It was my dream job and when I got it, I was over the moon. I got lucky with my manager and team, every single one of them was a great person. For years, it was an amazing place to work. Then reorganizations started. Our team was broken apart, I got a new manager who I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, and suddenly I had to worry about layoffs 24/7. Within a year, my job turned from amazing to an unrecognizable source of stress. I'm not sure what my next move will be, but I don't see myself staying here much longer. That's a pity since I honestly hoped I'd retire from here.
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Cisco started to go in the wrong direction many years ago when Chambers replaced John Morgridge as CEO. Chambers was PT Barnum. He turned a proud company into a circus.
I was very proud of working for Cisco in my early days (early 2000s). I had always heard how tough it was to get into Cisco, so I considered myself lucky when I came in via acquisition, like many many others. However, I quickly figured out that my coworkers and managers/Dirs/VPs, although very sharp, were no more sharp than myself. But I did enjoy the early days....all my friends were impressed that I worked at Cisco. That didn't last long.
@kin+1eyDXMjH, I'm sorry you have a bad manager.
I'm going to assume you've been w/ Cisco less than six months because they publish the fiscal year calendar every year in late July. The year-end shutdown was on the calendar back on Aug 1. But for those who joined after the start of the new fiscal year, I can see where it's a surprise that there is a year-end shutdown and a bigger surprise that they extended it w/o much notice this year.
They extended the shutdown by an extra 3 days. But, how many "Day for Me" days have you been given this year since you started? I saw where Mar 1, Aug 2, Nov 1 & Dec 23 were all free days off in 2021 and there may have been more I missed on the calendar. If you joined at the start of FY22, then you've already received 2 or 3 of those extra "stolen" PTO days back. There will probably be more in Q3 & Q4 given the infection rates of the Omicron variant of COVID.
In my case, I converted recently and have no PTO because I used some for a surgery in Nov, so by then end of the extended shutdown, I'll be more than 36 hrs in the ho-e PTO-wise.
There are pockets of good managers w/in Cisco. People who get onto those teams do not want to leave them. I've had three out of four managers at Cisco who've been great and I've been lucky. I also paid my dues under an a$$ho-e who made sure I was on the first big LR list back in '11 and I came back years ago stuck as a contractor for longer than I was as an employee after the '11 LR.
I had a micromanaging director who kept changing my priorities w/o telling my manger who'd chew me out because I didn't run to tell him when it happened, which was sort of hard to do w/ the director standing in my cube watching me do the work she asked me to drop everything to do for her. That was the job that made me want to come back to Cisco! They had a 10 day annual use-it-or-lose-it PTO/sick-day policy, so you had to keep some PTO for Nov/Dec for the winter cold/flu season, but then tried to refuse PTO the last week of Dec because they needed some people to work at year's end.
"The every-six-month layoffs are exhausting."
Your statement should be: The every-three-month layoffs are exhausting.
The every-six-month layoffs are exhausting. One big yearly one, then stealth layoffs throughout the year. It's a mess in a dying company. I'm moving on also - better pay, and better situations out there.
I just joined Cisco and my manager is a wreck. The dude screams at the most stupid and petty little things. So I do things differently than him, so what. I have a bad manager and they stole my PTO for their shutdown. I'm looking for a new job, at another company.