The abuse, pressure and threats of layoffs are intended to keep you locked into a victim mentality.
They don't want you to realize that in most cases, software services you work on can now be vide-coded and released as competition or simply given away. A lot of this stuff just implements well-known standards or is otherwise not protected through IP law or non-competes. You are still locked into a mindset that because this software was hard to produce five years ago, it is hard to produce now. It isn't.
If you were to suggest Codex or Claude vibe-rewriting bitrotted Cisco tech-debt code, most of your coworkers would sneer and ignore you, and management would put you on "a list". But right now, this is actually something that can be done. If it can be done now, what will the world be like in six months, a year?
Cisco wants you to think using AI is only something you can do in service to them, not yourself.
Get ready, other people in this world are not locked in to your victim psychology.