Too much fluff for roles that don’t directly add to revenue generated and the bottom line, and hence must be cut.
Comment if your manager is worth saving, and why?
25 replies (most recent on top)
@12v not May?
Still have a few months to find a new gig
@tc marking your word and checking it twice. We created a list for a number of old Cisconians for this already that have been with Cisco for years! You’ve been overpaid and stale for way too long. Good luck in your endeavors and know you are on the list come time August which is the real LR’s!
@w9 correct, and Cisco itself is a JOKE.
Get out now!!
@vm the merit cycle is a joke.
ok so WTF just happened in the 1H? And now we are already in a new planning cycle a month later? This isn't FLMs doing this everyone. The stories of FLMs no even seeing the first half is 100% true. It was so bad that most teams had less than $20k for the whole team to give out. The budget was held at the Director level. Senior managers and FLMs never even got to see it. That is 100% true. Promos were only given to people that passed a Cisco certification test. No foresight by SVPs or VPs on AI skills. We are seeing dinosaur leaders in middle management that have lost the plot for the future.
Mark my words.. None as no layoffs...
There's like 8-10 different types of "managers" just answering emails which are not real jobs.
Everyone seems to be a "proven leader" on linkedin too.
But wait, how many are actually technical? Few.
How many are P.Eng's? Few.
The answer is get rid of anyone without those qualifications. There's way too much risk financially and legally otherwise.
@mx Front Line Manager deserves to be let go! I think they have sh---y attitudes and don’t do much except for collecting checks and giving orders. Time to let them go
When I was a G8 back in 1999 there were 2 guys between me and Chambers.
@md, people are calling out that FLMs aren’t doing their job. The response that they “don’t have the power to provide rewards” is beside the point.
Those are separate issues. Not having reward authority doesn’t absolve FLMs of their core responsibilities.
Bringing up rewards in this context comes across as deflecting from the actual concern, which is performance and accountability.
@f1 I don't know why you're getting downvoted. This is completely true. FLM's have zero say on who gets what comp. In November we didn't see the RSU budgets, and this time round we didn't even get to see what the available merit budget was. All we can do is recommend, directors and above are the people who have the actual say. I'm sorry a bunch of people have bad experiences with FLM's, but that's not universal.
@ar agree with you, our FLM shields people who don’t show up and don’t work at all. They be avoiding accountability for poor hiring decisions. Meanwhile, the rest of us are left doing extra work, picking up slack for others.
@ga hope he at least has office computer and know how to use it, otherwise one has to wonder what he is managing all these 13years.
That's nothing, do you really want to hear some management absurdity? We have a new manager in Collab TAC about 6 months ago, well not new, they got moved from somewhere else. He has been a manager for 13 years apparently. He told me he doesn't have a home PC and was thinking of buying one to install AI on it. True Story! And then asks us what is on our 8-track playlist. No joke! Everyone on the team is looking for exits
@b7 yup. The directors are worst of the lot. All they do is forward concerns, forward slides and things other people are doing while doing some studies on the side or some side hustle. Always reactionary and very few actually convey any strategy. All they do is rest, push stress downwards and play politics. I bet most of them have no clue about any of their products or functions. SBG seems to be the worst. Directors would be the first ones to go if they were serious about progress. 3/5 layers of management is stupid af.
And most of FLMs don't have any power in promos or budget allocation which directors hold and have a say in all decisions cut all of them
FLMs are just doing status collection in daily standup of absolutely no value, micro management has gone through the roof and expectation of work faster from ICs is insane with the excuse of AI tools which is actually driving quality of work down
My manager has a rotating team member run our weekly team meetings. No announcements by my manager.
Just sends emails about trainings to complete, or looking for warm bodies to attend a meeting with partners (which we don’t share any accounts.
If I ask a question they just tell me to go ask someone on the team.
No value.
I’m a PE - and not a plastic version. I’m the guy who gets dragged into stale TAC cases or CX escalations and solves them in hours. Last example was this week, with mega operator in xxxxxx. I’ve just been pushed further down the stack, I think I’m now 8-9 levels deep. Now all the “leadership” I get is a Webex notification of which training I need to do, or demands to report up what I’ve achieved (not customer issues, more how many PPT’s I’ve written). to justify my management’s existence.
Winning org structure
@a1 true!! Manager, Director, and Senior Director only play politics. No regular all-hands. No direction. No accountability. We have a bunch of politicians running this org - at least real politicians make promises. We don't even get that. Politicians as leaders in CX
What's so hard about it?
Just lay off the hard workers, and keep the loudest people in the room, who actually do nothing except passing around messages all day and schedule meetings when you ask basic questions.
Layoff strategy is simple, save friends and family or people from the same home city, by promoting them before layoffs, placing the other los3rs in other teams and segments, especially the diversity ppl, and push others out.
My FLM just sends us notices of training we need to complete, which conflicting meetings we should attend, and provide vague answers to operational tasks. No processes for repeatable outcomes and measure of success in the role. In addition over uses circuit for technical and operational questions as if we're unable to prompt circuit as well.
My FLM has been at Cisco long enough to vest and still couldn't name a single product if you held the badge ransom. Ask what any of them does and you'll get a thousand-yard stare and a calendar invite for "a deeper sync" - where I'll be the one teaching the class! ! !
All Senior Manager roles are an unneeded layer of management that could be done by AI. 70% of the planning dept could be replaced by AI. 80% of Operations Managers could be replaced by AI. A massive portion of HR could be done by AI. Who says Directors are even needed? A typical engineer at Cisco is buried under 8-10layers of mgmt from Executive Leadership. Many teams across Cisco are ignoring AI because with 9 layers of mgmt, the ELT's AI directives aren't even reaching them as leadership in between put in their own priorities that are overriding ELT. Clean up the mgmt layers ELT if you want to accelerate AI adoption!
My FLM does nothing but do biweekly roll calls and team update. Nothing that is needed for a matured CX functional team. Rarely any escalation with AI watching and helping behind. My vote - let go.