Thread regarding Juniper Networks Inc. layoffs

The dilemma at juniper is not unique to Juniper. It's seen at many tech companies. When good engineers are promoted to manager people, they often fail. It is like asking the best dishwasher in a restaurant to start cooking. That's a stretch, but you get the picture.

This is called the Peter Principal. If you Google it you will get ... The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their "level of incompetence".

So how do you avoid it?

Provide people management skills training to "potential" managers, for both skills and behaviors, then promote those that pass a test, to manage/lead people or projects. That's the only way to avoid the failure we have got ourselves into.

This takes time. If engineers believe they don't need training to manage people, (the know it alls,) they fail the first test, and they don't get to manage people or projects. It is as straightforward as that.

That's what's up!

What a naive and disrespectful statement.

Undoubtedly there are managers and leaders who should be sent out of the company. But there are also many good managers in this company. Managers are needed whether you like it or not.

There are also many individual contributors who don’t add value anymore in the company. Or the ones who don’t have their heart in the right place for Juniper and don’t run that extra mile anymore. Like it used to be more than a decade ago. Stop kicking against management. Look in the mirror and judge upon yourself first.

Written by a manager who has been made redundant now, who has received numerous heart warming messages from his team members and peers and who sincerely wishes Juniper well!

I guess you guys work in some low level data processing office. This happened last week. Layers of management and directors were let go. There are problems in management, no doubt, people are human, humans fail, managers are visible. But they are also accountable for the failings of their teams. Juniper is not failing because of bad management, it’s failing because of sh$t code, if you think it’s just a management issue then you are deluding yourself. We have poor development and testing. Management scapegoating, what a surprise. Grow up.

Absolutely agree with this. Did you know, this was attempted once during the IOP?

Forty five (45) vice presidents and even more directors were terminated during this IOP in 2014. That is no joke. We all expected a similar cleanup activity targeting more senior directors, and directors, and managers in the next rounds but that never happened.

The best approach today, would be to evaluate each employee - CxO, VP, director, manager and even Individual Contributor to check their aptitude and attitude. That is, check if they are capable of doing the job, and if they are willing to do the job. If they fail, give them the opportunity to eat humble pie and become individual contributors on a trial basis, or find a new job elsewhere. This will definitely be a great way to clean house. I cannot guarantee this will become the gold standard for draining the swamp, but it will take care of the arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence so prevalent in all management roles at juniper today. Many have risen from individual contributor levels to leadership jobs with no training - the lack of people AND project management skills in many is obvious. Technical prowess as an individual contributor does not mean that anyone can lead a team or projects. This is how "the Peter principal" is proven day in and day out at juniper.

Many management consulting firms offer this type of service. If the Board of Directors don't want Juniper to become a statistic, will get this done. If the BoD needs any motivation here are some reminders... DEC, Wang, Sun Microsystems, Compaq, Novell, Sperry, Ashton-Tate, ICL, Tandy, Commodore, GeoCities, Juniper Networks, Palm, Blockbuster, Toys 'r Us, Radio Shack, ~Yahoo and the list goes on. Ok, Juniper has not made the list yet, but if changes are not made soon, it won't be long.

That's what's up!