 420
Also note that at any given time, the number of open personnel reqs on the internal jobs site is about 2% of the total company size. So, binge and purge is part of the company culture. We all seem to have short memories, but if you think about it the RIFs are almost always preceded by good reports. We are told how great things are going, then bo-m.
After Mass Layoffs, Ciena’s “New Jobs” Are in India
Just one day after boasting about record quarterly earnings and simultaneously laying off hundreds of employees, Ciena’s hiring boards tell the rest of the story.
Every new posting for software development roles is now located in India. U.S. and Canadian workers — many of whom were just shown the door — are finding that their jobs aren’t being “eliminated” at all. They’re being offshored.
It’s a gut-wrenching twist: employees laid off under the guise of “tariff pressures” and “margin management” now watch as their positions are quietly re-posted overseas. For the company’s leadership, it’s cheaper labor. For the employees who gave years of their careers, it’s a slap in the face.
The optics are brutal. On one hand, Ciena tells investors it’s protecting profitability. On the other, it’s sending a message to its workforce: your loyalty and skill are expendable if someone, somewhere, will do it cheaper.
This isn’t about tariffs. It isn’t about margins. It’s about a company that made a cold calculation: cut higher-paid North American jobs, replace them abroad, and hope the headlines focus only on revenue.
For shareholders, the math may look good on paper. For employees, communities, and the innovation culture Ciena claims to champion, it looks like something else entirely: corporate betrayal in plain sight.
Ciena Cites Stellar Earnings While Laying Off Hundreds
Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) stood before investors today touting “stellar” fiscal Q3 2025 results — revenue soaring to about $1.17 billion, up more than 24% year-over-year, with earnings per share near $0.53. Wall Street cheered the revenue growth.
At the exact same time, inside the company, reality was far darker. Hundreds of employees were laid off today, a decision delivered bluntly in a Zoom meeting. Craig Williams told staff the cuts were tied to tariffs and margin pressure, as if that explained why a company reporting record revenue needed to gut its workforce.
The move landed like a gut punch. People who built the products that fueled this “stellar” quarter were discarded in the same breath their labor was celebrated to shareholders. The message was clear: Wall Street wins, workers lose.
Ciena’s leadership wants the headlines to trumpet revenue growth and efficiency. But for those left jobless today, it’s a betrayal. Laying off hundreds of people on the very day you boast about billion-dollar sales isn’t “strategy” — it’s corporate cruelty dressed up in investor-friendly language.
Employees aren’t blind. They see the contradiction, they feel the human cost, and they know the story behind the numbers. “Margins” and “tariffs” are convenient scapegoats, but the truth is simpler: Ciena chose to sacrifice people to pad profitability.
For a company that prides itself on innovation and global leadership, today’s actions paint a different picture — one of executives celebrating growth while tossing aside the very workforce that made it possible.
More tomorrow? What teams?
Has started today. Big cuts to PON program and flattening management structures across the company. I also heard that San Jose is being targeted because it has higher labour costs.
I hear 5% and in R and S team. Couple I know of are in SJ
What teams?
Just started
Should be later today or tomorrow am