Thread regarding Juniper Networks Inc. layoffs

There are stealth layoffs happening all over silicon valley companies. It is becoming the new trend. Employees are not protected anymore.

Cisco has been doing these for a.ling time. So has FANGs, but no one talks about them. At marketing they sometimes even throw a party to show that the person(s) are 'moving on'.

The only problem is, they target the wrong people - the ones that do good work, which probably threatens the leadership (or lack thereof).

Bottom 5 to 10 percent of low performers will be laid off period, stealth or not. It's sad but the norm. It's simply a numbers game for senior management and HR...

That's not true.

Me and my buddies BK, AA, ML, MM, AG and many more have survived at Juniper even after performing far below the lowest 2%. We have HR on our side though.

This discussion made me think ...

PIPs are used as a gateway, on off-ramp, to terminate people, and that is just plain wrong.

A performance improvement plan, as the name suggests, is just that. A plan to improve the performance of a direct report. It is a test of the manager, as much as it is a test of the direct report. If a manager who implements a performance improvement plan fails to accomplish positive results, would you not consider the manager as a failure as well?

If this approach is taken you could reverse the effects of the Peter principal, and eliminate poor managers who just happen to be incompetent, incapable and in the wrong job.

Bottom 5 to 10 percent of low performers will be laid off period, stealth or not. It's sad but the norm. It's simply a numbers game for senior management and HR...

Juniper didn't event stealth layoffs, not even close.

Which group does the fake PIPs?

I was in a group that had a ton of bogus PIPs. What they do is not an official PIP through HR that's filed with the company, but still give you some bogus c-ap that your performance is bad and you have been officially warned (again, but not an official PIP, though HR helps you through this fake PIP process). Then they make your life miserable until you quit. My group had as many as 30-40% of the people on these fake PIPs and almost none of them were not bad performers, not even by a stretch. This is a new VP's way to clean out the group to bring in his own cronies. Much easier than official PIP and it gets the person out which is their ultimate goal.

@Xjgk9Ha-1lki, it is the duty of a manager to coach and improve direct and indirect reports. A common misconception is that managers who terminate poor performers in their teams are doing the right thing. In many cases, it is an indication that the manager has failed in leadership, responsibility and accountability and few companies hold a different view. Companies where the corporate culture is raved about, managers are dinged for poor performers. It helps mold a corporate culture that is employee focused.

This simple change in holding managers responsible and accountable for layoffs and terminations can drastically improve the performance of teams, the culture of the company and the general quality of deliverables.

I hope juniper adopts this simple change. It can change everything... Moving forward.

That was a great Movie.

I was actively discouraged from starting a PIP with a poor performer.."we'll just get rid of them in the next layoff. If you start a PIP, it takes a lot of work and monitoring and then we can't lay them off." Not the way I would like to manage people, but probably status quo now that we have stealth layoffs every 5-6 months. esp. given HR is down to 2 people and potted plant.

No not even close. PIPs are way more time consuming and painful than a “layoff”.

Stealth layoffs have been around for a long time ... A former HR employ told me what is truly disturbing is the number of times Juniper's HR has used bogus Performance Improvement Plans (pips) to eliminate jobs.

Through someone that was eliminated this way I have learned a class action lawsuit is around the corner. It won't be long before Juniper will have to pay huge settlement fees to avoid the negative publicity or they will be exposed for this nonsense.

Just because Juniper started stealth layoffs, or because other companies are having them too, does not mean having layoffs at all or hiding behind a shady cloak of disguise is right.

The leadership team at juniper should be made aware these activities are driving talented employees away from Juniper.

Word.

True that.

Poetic Justice.