Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Cisco is completely incompetent at managing headcount [anthing] for over a decade[s].

FTFY.

Garbage post to just stir things up...

It's a completely factual post, and like most completely factual posts Cisco employees down vote it. This is Cisco's culture in a nutshell.

OP even gives you useful advice which is rooted in nearly 23 years of frequent layoffs, which is nearly half a total career and likely older than some of Cisco's employees.

Garbage post to just stir things up...

You are a troll! 💩💩💩

Cisco su-ks at running a business, jerking yourself off would at least have a point if it got any results.

But no, all we have is about the same share price for 6 years. So clearly the "try to juice sh---y financial performance by fu--ing over staff " strategy is not paying off. If they're really laying off thousands, chances are they're about to report really sh---y numbers and lose even more share price too.

"rather than putting in the hard work to turn things around"

Some very naive folks are commenting here. I've watched the ELT cut spectacular individuals. Employees more than willing and able with truly unique skills acquired over the course of a long career. It doesn't matter how hard you work. The ELT keeps making fkup after fkup. Look at all the kubernetes acquisitions Cisco made. All totally wasted. Yet Liz Centoni is still around, despite being utterly incompetent.

You can tell that even Cisco HR doesn't care about Cisco. Just look at their copy-paste comments on the threads. They are indifferent to you and the Company!

@rlr+1r02PjRj VP... in that case VPs should also be laid off and held responsible, why target low level ICs?

Even charities, governments, nonprofits are businesses. Funding reduction means less headcount.

If business goes down, the company has no choice but to reduce expenditure.

As executives at Cisco above the VP level said over a decade ago, any company that has annual layoffs is severely mismanaged. Cisco has had long stretches where the layoffs were done quarterly, including when business was going up. The good news in good times is everyone else was going up too so Cisco often paid to transfer whole teams to competitors which are now taking market share from Cisco. Good job 👍

The customers will be impacted again. Competent people are being let go to save money as it chips away at our customer's view of Cisco. The quality will get even worse, with less customer interface and less customer knowledge from those let go.

Fake outrage and rage bait. Literally no one is stating any company owes anyone employment.

You must love crying fake victim. You make up fake scenarios of behaviors people don't do to pretend to be upset. On the Internet. That's as pathetic existence.

Well said OP. All moaners here want to blame someone else and not look in mirror. Let’s blame everyone else and target people in anonymous forums rather than putting in the hard work to turn things around. Cowards at best.

This is not by accident:

Cisco is the #1 best workplace in the U.S. — for the third year in a row! While we're celebrating this milestone in the U.S., we've also been named best workplace in dozens of countries across the globe in the past year. Why? Because #WeAreCisco and our people make this a great place to work!

Check out
https://blogs.cisco.com/wearecisco/cisco-is-1-on-fortunes-100-best-companies-to-work-for-in-the-u-s-list-again

Somewhat agree with OP. Instead of wasting time here in these message boards asking when the next layoff would be and how big the severance would be why don't disgruntled employees prepare and find another job? Anyone forcing you to work there?

VP here....
Take it or leave it. Nobody is forcing you to work at Cisco. Cisco is not your mama or baba. Work, get paid. If business goes down, the company has no choice but to reduce expenditure.

Since Chuck only cares about himself, I accepted a second job like many others at Cisco which makes me now even with Chuck and allows me to care for my family and no longer stressing about be LR'd

Nobody expects lifetime employment. Cisco is completely incompetent at managing headcount for over a decade. They hire like mad then fire a ton of people every year or two and it's often in areas they hired.

Looking at the timestamp OP sounds like either our SE senior management in UKI or one of the HR mouthpieces they have in house. Typical condescending, bullying argument without any merit.

I dont think posts here are claiming that employment for life at Cisco is a guarantee nor should the company grow and shrink as the business dictates. I feel the general angst and anger is the the captain and Sr staff of the ship are rudderless, are not looking into the future, investing internally and externally with a clear focus on high growth areas, etc. I appears to be operated as if leadership cannot lean in on anything at all. What is Cisco really good at? What is our gold medal performance today?

AI is Nvidia, AMD, kindof Intel. Switching is Arista, Routing is Juniper and Cisco has a medal stand position in both however (in terms of today going forward). Security is PANW and Fortinet. Collab is Microsoft and some Zoom. Cloud is one of the big 7 (GAMFATB). Storage is DEMC and NetApp with many interesting up and comers. Virtualization VMW. Cloud Native/Containers is Open Source.

So Cisco without technological opinionated investment, leadership, and focus on key areas (and annnouncing partnerships with the above companies puts us in the Partner class only) is fading into the history books.

That is the general sense of frustration I see here and elsewhere (looking beyond the noise of people posting in anger due to current work environment in thier days). It is not to be confused with people having an expectation for lifetime employment.

Stop complaining about people complaining. Crying on the Internet is for babies, snow flakes, and losers. Your entire life consists of passive aggressive comments on the internet. You have failed at life.

Of course. But don’t indoctrinate your employees with “Best Place to Work”. Cisco does more layoffs than literally anyone. That’s fine if that’s what you feel you need to do as a company. But don’t also make it out to be like it’s some grand place to work when pay is not great and you are constantly laying people off.

This is a very limiting way of looking at things. Of course no company offers lifetime employment, nor 100% security. Anything even close to that should never be expected. But rotating mass layoffs on an annual basis bring a culture of fear into the workforce which is ultimately not a good thing. The top performers will always perform and likely keep their position, but all companies have a bulk workforce is that is made up of regular folks who do their 9 to 5, do it well, and expect to have a healthy relationship with their employer. What I feel Cisco does is a carrot and stick approach.. great benefits and good pay, but watch out, you could be gone next quarter. This approach eventually builds bad culture and good stable workers will choose to go elsewhere in the long-term if given the opportunity. I fear that this adds to a slow decline of trust and competitiveness. In the short term the company gets a boost based on fear of a layoff, but in the long term this approach loses out as other companies look more stable to the average "good" worker.

I agree with that. But when I worked at Cisco, John Chambers told us in an all-hands meeting that, we are all part of a single Cisco family. Why this statement? Just make it clear that Cisco will hire and fire on a need basis.

Absolutely true. But they clearly don’t care about their employees

• Cisco HR has joined the conversation-