Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Former manager here. Honest answer, we managed nothing. It’s the d-mbest, easiest, most stressful job all in one. D-mb because you sit meetings all day long. Easy because you are basically doing simple admin work. Stressful because your chain of command makes absurd demands that you have no control over. ICs do the important work and get the least credit. It’s not fair. It’s also the primary reason why I no longer work there.

@bq says the obvious fat.

What about all the money we blow on wellbeing and mindfulness?
I got hassled this morning by a Webex bot about some upcoming dog and pony show from some expensive charlatan organized by the “Back to Business Inclusive Community”? WTF is that?

The second group of program, product and project managers is entirely covered by the first group. It looks like you are double counting. Ages ago the goal was 12 employees per manager but that rarely occurred which would have been 84K employees to 7K managers. I never saw a group anywhere near this ratio.

It was not the quantity but the lack of quality among both management and engineering that at one point was wasting 75 cents of every development dollar failing to fix bugs while overrunning budgets by factors of dozens. Everyone bought into the HR BS about being only the top 5-10% and the margins remain obscene so there was no incentive to get better.

Apple has four layers of management including Tim Cook at the top. Three levels below him to the guy working in the store or engineer. Cisco has about twelve depending on your role and very often at least eight or nine. WTF are all these managers doing? Why so many? This is a cultural problem costing the company a ton of money. Root and branch clear out needed. They could LR 40-50% easily.

@b8 lmao 100000%

@bq nope.. i am IIT and my boss(DIR) is IIT and my bosses bosses are IIT (SrDIR/VP), so i am safe. You f..k off, You are next in LR list ! good luck.

News flash - deadbeat ICs have it coming Thursday. If you don't get it then, your review will set you up for the continuation of cuts that will occur. Yuck it up now funny boys. Most of you won't be around within 2 years.

My manager does not even know how our product works. 😂

I’ve seen how much middle management gets paid compared to ICs and it’ll make your head spin.

The company has been way too top heavy for a long time!

I have seen multiple “directors” with no people under them. Is this normal?

Every serious tech company is flattening layers. Cisco cannot keep treating management bloat as a business necessity.

you may want to include, SVP/VP/SrDIR/DIR not sure what they are directing.. so many DIRs in cisco.

parasites