Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I used to get details from janitors and cleaners. They would overhear top guns discussing upcoming LRs. Too bad janitors/cleaners don't come on this site.

I call BS on this comment. Most of the janitors/cleaners don't speak English, or at least pretend to anyway, so I doubt that they're able to listen in on high level discussions. And they don't clean offices during business hours, only the bathrooms. I doubt senior leaders are having these discussions in the bathrooms and housekeeping doesn't enter individual offices when people are present.

I used to get details from janitors and cleaners. They would overhear top guns discussing upcoming LRs. Too bad janitors/cleaners don't come on this site.

No rumors because no water cooler to hear them at. People know teams messages are recorded.

The end of year is 3 or 4 weeks away. Is it not strange that there are not more LR rumors floating around?

LR does not mean the business function disappeared. I assuring you that is utter nonsense. The LR is a tool to remove people at manager discretion for any reason.

1) It avoids the PIP (performance improvement plan) process
2) it gets rid of expensive employees. math is simple you can have 3 people in India or 1 old person in US
3) older employees as a class or other biased reasons.

I was LR'd back in the Aug '11 workforce reduction. When I returned in early '13 as a contractor with another team, I was contacted by the contractor who had replaced me asking me about some automated process that had been running since I left, but suddenly didn't work because a server had been replaced, so yes, my business function was still present, but he was cheaper as a contractor than I was as an employee.

Not only that, when a new manager joined the team, I went from a top performer to being on a PIP. I spent 9 months on the PIP until the LR was announced in June '11. Suddenly my weekly one-on-one meetings ended. Pretty clear I'd ended up on the LR list.

Then, when I was rehired, the next LR came out of the blue. I was paid above the median for my pay grade, so the financial planners decided I was too expensive. I was LR'd again and someone else had to pick up my work until the workload became too much and another contractor ultimately replaced me.

Oh well. That's just the way Cisco works. At least the severance package is generous.

LR does not mean the business function disappeared. I assuring you that is utter nonsense. The LR is a tool to remove people at manager discretion for any reason.
1) It avoids the PIP (performance improvement plan) process
2) it gets rid of expensive employees. math is simple you can have 3 people in India or 1 old person in US
3) older employees as a class or other biased reasons.
Happy to debate this with any Cisco exec.

Minority background isn’t just about colour.( Or s-xuality). #justsaying

I like it but go one further - replace their names with white employees. It’s time that white people felt that their innate white privilege doesn’t come for free. Of course, in the upcoming LR, there should be no black employees let go.

Perhaps, in light of the trauma suffered by our employees of color as a result of the brutal racist death of Mr Floyd, that anybody from a minority background should have their racist LR revoked.

It doesn’t matter when the announcement is. They will take the charge in Q4 with all the other bad numbers and when it actually happens doesn’t matter too much. It’s coming.

| Which is why that was from a troll.

Last year LRs were announced end of July carried out in Sept. Cisco is known for LRs and there will be LRs this year. As for which BUs are impacted who knows. The Cisco LR train is always in service.

Which is why that was from a troll.

There will be upcoming LRs it's part of the CSCO culture. Employees affected will be notified by late July

Why could Cisco suddenly do a Q4 LR? Unless it's to improve the quarter's numbers before they have to announce them, but they usually do the LR in Q1 based on the year-end numbers. Before, they would announce the LR before the earnings call, then it became that they'd announce the LR during the earning's call but tell people much later and most recently, they'd announce the LR during the year-end earnings call and you'd get a one-on-one meeting invite with your manager about an hour later for the next morning where you'd find out you were gone.

Letting people go in July is very odd.

There will be upcoming LRs it's part of the CSCO culture. Employees affected will be notified by late July

When will the spreadsheet go out to managers if there is an upcoming LR?

Does anyone have any information on this LR (or if there is one)?

With the biases now endemic to education systems, the poor white males will be only getting a school education anyway.

Apparently entitled white male @7ylf+14Wd5CyS is upset he cannot get anywhere in his career on his own efforts and is blaming women for his incompetence. Women in power are here to stay. Besides that, facts do not back up your commentary - countries led by women are doing amazingly well in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, countries led by men are having to deal with the pandemic and in the US case, civil unrest due to incompetent and dumb male leadership.

In the end of the day, it shouldn't be so hard to hire women but it shouldn't be so hard to fire them if they aren't performing. And we shouldn't expect that a white incompetent male should get and remain in power and then blame his failures on women, people of colour or foreigners. I am sorry, Peter, with a high school diploma, but Miriam, the neurosurgeon is not taking your job.

Who is on campus?!?!!?

Rumor around campus is a huge LR coming. 15-20%

Stop H4EAD and H1B hiring immediately. They need to be the first out the door. H1B by definition is temporary visa only.

Yes we all remember the “shoe lady” - in hind site she marked the beginning of the end!

@cys @cys - the most ignorant troddle I have read in a loooong time!
The id1ot who cannot quote, on another thread.

@7ylf+14Wd5CyS is talking about this person:

https://investor.cisco.com/news/news-details/2017/Rola-Dagher-Named-President-of-Cisco-Canada/default.aspx

bread and circuses

probably someone from HR trying to derail this thread... divide & distract

@cys - the most ignorant troddle I have read in a loooong time!

Layoff the inbred twit who is head of Canada Cisco. So many good original dedicated Cisco people lost their jobs and careers after 9/11 and tech bubble and you appointed this c**tsucker. Diversity at Cisco was always put visible minorities in contract jobs and whites got the full-time permanent jobs. During tech bubble, they laid off visible minorities first when there were no more to layoff, they laid off white folks. You appoint this twit, a slap in the face. Why? because there is no need to get a Canadian education anymore because you appoint a refugee who graduated from the likes of Middle Eastern College to run a company. These people keep moving up in corporate Canada and they don't experience racism like we did, didn't they cause 9/11 that lead to tech bubble. Alalalalalalalala! (flick the tongue). Sorry, just had enough of this stupidity.

Truth: Women are bad managers, no leadership skills, not team builders just think of getting ahead themselves. Cisco has several of them. Previous Canada Cisco head from UK helped this person because when they first met she complimented her shoes. What a joke. As head of Canada, this person enjoys video chatting with her team from her home with dog to watch an employee's kid teach them marital arts. Sales are down, I wonder why. You picked a twit because she complimented someone's shoes. Why don't you appoint her as head of Middle East division.

If you have been LRed, and if you find a new job, do you have to sign your severance agreement right away? Can you delay signing your severance agreement? I didn't see anything in the original paperwork that required it.

I'm going to assume you found a new job outside of Cisco, otherwise you wouldn't be getting the severance package. It clearly explained in both of my packages–yes, I've been a Cisco employee twice–when you need to sign it. There's a lot of info, so you can easily overlook it.

When you sign the severance package and return it, your employment ends immediately. You should sign it the last day, and mail it back to Cisco HR via trackable mail. I think it said you had to overnight it, but since I was in RTP and the return address was RTP, even USPS mail would effectively be overnight. I used the automated shipping tool to generate a FedEx shipping slip and billed the shipping to my department, printed the slip and put the paperwork in a FedEx envelope I got from the mail room. Why shouldn't Cisco pay the postage for me? I took it to the Shipping & Receiving office to drop it off and get an internal tracking #. I added a friend still at Cisco to the tracking and they forwarded all the emails to my personal email. I also got the S&H phone number from the person when I dropped off my package so I could call back and get the FedEx tracking number once FedEx picked it up. Then I turned in my badge & laptop to my manger and I was done.

In LR speak, your business function has disappeared, so there is no work to hand off.

It's supposed to be that way, but both times I was LR'd, someone had to pick up my duties. It was just that my work was no longer deemed worthy of a full time req and could be added to someone else's set of responsibilities. The first time I was LR'd, they had an employee keep things going until they could hire a red-badge to replace me and the other employee had to show them where my documentation was and train them.

The second time, the employee picked up an above average lunch using the corp card and we had a working session for me to hand off my stuff, show him the documentation, demo a couple of procedures he was unclear on.

Sure, I could have walked away and said "Figure it out on your own", but I liked my teams, and one of the managers, so it didn't hurt me to do a proper hand off. Both times, that hand off turned into an opportunity to come back to a different team and become an employee again. Now we get to see how long the third time lasts.

I've also left jobs where I had no respect for the team or manager and I gave my two weeks notice, but they required that I work said two weeks. About 4 days later, they suddenly terminated me 30 min before the end of the day and requested that I give the project manager a status report on all of my active projects. I had about 30 of them, so I handed him my notebook that I kept notes on each project and said "Here you go, I need the rest of the time to empty my personal effects from my desk." I doubt they'll ask me to return and I wouldn't go back if they did.

Its time for cheap H4 EAD's to replace H1bs

If you have been LRed, and if you find a new job, do you have to sign your severance agreement right away? Can you delay signing your severance agreement? I didn't see anything in the original paperwork that required it.

In LR speak, your business function has disappeared, so there is no work to hand off.

So are those folks who got LR'ed performing their previous work duties?

They should have been told when they were notified of their LR that they should hand off all their work immediately. In many cases, the manager already had someone in mind for them to hand off to. In other cases, the employee handed off his stuff to the manager who later handed it off to someone else. Some people do a better job than others at handing off any work they have. Beyond that, they're done. Most of them clean out their desks during the evening after everyone is gone within a few days and are never seen again until the last day to turn in their laptop, badge, corporate credit card (if they had one) and any other corporate equipment.

Cisco keeps saying that it makes a strong effort to take impacted people and put them into filling open req's, but I only recall one person even interviewing for an internal spot. I don't know how much of that I believe. But I'm glad that Cisco is keeping the Feb '20 LR'd staff on the payroll until late July.

• – So are those folks who got LR'ed performing their previous work duties? –

Nope, they don't have to do anything, they have been relieved of their duties. I envy them!

So are those folks who got LR'ed performing their previous work duties?

Cisco has its faults and is not perfect. But in this instance, I have to give them credit for treating the people LRed very well. Trust me, I have seen other compaies swing axes even during COVID-19, and in some places it is not pretty. Everything I see on the inside of the company leaves me to say that credit must be given where it is due. If they are concerned about PR, well, they can do a lot of other things. Extending their time is obviously costing a lot, as it is given the gestures that they have made to partners to help with financing, this will result in a lot of loyalty post in the new post COVID-19 world. Give credit where it is due. Well done Cisco,

Their exit date has been extended to July 26. They are treating the people who were in that restructuring pretty well.

Other than terminating them in the first place. Having been in their shoes, I am glad that they're extending their end date, and by extension, their healthcare during this pandemic. I'm getting more contacts from recruiters now than I usually do, so I'd guess most of them have been able to find work already, assuming they're looking, and I'd bet that anyone looking for work will be able to find it before their end date enabling them to double dip income from two employers.

Urges Others.... who are the others? Does he mean people outside of his staff or leaders of other companies?

Their exit date has been extended to July 26. They are treating the people who were in that restructuring pretty well.