Honest question but how does this stuff actually go down from higher up in the company? Like are there just some bean counters in finance that “make a list”, or is there more involvement from the lower-level management? The only reason I’m asking is because we lost a ton of historical and impactful engineers. I was honestly shocked to see how many folks like that were let go 😞.
Also, I can’t wait to read the next Cisco Beat-down chat.. of yeah they disabled it!!! Never mind lol.
@d9 I just got an off-cycle stock grant because you got fired. Thanks.
@d3 yes, that is exactly the reason you will be notified on 8/25, you are bottom 1%.
Bottom 10% gets whacked every quarter. Pack up.
It's 100% political. When my round came didn't matter if you made Sales Champ 6mo prior, if you were a political liability you were gone. Didn't matter if you never made a quota. That place is toxic. Much greener pastures these days.
There was a post some years ago that circulated these boards written by an ex manager in Cisco. His description was really a good and informative.
From my memory, it goes like this. Several weeks before earnings call/announcements, higher management decides about numbers that need to be slashed. Then they make lists.. They look into people working on projects that are going to be slashed, for example. In this case, it doesn't matter how good or bad you are, it is about project you're working on. But as we know, sometimes people that work on important projects are also let go. Obviously, there are other criteria involved, and they rank people by other metrics.
Once the lists are made, they go through legal to determine if some of those on the lists are from protected categories. Once these guys give a blessing, lists are final.
Now, important part to understand is that your manager isn't included in making those lists. Nobody asks them for their input. They only hear about it once the decision is made and then they go to some training how to deliver the news to impacted employee.
When it comes to those additional criteria, it can be the question if you met expectations for your pay grade during those performance talks with your manager. Then another criteria, and I was really surprised by it when I got such information is the IPF that you received last time. It was used as some kind of stack ranking metric. I thought that would be illegal, but it is probably something they can officially hide.
In this sense, your manager can affect your fate in LRs.
After learning all that, I noticed how my managers were acting and I figured what they were doing. If they want to keep someone, they put them on a good project. If they don't, they consistently put these guys on projects with the least importance or, in other cases, risky projects with a great chance of failure.
@ab no, I pick you in the list, is not because your performance, it is that I dislike you, so add your name in the list, and you will receive notice on 8/29.
It is known beforehand and planned accordingly, in majority cases your direct manager or max level up decides who she/he wants to keep in the cage and who will be left outside of the cage. List, names are provided and then will be executed. Until then they will play a nice role of a good manager. Performance is just a plug and play game, which can be easily adjusted to either side.
@a1 no, I never ask you to do that.
Not based on performance . Manager makes a list based on who he likes , saves them and folks that are smarter , better than yes men get to bottom of list and get axed . It’s all about politics
@OP you know what? You absolutely have mental problems, see your doctor.
They take you into a dark room and rip the laptop and phon away... and banish you forever
@OP it depends on the organization like many things at Cisco. In my case as a manager, my manager asked me for my stack ranking back in May. I learned last week my bottom 3 were to be impacted.