Thread regarding Riverbed Technology Inc. layoffs

I'm really sorry to hear this. I was with support for over 6 years and consider many of you family. Support is a pyramid with a foundation of L2 and a tip of L4/Staff Eng but this model only works if everyone is competent and pulls their share.

When I left it was popular for Support Management, upon receiving a call from an account team about a case would immediately escalate it to Staff Eng, end stop. I actually overheard one recently-promoted-to-VP engaged in water cooler talk w/ middle management proclaim it as their 'secret to success'. Don't worry Mr Sales Guy, I'll get my best guys on this right away. You know I take care of you. Huh, it seems after three years I'm still bitter to have witnessed this pathetic behavior rewarded.

The old format was small groups of highly qualified people (we had more than a few PhD's, CCIEs, etc). It was fun. We worked our asses off, pulled rabbits from our collective asses and the customers loved us because we could solve their issues quickly. The new way seems to be to go for the cheapest labor and rely on the handful who can be saddled with the responsibility to drag the group across the finish line while sitting next to senior management who themselves spend the day socializing and watching baseball videos on youtube.

The secret to a good support organization is to pay well and hire the really smart people. They'll be four times as productive and customers really like it when their problems are resolved on the first call instead of being passed around and sent form emails asking a bunch of standardized, unrelated questions. The additional expense is saved in middle management because senior level people don't need someone watching their every move.

Support needed to change for quite some time. Not to say their job got easier over the years but did become stagnant and complacent. Riding the wave and not expecting the ride to end is foolish thinking and it’s really up to the person to voice needs and change proactively - managers are not mind readers. The stark reality is TAC needs to be more strategic and care for customers rather than meeting a KPI. The products are tough to support, we all get it, all we can do is try and understand change while focusing on the customer and let your manager care about you. That being said, a toxic manager is bad for business and politics just allows these leaders to hide .. all we can hope for is people voicing their needs (vs complaining) and allow management and politics work its magic.

Hey Jerry, stop ruining it for everyone. It’s more fun when you’re fired unexpectedly like we were

All Xirrus engineers should be on deathwatch

Expecting managers to be fired

Let’s get lean and welcome Customers to the new way of life

All Staff Eng should apply for silverpeak. Leave support without any brains to fix the issues.

From my experience OUTSOURCING always tuns out in layoffs, extreme turnover and very low employee satisfaction. Time for a change I guess

Anyone who thinks riverbed support was active twenty years ago is just showing how new to the org they are. Vive la révolution 🤣

make sure you leave your reviews on glassdoor.com

You sound exactly like one of the dumb fat pigs in management and not one of those who going to have their job outsourced, demoted or transferred

Fire the emea director. He is toxic and has made work hell

Said by someone who has yet to grasp and understand the proposal and obviously is both deaf and blind to the message and lacks the intelligence to understand the need to always refine and improve.

The statement "Support reorganization that will change everything that has been setup since the beginning" says it all; what was OK 20+yrs ago is no longer suitable for the new digital age.

If you do not like it then please leave, we do not need detractors like you in Riverbed!