Come back as red badge? Would you do it? I took severance a while back. TaTa for now.
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I interviewed for a position I solidly fit at Cisco. After the initial meeting and 3 rounds of meetings with managers, I heard nothing for 4-weeks. I was only sent an email that everything is good that they just have to wait. Then the layoff announcement. I was offered the position a week later but only as a contractor. I told the lady that was ridiculous and she responded they would transition me after the layoffs had completed. I asked for it in writing and she said she couldn't. I told her if that is the case, I would work as a contractor. Obviously she didn't understand. The night before I was suppose to start, I was offered a position at another company. I emailed her and aid I will not be coming in. I got a long heated email back that I wasted all of their time and they would have to spend so much looking for someone else. I responded back with HR on the email stating that I interviewed for FT position, not a contractor. Because she wouldn't commit to conversion that I operate as a contractor. As a contractor, my only job is to do absolutely what is told and to look for FT work. I thanked her for the opportunity and went along my way.
She was laid off in the next round and I am pretty certain that the HR team was not happy seeing her email threatening a person.
It’s not worth coming back to. Onwards and upwards. 🚀
I can't speak to your situation, but the law says certain people are employees even if they are called independent contractors.
Which is why Cisco prefers to use "managed services" where the contractors are employees of the firm providing the service and Cisco doesn't manage them. If they can't do the managed service, then they call us "temps" and put an 18-mo max on the contract duration to prevent being considered "employees" due to the Microsoft contractor lawsuit of the mid/late '90's.
But the point of my statement was that the role was a contact-to-hire position rather than just a contract or managed service position because they wanted to "try-before-they-buy" with a contractor instead of direct hiring to ensure they had a good fit. The current contractor in the role was not a good fit and was not being renewed/extended or offered employment.
When I initially tried to join Cisco it was a contract-to-hire and the manager made it clear that they were not invested in hiring a contractor who wasn't willing to convert.
I can't speak to your situation, but the law says certain people are employees even if they are called independent contractors.
I think it has a great deal to do with what BU and team you are on. There are "pockets" of good teams, and even in some cases great teams, and if you can find one of those then it might be worth coming back. But in general, I'd say no.
I experienced the long road to conversion that @flt+1s17VRpc mentions, but not the "grossly underpaid and overworked" aspect. When I initially tried to join Cisco it was a contract-to-hire and the manager made it clear that they were not invested in hiring a contractor who wasn't willing to convert. I started the conversion process about 18 months later, but then a LR happened and a hiring freeze was put in place and an offer wasn't made. Then about 2 yrs later, they got around to offering the conversion again where upon I was LR'd 2 yrs after. As a contractor, I was expected to limit my work to 40 hrs, but sometimes had to work a night or weekend and take time off during the week to keep it at 40 hrs. Back then, the workload vs. workforce was pretty reasonable. And I was paid about the same as a contractor as I was as an employee, minus the bonus & ESPP. My manager even went through the trouble to get my contracting firm to give me $750 or $1000 "bonuses" although they were called something different because you don't give bonuses to contractors. After working at a small tech firm that really su-ked, I was facing the need to look for a new job when a recruiter contacted me about a contract role at Cisco so I decided to give it another try. While the small tech firm had benefits, they didn't pay an annual bonus, so your pay was your pay and that's it. No stock & no recognition rewards. Just 401(k) matching and health care. And the PTO/sick time was 10 days-use it or lose it as it did not roll over to the next year.
I've heard/read others mention the same thing @zrh+1s17VRpc said, but I've never experienced that on any of the teams I've worked on, or worked with.
@1fcw+1s17VRpc, I don't know what the current policy for the "wellness days" is as far as contractor pay, but while a contractor during the "pandemic" days when they first introduced the "wellness days" I was paid for those days. I thought it was very good of Cisco to do that because we are NOT employees. And since when do contractors get paid for holidays? You have to negotiate that into your contract and the consulting company usually lowers your "hourly" pay rate enough to cover paying you for hours you don't work. The biggest issue I saw was the annual "year-end shutdown" that was unpaid and always seemed to change (increase) the number of days at the last minute.
To be honest, it's a tough call to decide between the headaches of being an employee dealing with TeamSpace, 1:1's, performance reviews, etc. to get a 7% bonus (maybe), a pay raise (rarely), or get RSU's (which put a 2-yr LR target on your back) vs. being a contractor and not getting PTO/holiday pay (depending on the consulting firm), being furloughed for the year-end shutdown (and apparently a new summer shutdown in '24) with the advantage of being limited to working 40 hrs and you decide how much free overtime you want to give in return for being extended another 6-months or hoping for conversion while being free from all the employee HR cr-p we deal with. Like I said, if you find a good team, red or blue badge can be great. On the wrong team, it can be he-l.
I did it, don't. Lasted a year, insane amount of work, nowhere near enough money. You don't get paid for their "wellness days" off and holidays. Found a better gig as a regular employee with another tech company and got the he-l out of there.
As the Bishop famously sang, "he-l to the naw."
While a blue badge, I witnessed red badges get treated like absolute garbage by Cisco management for years. It was sad and disgusting.
Reference: https://youtu.be/PB4Nby2Ai-g?si=3rmhmbO7_gHpYkBy
I just left as a red badge after 2 years. It was supposed to be a 6mo to hire. After 2 years of "no budget, maybe next quarter" I left. I was giving 150% for literally nothing but a paycheck, and not even a Cisco paycheck. No stocks, no bonus, no recognition awards. Grossly underpaid and overworked as a red badge.
Nope. Once I'm gone, I'm gone. I won't be coming back as any badge.
For 2024 chances are very rare.
I would come back just to throw a sabot in the machine.